The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was a fantastic book. I enjoyed reading this novella because of its themes and the deep meanings behind everything. To start off, their theme of friendship extends very far if you read between the lines. In the novella, it starts off with two men taking a shortcut to the next farm where they will be working. This is when the readers are introduced to George and Lennie. They are both the main characters in this story and polar opposites. George is seen as the smart, scrawny guy while Lennie is the giant teddy bear. I say he’s a giant teddy bear because he’s a big fellow but at the same time, he has a warm heart. As the story continues, we see George and Lennie’s struggle in working on the farm and trying to succeed in their main goal, which is to live the American life. The reader sees how destructive Lennie can be even though he doesn’t mean it and George has to be the one who tries to clean up the mess. 

Throughout the book, you can see the sacrifices George and Lennie make for each other. In the beginning of the novel, I felt like George was selfish for telling Lennie that he was better off without him. I felt bad for Lennie because he needed George; he’s been there for Lennie since he was young, if George were to leave Lennie, Lennie would really be lost especially because Lennie isn’t fully mentally developed as other people. However, as the story continues and we learn more about George and Lennie’s past, I felt like I could see things from George’s perspective. By the end of the book, I had a whole new appreciation for George and the things he did for Lennie. 

If I were to rate Of Mice and Men, I would give it a 4.5 out of 5. I think this is a fair rating because this was one of my favorite novels. I think I got too attached to the book because I was not ready for the ending. I felt confused and I still feel like it was an unnecessary ending. I understand why George did what he did, but I also feel like there could’ve been another option, or the author could have written more to see what happened after George shoots Lennie. Because there was never a part two and the book ended on a very big cliffnote, I feel like I can’t give this novella the full 5 out of 5. 

In conclusion, Of Mice and Men is a classic story with a strong message. I like how Steinbeck set up the setting and how he uses different figurative languages to show different meanings throughout the novella. I loved the other all theme of friendship as well. When George killed Lennie, it was very controversial and could be seen as a merciful killing. Even though George killed his best friend, he thought it was necessary so that Lennie wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else anymore. Steinbeck did an amazing thing fitting in the theme of the American Dream as well. During the time this book was written, people were going through an economic drop which meant that people had a hard time trying to find a job. To try and cheer up, people would often picture the American Dream, which is a big house with a stable career and a family. For George and Lennie, along with Candy, their American Dream was their own farm with bunnies, sheep, crops, etc. However, in the end, they didn’t achieve their dream and it shows that sometimes, the American Dream is just a dream. 

Insurgent was published in March of 2015 by author Veronica Roth, and it is the second book in the Divergent series. Divergent, Insurgent, and even the third book, Allegiance, were popular enough to receive their own respective movies. This isn’t a review of the series though, just Insurgent. The book starts right from where the predecessor ends, with little transition and offering little information that was already covered in the first book. Because of this, information from the first book must be understood to give an accurate analysis of the second book. I will first go over a brief synopsis of the first book and all the relevant details before explaining the plot of the book’s two parts.

The Divergent series’s main protagonist is Tris, whom I will refer to often. In the first book, she left her family in Abnegation faction to instead live as a Dauntless, as her world is divided into five factions, which represent ideologies. During her life as a Dauntless initiate, she realizes that she will seldom see her parents, and begins to question how much she really knows them. Tris’s feelings amplify when her mother visits her on Visiting Day, because her mother seems strangely different from her usual Abnegation self. Fast forward to the final turning point of the first book, Tris’s mother sacrifices herself to save Tris’s life and continue her progression to destroy the simulation file. This ends up being an essential reason for Tris’s success, but also builds to the massive inner conflict that she has during the first part of Insurgent. I have seen some people criticize the book for not resolving the inner conflict she gained in the first book, and instead saving it for the next. I personally do not mind, and very much enjoyed the first book.

I am not writing a review for the first book though, so let me continue by analyzing the first part of the second book. The first parts dwells majorly in two of Tris’s inner conflicts: killing one of her best friends, Will, and the death of her mother. While she’s travelling from faction to faction to gain info, she’s also engaging in reckless acts of selflessness, because she has stopped prioritizing her own life after tension between her friends and all the weight put on her shoulders from the last book.To overly summarize things, her final act of recklessness was to sacrifice herself to Erudite headquarters in exchange for the lives of her friends, being controlled by Erudite simulation. Her inner conflict was finally resolved when she was seconds away from dying, which made her realize her will to live because of how real it all felt. I personally did not enjoy the way the author made this happen. Before staring at the eyes of death, Tris revealed no sign of ever wanted to live in her inner dialogue. This made her revelation feel unnatural and slightly forced by the author. I would have preferred if, instead, she slowly began to recover from her unhealthy mindset from small actions, with her near-death being the cherry on top, finally changing her mindset in the heat of the moment. Regardless of how it happened, this concludes the first part of the book, and the part of Tris’s life that she couldn’t overcome.

Once she escapes Erudite headquarters, Tris goes with her boyfriend to recover in the homes of the factionless. I mention her boyfriend, Tobias, because the second part of Insurgent mainly focuses on Tris’s betrayal to him. To understand why she betrayed him, the events in between must first be understood. Once Tris is near recovery, the loyal Dauntless form new leaders and then conspire with the factionless. The goal they develop is to destroy all of the data stored at Erudite headquarters to render them powerless. Tris is secretly against this plan because she discovered that the Erudite have information stored that her mother was trying to find before she died, so she wants to preserve the data that will otherwise be destroyed by Dauntless. She has no proper way to convince the Dauntless that the information is too important to destroy, though, so she then conspires with her only option, Tobias’s father, who also knows the importance of the information. Tobias and his father, Marcus, are on very poor terms, so she does not trust Tobias enough to ask for his help. Instead, she gathers a friend and a few Erudite traitors to assist her and Marcus. To summarize that entire mission, Tris’s insurgency fails, up until Tobias uses his Dauntless authority to probe the security details of the data from a capable Erudite. I really enjoy the theme in this part of the book for two reasons. First: Tris’s insurgent mission allows for her to better understand her mother, and because next-to fully recovered from her mother’s death. Second: Tobias decided to put his trust in Tris even after she betrayed him to work with his father, because of the bond they had built beforehand.

The story ends directly after Tobias broadcasts the knowledge of the outside world to the public, leaving us on a cliff-hanger. I personally don’t mind that, because I have already started reading the next book, but others may not share my opinions. Now, I honestly enjoyed this book, and although I criticized the first part, I will still rate this book four out of five stars. There were no points during this book where I was uninterested, and I enjoyed the massive amount of personal conflict, both with Tris and Tobias, and Tris with herself. That being said, this book had little plot that related directly to the ultimate goal, which I consider to be resolving whatever conflict is in the outside world. Instead this book mostly focuses on the preparation and build-up for the third book’s main plot. For that reason, I would not rate this book anymore than four stars, as it feels more like a transition that a main event. Regardless, the transition was smooth and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.