crimson bank (wt) (edit 2.75)

[TranquillityBase]

Hi TqB,

Thanks for the kind words and title advice. I agree on not using Lennie in the title, as I feel that it would be too obvious and not fit well with the poem.

I was thinking maybe "Fat of the Land" or "The Fat of the Land" because that's an important thing in the book that's also present in the poem.

The idea behind "Crimson Bank" as a title was essentially (book spoiler if you care; also some violence)

At the end of the book, Lennie accidentally kills an important person's wife because he doesn't understand how fragile people are. He's forced to flee as people from the ranch that he and George are working on come after him to torture and/or kill him (led by a main antagonist who's pretty awful). George finds him first and decides that, rather than let Lennie suffer at the hands of the others, he's going to kill Lennie as humanely as he can. He has Lennie look toward the land they were going to buy and start a new life on, then shoots Lennie in the back of the head while they are sitting down beside the creek (which is where the book began). The crimson bank would be obviously referring to the blood from the dying Lennie staining the riverbank.

I don't have any other concrete ideas that come to mind at the moment, although I'm thinking of titles related to the Dust Bowl/Great Depression, maybe one that comments on some aspect(s) of Lennie's character (ie his mental disability and great strength in some way), or something that refers to his innocence and the tragedy of his story?

What do you think? I'm just brainstorming at this point, titles are always the thing I struggle with the most...

Also, I edited a few of my word choices in the poem that didn't age well, hence the version (1.25).

Thank you for your comments,

aac

Reading your reply I was struck by the phrase "Beside the Creek" as a possible title.  The creek is mentioned in the poem, in passing.

TqB