Old Yeller and Of Mice and Men

My daughter's book club read Old Yeller this month.  My son's read Of Mice and Men.  I never really noticed how much those two books had in common until I sat down to organize the book club discussions for both of them.

The most obvious similarity is that one main character shoots the other main character in the end, but there really is more than that.

Each story has a limited number of characters.  There are not a whole lot of extra characters in either of these books.  That really keeps the focus on the main characters.  Both books also had some major foreshadowing in them.  In Old Yeller, Travis had to shoot the cow with hydrophobia which foreshadowed him shooting Old Yeller for the same reason.  In Of Mice and Men, Candy's dog was shot to keep it from suffering any more.  Lenny was shot for sort of the same reason.

Both Travis and George had sort of a love-hate relationship with Old Yeller and Lenny, respectively.
Travis didn't like Old Yeller at first, but his mother let him stay and he eventually grew to love him.  George was also sort of stuck with Lenny in the same way.  He felt obligated to watch over him since Aunt Clara died.  Both Old Yeller and Lenny did things to get on the nerves of Travis and George, but Travis and George still tolerated them, and, yes, even loved them.

Both Travis and George shot Old Yeller and Lenny to keep them from suffering.  Old Yeller had fatal hydrophobia and Curly was closing in on Lenny and planned to shoot him in the gut to make him suffer.  Both felt that they were saving them from a worse fate.

I'm sure you can find many more similarities between the two books.  These are just some of the major ones I'm going to talk about in my son's Of Mice and Men book club this week.


Old Yeller:

My daughter's book club has already met for this month.  We discussed the book, watched the Disney movie and churned our own butter.  They ate it with corn bread.  We also had some pioneer bread and homemade jelly.  My butter churn has gotten lots of use over the years with various lessons.  The kids always enjoy churning butter!

Of Mice and Men:

My son's book club is meeting in a couple of days.  We will discuss the book and watch the movie starring John Malkovich.  I'm going to try not to cry at the end!  Our local theater put on Of Mice and Men this month.  That was why I planned the book when I did.  Most of the book club kids were able to come with us to see it.  It was showing last weekend so we got together and watched it.  It was a very good production.  Now, the kids will be able to compare the book, the movie and the play!