By Debbie Olujobi

John Steinbeck is the award-winning author of the book that is the title of today’s column. To lovers of deep prose; he is a master craftsman whose words come to life in the twisted tale he tells so beautifully! To those not in the know; it is the tale of George and Lennie; two friends with a dream and a passion to work towards achieving that dream.

The dream is the ownership of their piece of the American dream, a piece of land; their very own farm and along the way a couple of friends pitch in to make the dream a reality. They encounter the entire spectrum of humanity and their carefully laid plans begin to unravel and end in tragedy. It is vital to the plot to look closely at the relationship between the two characters.

George Milton is the smart and fast-thinking one of the pair, while Lennie Small is the mentally disabled giant who eventually costs them their dream. Different as the two are, they are best friends and are committed to building a life together.

The smarter George picks up the slack for the not so smart Lennie and protects him even to the end. Much as I will dwell on this noble and genuine friendship, I am more intrigued by the change that can suddenly turn an ordinary life upside down or in a dizzying 360 degrees turn without warning. It is what I call the unravelling of human desire; a game of divine poker!!

Most of us have a pretty good idea of how our lives should turn out. We have our desires and dreams but we also have a reasonable expectation that is based on the reality we have. Our reality is the already achieved dreams and status or even failures and disappointments so I deem it to be reasonable that those projections should at least lead to a feasible eventuality.

The problem with that level of thinking is that curve balls knock us for six  and flat lines us! I have come to realise that it is very pedestrian to expect life to read according to the script of us mere mortals. Nothing is ever really as we expect but it is an elevated mind that grasps that all is ever as it need be.

The problem with pedestrians and pedestrian thinkers are the limitations of their expectations and the narrow-mindedness that comes with seeing life only from knee level. John Steinbeck’s tale tells a tragic story of the end of a dream of many people because of Lennie’s accidental murder of their employer’s son’s wife. George calms him and then performs a mercy killing and shoots Lennie in the head to avoid the long torturous death that awaits him from the mob led by the dead woman’s husband.

There are many events that can unravel a man’s life. Good or bad fortune can change the course of one’s history and while we would all like to be recipients of good fortune only; it’s not always so; in fact, it is never ever so!.  Our lives are also interconnected, so tragedy tends to be a downpour that falls generously.

The initial dream had belonged to George and Lennie and later on Candy; the aging farmhand who had decided to put his life savings in the purse to have a stake in the dream, Crooks the embittered black stable hand had also decided to join and hoe the land, so things were looking good when tragedy struck.

In this reality where Steinbeck is god; after all he decides the fate of his characters, the dream dies with Lennie. It is after all a fact that tortured souls are more celebrated than happy ones and sells more books to boot. I have often wondered why misery is touted as deep and heavy while sadness is dismissed as light and fleeting but that is an argument for another time.

In any situation I find myself, especially those that have been painful and even tragic I take three tests before deciding the next course of action. They are the 3 B’s; I check to see if I am breathing, bloodied and battered. I take these tests physically, emotionally and spiritually and I decide what next!! Using Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks as a perfect example and while Lennie’s death is a tragedy, especially to George who had a bond with him many of us aren’t likely to share with our fellow man, I don’t agree that it should be the end of the dream. Yes, they were bloodied and battered by the loss but they were still breathing.

If anything, it should have been the beginning of a new one with three people who have the option of working together and building a different bond with each other. Depending on your point of view; I could be classified as callous for wanting to move on or brilliant for choosing to be elevated in my thinking and strong belief that life is a forward- moving event. I mourn the loss of anything and anyone but I think it actually dishonours the dead to let dreams die with them.

I would have encouraged the others to go ahead and get the farm and name it after Lennie. Giving up on the dream is pedestrian and serves no useful purpose except perpetuate misery. I don’t expect to win a Nobel Prize for my spin on such a classic but as life unravels I become more persuaded that even death or misfortune is a natural progression and even destination for all. I would respectfully submit a different title of “The trials and triumphs of men”.