The Post About A Pet Peeve.

I love books and I love to read. I very rarely don't enjoy reading. One thing specifically I will never forget learning from my days as a young school girl is to never leave a book unfinished. You can still appreciate a book you didn't enjoy and instead of leaving it unfinished you can make a solid argument for why you don't like the aforementioned book if you know all the facts. There has been one time so far in my life where I have found finishing a book to be difficult. It wasn't even a long book.

The year was 2006 and it was a required reading for our honors English course. Of Mice and Men by none other than John Steinbeck. I can not stand this book and I usually enjoy reading for school. The Scarlet Letter is a great book. I enjoyed Life of Pi. David Copperfield was a delight. This book, short and agonizing. I understand the concept and what it was trying to represent; the predatory nature of the human existence and the deconstruction of the american dream as well as a number of other themes. I understood it, I had such a difficult time reading it. It may be the time period I live in or that I simply can't understand mob mentality or misunderstanding on such a large scale that multiple lives are the cost. It was hard to get through. In a physical sense, I needed a glass of water.

Books are supposed to get a reaction out of you and for the most part I usually enjoy a book that gets any sort of reaction whether it be happiness or sadness or anger. Not with this book, I can't really explain why this anger is different from the kind I get when I read other books. I suppose I just can't wrap my head around people who don't see an issue or an illness in someone and not be able to take appropriate action. With help and understanding Lennie would have been a harmless guy. I know the time period was one of mis-communication and a lack of medical knowledge but I simply can't get behind this as an excuse. For every doctor out there that thought they knew what they were doing and ended up doing the wrong thing there was a doctor with understanding and compassion that did the proper thing. I suppose I don't like the idea of humanity being so awful.

I also hate sacrificial characters. I hate when a character sacrifices another. It's a literary tool that I can not stand. It's probably why I dis-like this book so much. I hate when people take the choices of others away. A modern example (and all of my friends make fun of me for this) would be Tangled. Lovely movie, beautifully made, the moment Ugene (aka Flynn Rider) cut Repunzel's hair and took away her choice to save him I was completely done. Whether it is the sacrifice of yourself or another person or a freedom I am probably not going to be on board.

Of Mice and Men rubbed me the wrong way. I remember sitting in my room and being so angry towards the end of the book that as soon as it was over I launched it across the room and refused to touch it again. My brother removed it from my presence and I haven't read it since.

"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't beling no place... With us it ain't like that. We got a future. we got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. we don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." -- Of Mice and Men