During June, July, and August, I’ve implemented my Summer Rereading Program.  You can read more about it here.  First up: Of Mice and Men.  The first time I read it, last year, actually, I blew through it pretty quickly and didn’t reflect on it much, hence the need to reread.  This time around, there’s something I’d really like to discuss with others, and that’s the ending.

No, not that ending – not Lennie’s final fate.  Rather, when Lennie is sitting, waiting for George, and we get a few visions from his perspective – the first being Aunt Clara, the second being the giant rabbit.  Did anyone else find this wildly inconsistent with the rest of the book?  I don’t know if stories come much more grounded than Of Mice and Men, and these two visions struck me as incredibly strange.  At no other point do we get the story from Lennie’s perspective, and these two visions end as quickly as they began, as does the story from Lennie’s viewpoint.

What are your theories?  Do the visions belong?  What purpose do they serve?  Is this a stroke of craftsmanship on Steinbeck’s part, or an oversight?  Please do share your thoughts …