Transactional Essay on "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

- - Lennie and George, migratory workers in the California fields, cherish the dream of having a little farm of their own where as Lennie's refrain has it, they can 'Live of the fatta o' the land.' George yearns for his own place where he could bring in his own crops instead of working for another. A place where he could get what comes up from the ground for himself. He wants the full reward …

…without a dream, is perhaps better off dead. The concluding pages to the novel find themselves in the same setting as the beginning, where they recite for the final time, their impossible dream which finished when the trigger was pulled. What was done had to be done, and the story concludes when both God and man symbolically forgive the murder when the Godly words of Slim declare 'You hadda George, I swear you hadda.'