Different colored minds

Are sad books worth reading?

JOE POV

"Excuse me," a shoulder bumps into me in the hallway. I work hard to rebalance myself.
I look up to see Steven.
"Hey Steven," his head whips around... but there's something different about him. His eyes don't look the same, they look cold.
"What?" He asks offhandedly.
"I..., it's nothing, you just looked unwell,"
"I'm fine." He sounds upset.
"Okay,"
"I'm leaving," he turns back around and continues walking. My brows crease. In all the years that I've known him I've never seen that expression on his face. He looks so... I don't know the word exactly. Carefree? But not carefree? Hopeless? But there's something else there. There's anger, hardened though, like coal. Something isn't right.

I hear the bell, I'm late to class. I turn around and hobble to class as quickly as I can, but Steven's face is haunting me. Something is not right, and I know it.

In class we continue reading of mice and men.
It's already on a depressing trajectory, Lennie squished a mouse. He doesn't know his own strength. I can see so many ways of this ending badly.
I remember my mom talking to me about this book, she teaches special ed. I always have a hard time with this stuff. Who is to blame in the end? Why read something that you know ends sadly? Why put yourself through pain when you don't need to? It's stupid.

And.

Yet.

Here we are, years later, reading the book in an English class, so to someone it was important enough to read even though it was sad. But why?

The last book was depressing too. The most haunting part was the ending When almost no one came to his funeral. After all of the love he gave. No one was there in the end except two people.

When I lost my leg it felt like it was the end of the road for me, the world stopped, walked in slow motion, and I was left with the thought— is this it?

I wonder if that's how the main character  felt, did he know before the bullet lodged inside of his broken body. Could he tell it was the end? When did it hit him?

"Joe," I look up at the teacher at the front.
"What do you think the point of mentioning this at the beginning of the book was?" I swiftly look up at the board.
"Um, the mouse?"
"Yes, why do you think they're talking about this now?"
I stare at the board a second more.
"We're all capable of wonderful and horrible things, but we have to learn to control that," I say. I'm bullshitting. The teacher will love it.
"Why are we reading a sad book again?" A student interrupts.
"When else will you read the classics?" The teacher complains. This begins a debate. I'm left to my thoughts.

Thoughts about the mouse in the vice like grip of the man. The man that only wants to pet the soft animal. The man who only wants to pet the tiny soft animal.

Until crunch.