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Friday, May 16, 2008

The loneliness and companionships in the book Of Mice and Men

After reading the book Of Mice and Men, I really noticed all the loneliness and companionships there are in the book. Most noticeably were the characters like Curley’s wife, who was looking for love and affection, George and Lennie, who only had each other, and Candy, who only had the love of his dog.

Curley’s wife suffers from complete alienation and loneliness. Her husband makes her feel isolated, verbally abuses her, keeps her away from the other men, and keeps her somewhat incarcerated inside her own home. Throughout the book I see her in constant search for love and affection. She tries to start various conversations with George, but George assumes that she is might be trouble. He tells himself not to give in to self-indulgence when it comes to Curley’s wife and her scandalous motives. Even the men on the farm misjudge her. They refer to her as a no good dirty tramp who is trying to sleep with everyone. The understatements that have been made about her might be the main cause of her loneliness and depression.

When it comes to George and Lennie, their relationship is a little different. Ever since Lennie’s Aunt died he has been traveling with George. George, on the other hand, only took him in because he knew that Lennie could not survive without the support of a sane human being. At times, George wished that he had never let a mentally challenged Man tag along with him because of the trouble that Lennie caused. Lennie doesn’t understand the effect of his actions like when he felt on the girl’s dress in Weed or when he felt on Curley’s wife’s hair and accidentally killed her. However, they stay together because of the mutual companionship they provide each other regardless of Lennie’s handicap. “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you…” Quote from chapter 1 of Of Mice and Men

Candy has to be one of the saddest characters in the book. He didn’t have a family to comfort him and he had been working on the farm for god knows how long. Candy lost his hand in an accident and worries about his future on the ranch. He feels that his age makes him useless to the other workers. The only thing that ever mattered to him was his dog but it was brutally killed by Carlson because it was very old. The only thing he lived for was unceremoniously torn away from him with a bullet to the head.

Candy, Curley’s wife, Lennie and George all search for affection and companionship. Some are able to encounter it if only for a brief moment while for others, companionship eludes them forever.

Reflection #6 on Service Learning

On the sixth meeting Mr. Ackerman Planned a food drive for the homeless people. He wants to take the group to University City High School next Saturday In the Afternoon. He also wants to ask the school for transportation just in case our trans passes stop working. The behavior in the class was better than last week and most of my colleagues participated.

Reflection #5 on Service Learning

For our fifth meeting we had a substitute teacher because Mr. Ackerman was absent. We did not work on anything and the student were all over the place. No accomplishments were made so it was waste of service learning time.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Reflection #4 On Service Learning

For our forth meeting we went on another walking trip around the block. The purpose for this was to found out how many homeless people we would see if we were to walk around the block one time. At the end of this trip we saw three homeless people. Afterwards we came back to school and talked about what we saw and how did we feel about the things we had seen. In conclusion our meeting was once again a success and this was another fun experience for our group.

Reflection #3 On Service Learning

For our third meeting, we decided to take a walking trip to visit the U.S mint instead of talking about homelessness. When we got to the U.S mint, we had to put our electronic devices as well as our bags in a container and let it go through an X ray scanner. Once we were in we looked around at all the different exhibits and when it was time to go we had to answer a question in order to obtain a shredded $100 bill.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Reflection #2 on Service Learning

On our second meeting, my group and I had a discussion on what shelter we should volunteer at. Mr. Ackerman used Google to search for shelters that are close to our school. When he found the shelter that was closest to our school, he showed it to us by using his smart board. Then we watched a video on homelessness. The video featured homeless people who talked about how they got to where they are. A lot of them were laid off from their jobs and couldn't pay their bills so they were kicked out of their homes.