content: This piece is ultimate Steinbeck. The author has limited his characters to two major ones and a few ancillary ones. The book is short, however, the tale is told thoroughly. The reader feels so very sorry for George. George is a study of loyalty, decency and patience and how one feels so utterly responsible for the life of another human being-in this case his childhood friend, Lennie, who is somewhat mentally challenged. This book is a sad account of the fragility of human beings and how one person will be loyal to the other person til the end-even if he needs to commit murder to show it. The character, Candy, is so very pathetic too and his comments about " a stranger killing my old dog" are so very sad! One tends to think that it was because of Candy feeling badly about a stranger killing his dog that George does what he does. This is a beautiful book!