week 4:3
The next chapter is the next morning, at around ten. George and Lennie had gone to the ranch, and they were being showed to the bunk house by and old man who worked there. the boss comes after a while, and yells at them a little for not being there the night before, but he seems like a nice enough guy. tough, but nice. he tells them to go out after dinner with the guy named Slim. Another guy (named Curley) shows up and you can tell he's trying to pick a fight with Lennie, and leaves. after talking with the old man, they figure out the Curley has a severe case of small-man syndrome, and is often trying to pick fights with bigger guys to prove himself. he also tells him how Curley just married a pretty, pretty lady a month or two before, and is already having to fight for her. she comes around looking for curley, and after she's gone (she was drop-dead gorgeous) george agres witht he old man that she's one of the biggest tramps he'd ever seen. They also talk about the black stable man. After a while the other workers get back, they meet Slim and Carlson, and they run off to dinner.
The fisrt chapter of this books starts describing a small part of the Salinas River (a few miles south of Soledad) where two men have stopped for the night. it quickly goes on to center on the two men, but i really like how it...stops to smell the roses, if you will. it describes the temperature of the water, the beautiful willows on the side of the small river, and the general atmosphere of the area.
It goes on to the two men, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is always telling Lennie (who is somewhat retarded) what to do, whether it be to go and get firewood or to just shut the heck up. From their conversation, you learn that they had just come from a town up north called Weed, and had aparently been running from the men there, because of something that Lennie did. Lennie was having fun with a dead mouse, which brings this conversation on. He says he just likes petting it, because it feels nice, and George says that's just how they got in trouble, Lennie had liked the way a woman's dress felt in Weed, and the woman thought that Lennie was tryin' to do somethin' to her, and that's why they got in trouble. You gather that that wasn't the first time that that had happened, either. They don't go up to the ranch where they're gonna work, they spend the night there. Lennie has George (after george rants and raves about how he could be so successful if he didn't drag Lennie around everywhere) tell him a story he has heard over and over again, about how George and him are different from the other ranch hands, how they stick together, and how they're gonna get a house and a farm and live off the fat o' the land, etc.
You want it to be true, but you know that it's never going to happen.
Ok, let me explain. I was going to do my blogs about "Anthem" by Ayn Rand, but i can't seem to find my copy of it, so I'm going to do it on "of mice and men" by john steinbeck.
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas California on February 27, 1902. He spent most of his life in southren california, and most of his books are set in his home region of the Salinas Valley (a place where agriculture is a main business due to the climate as well as the richness of the soil. There are many migrant workers there). Many of his stories deal with the many farming and ranching operations in the Salinas valley, such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of mice and Men, among many others. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, and died in New York in 1968.
Of Mice and Men gets its name from a famous poem by Robert Burns titled "To a fieldmouse," (I think). It is about a mouse that spends much time creating a home for herself in a field, preparing for winter, and just when she has finished, a farmer comes and plows up the field where her home is. the famous line "The best laid plans of mice and men..." from which the title of this book comes talks about how people's dreams often conflict, and are shattered by the whim of another. it kind of gives yo a feeling for how happy this book is going to be!
week 3:3
I am going to read "Anthem" by Ayn Rand fo rmy next book.
Ayn Rand was a Russian immigrant, born in 1905, saw both Russian revolutions, was very disproving of the communist revolution, and emigrated to the United States and changed her name to Ayn Rand. She was discovered by a Hollywood director on the street and was able to see a firsthand account of American pop culture. She was the founder of the philosophy of objectivism, which centers on individuality and the individual.
Ender wakes after a while, and is sick. he is delerious. He has been stressed out for so long about the game, to find that it was not, that he just destroyed and entire species. It is a good thing that he is sick in bed for a month, though, because the earth had broken into war back home (just like Peter and Valentine had thought that it would), just as the people of different nationalities on Eros did. there was fighting everywhere, and Ender woke after it had stopped. At the end of it all, the world had been brought to peace (though there were still hostilities) by his brother Peter, who was now the leader of the world hegemony. Ender decides that he can't live on earth anymore, and he and Valentine go off on the first colonization ship that leaves earth. Ender is to be the governor of the colony.
While exploring, Ender finds the scene from the fantasy game that he would always play at battle school, with the giant. he follows the landscape, and finds a cacoon. a bugger cacoon. It talks to him telepathically.
Ender writes a book about Bugger life, to make people not hate them, and signs it "Speker for the dead." He then writes a book about his brother Peter. They are both published anonymously, and become instant favorites. Ender vow to find anew place to put the bugger cacoon, so they came come alive again.
The end