AP Lit Summer Reading Blog 5

Lennie immediately runs to the riverbed where George instructed him to go to if something bad happens. Candy goes to the barn looking for Lennie, but finds Curley's wife. He alerts George who instantly realizes what happened. A crowd gathers around the body, and Curley orders the men to find Lennie and kill him. They set out for the riverbed. Meanwhile Lennie is sitting in the bushes, hearing his Aunt Clara in his head yelling at him for messing everything up for George. George soon appears, and sits next to Lennie. He tells Lennie that he has done a bad thing, but he isn't yelling. Lennie asks if they can still buy the ranch. George says that they can, and they can leave right away. He tells Lennie to look out across the river, and then quickly shoots Lennie in the back of the head. The rest of the men come running at the sound of the gunshot, and George says he had to wrestle Lennie to get the gun. Slim doesn't buy the story, and he tells George that he did the right thing. As they walk away, Candy and Curley wonder what is bothering the two men.

This last section of the book is almost hard to read, because we know something is going to happen to Lennie. When George has to kill Lennie, Slim knows that it is extremely hard for him, but that it had to be done. It keeps the idea going that nothing can last forever, especially the things you keep closest to you. Like how Lennie constantly hurts the things he cares for. This is also shown in the book "Marley and Me". The protagonist Marley ( a labrador) dies and the reader is shook with sadness. This is an effect used in tons of different books, because it gets such an emotional response. Losing someone close is very hard, and everyone can relate to that. George having to do it to Lennie personally made the story even sadder.