AP Lit Summer Reading Blog 4

The next night, Lennie walks into the stable hand Crook's room in the barn. Crooks asks him to leave but Lennie stays. Crooks agrees to let him in, since all the other men have gone into town. Lennie stats to talk about the ranch he George and Candy plan on buying but Crooks doesn't believe him. They talk for a while until Candy comes in, and also talks about the ranch. Crooks starts to see that they are serious, and says he could be handy if they brought him along. Curley's wife barges in and refuses to leave for a short while, complaining about her husband. She is very rude to Crooks for being black and she is curious abut who broke Curley's hand. She suspects it was Lennie, and tells him that Curley deserved it before she leaves. The book skips to a few days later, with Lennie in the bark stroking his dead puppy. He accidentally killed it by petting it too hard. Curley's wife enters and consoles him about the death of the puppy. She starts to talk about her loneliness and how everybody treats her badly on the farm. She asks why Lennie wants to tend to the rabbits so much, and he replied "I like to pet nice things with my fingers, soft things". Curley's wife lets him feel her hair, until he accidentally grabs it too hard. She starts to yell but Lennie tries to clamp his hand over her mouth. In panic, he pulls his hand and Curley's wife lay dead on the ground with a broken neck.

This is a very tragic part of the book, but there is also a lighter way to look at it. Crooks is opposed to letting Lennie in because of their racial differences, but then they start to talk and they become friendly and even plan on leaving the farm together at some point. It reminded me of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", because two boys of completely different worlds and on opposite sides of the religious persecution could still be friends. When I lived in California as a kid, my two best friends were Indian and African American. It isn't a big deal, but in a city where white people tend to look at themselves as better than other people, it is good that people can still come together across racial and religious barriers.