Of
Mice and Men is about loneliness, almost every char
At
the beginning of the book, George and Lennie arrive at a small pond, they’ve
been traveling all day on their way to a farm where they’re going to work,
George notices that Lennie is holding something and makes him hand, it over
it’s a dead mouse that Lenny was petting in his pocket, while they walked
George throws it into the brush, Lenny remembers a woman who used to give him
mice, but stopped because he kept killing them on accident, the woman was his
Aunt Clara, George complaints that his life would be so easy if he didn’t have
to take care of Lennie, he wouldn’t have to worry about Lennie getting into
trouble like he did at the last farm, Lennie saw a girl in a red dress and he
liked the look of her dress so much, that he wanted to touch it.
When
then he touched the dress the girl screamed, Lennie panicked and grabbed hold
of the dress the girl claimed she was raped in a mob forum to lynch Lenn,y
Lenny wants George to tell him again how they’re different from other guys, and
George gives his speech, he says most guys who work on ranches are lonely, they
have no family nothing to look forward to, and don’t belong anywhere, but he
and Lennie are different, in one day they’re going to get their own place,
they’ll have a little house and they can raise cows and chickens, and have a
vegetable patch, they’ll have a rabbit hutch too, and Lennie can look after the
rabbits when he’s done, he tells Lennie that if Lenny gets into any trouble at
the new ranch, he should come back to the pond and hide in the brush.
The
next morning George and Lenni arrive at the farm, they’re supposed to work at
and they meet the boss, they’re going to work bucking barley meaning they pass
these large bags filled with barley up a line and stack them in a truck, the
boss leaves and an old man named candy shows up with his old sheepdog while
he’s talking to George and Lennie, Curley comes in looking for the boss who’s
his father, he notices George and Lennie and he asked them a bunch of questions
and generally acts like a jerk, after curly leaves candy explains that Curley
is a pretty good boxer, and he hates big guys like Lennie because he’s not big
himself, George warns that he better not start with Lennie because Lennie is
strong and doesn’t fight with any rules, candy says Curley’s wife flirts with
all the farmhands especially slim.
Candy
goes out and a little while later, Curley’s wife shows up in the doorway, she
tries to make conversation, but George makes it clear he doesn’t want to talk
to her, Lennie just stares at her, the next chapter starts an unspecified
amount of time later after working all day, George comes into the bunkhouse
with slim a jerk line Skinner or the lead driver of a mule team, and one of the
most respected guys on the ranch, George thanks slim for giving Lennie one of
the puppies from his dog’s new litter, George explains that he and Lennie were
both born in Auburn, and that he knew Lenny’s Aunt Clara when she died, Lennie
went out working with George and they just got used to each other ,George used
to play lots of jokes on Lennie until one day he got Lennie to jump into a
river, Lennie couldn’t swim and almost drowned but he was so nice to George
when George helped pull him out of the river that George never did anything
mean to him again candy comes back into the bunkhouse with his old dog, and
another worker Carlson follows them in shortly after Carlson starts talking
about how bad Candy’s dog smells, and how it’s old and suffering, he could
shoot the dog in the back of the head, and the dog wouldn’t even feel it, then
candy could take one of Slim’s new puppies.
Candy
protests but the general opinion in the bunkhouse seems to be that they should
put the dog down, candy gives in and Carlson leads the dog out a young labourer
named wet comes in and there’s some strained silence an awkward conversation
while everyone tries not to talk about Candy’s dog, candy just lies in bed rigidly
staring at the ceiling, and finally they hear the shot fired outside crooks an
old black man who works on the ranch comes in until slim that Lennie keeps
messing with the puppies taking them away from their mother, and playing with
them slimmin crooks go out to the barn to check on Lennie, and put some tar in
the mules for Carlson comes back in and Lenny comes in to Carlson sits in his
bunk, and doesn’t say anything about Candy’s dog just starts cleaning his gun
Curley walks in, and asks if anyone has seen his wife he realizes Slim’s not in
the bunkhouse.
When
George says slim went to the barn Curley leaves in a hurry, whit and Carlson go
up behind him expecting a fight if Curley catches his wife with slim, Lennie
asks George how long it’s going to be until they have their own farm and raise
rabbits, George says he doesn’t know that they have to save a lot of money,
first Lennie asks George to tell him again what the place will be like, and
George starts describing it he says they’ll have ten acres with their own house
a windmill a little Shack a chicken run and orchard trees like apple trees, and
peach trees they’ll have pigs in a smokehouse where they can smoke hams and
bacon, it’ll be their place where they belong and they won’t have to travel
around anymore, or plant crops for someone else, or buck barley for 11 hours a
day.
Lennie
says they’ll also have rabbits, he can take care of candy asks if George really
knows of such a place and how much it would cost George is defensive, and wants
to know why candy is asking candy explains that he’s not of much use to anyone
since he has only one hand, it’s only a matter of time before they get rid of
him, he has money saved up and George can put it to the farm if he can get in
on the place with George and Lennie with Kandi’s money they could actually buy
the place, so they plan to save money for another month than to collect their
pay and leave slim, Curley Carlson and whit all come in together, Curley keeps
apologizing to slim apparently for suspecting slim of being with his wife,
Curley sees Lennie smiling and gets angry because no big son of a
__laughs at him Lennie stands and backs away from curly, but Curley
starts hitting him, Curley busts Lenny’s nose and cuts his face up, Lennie
catches one of Curly’s fists and crushes it in his hand, Curley starts writhing
in pain.
Finally
Lennie releases Curley whose hand is completely broken Lennie keeps saying he
didn’t want to do it, George asked slim if they’re going to get fired but slim
tells Curley to say he got his hand caught in a machine, or he’ll tell everyone
what Lennie did , and everyone will laugh at Curley the next night most of the
guys head into town to go to a brothel, Lenny wanders over to the room of the
stable buck crooks none of the other ranch workers ever go into crooks his room
because he’s black, candy comes looking for Lenny and the three of them end up
sitting and talking together, Curley’s wife comes to the doorway looking for
Curley, candy tells her to leave because they don’t want trouble, Curley’s wife
gets angry and says she likes to talk to people too, crooks tells her to get
out of his room, but she tells him to shut up, she says she could get him
strung up a tree so fast it’s not even funny, it’s a Sunday afternoon and Lenny
is in the barn.
By
himself he looks at the puppy, he accidentally killed and talks to it asking it
why it had to die, Curley’s wife finds Lenny, they’re hiding something, when
she notices the puppy, Lenny explains he was playing with it, but when it went
to bite him he smacked it and the puppy died, she tries to console Lenny but he
still doesn’t want to talk to her because George will get mad at him ,and then
George won’t let him tend the rabbits, he likes rabbits because he likes to
touch soft things Curley’s wife says she understands that sometimes she’ll just
sit and Stroke her hair because it’s so soft, and she invites Lenny to touch
her hair, Lenny strokes her hair but he does it too hard, and she gets mad at
him she becomes angry and jerks her head away, but Lenny panics and grabs hold
of her hair, he covers her mouth to keep her from screaming, and she starts to
struggle violently, he shakes her accidentally breaking her neck, she lies
still and eventually Lenny realizes what he’s done.
He
remembers what George told him that if anything goes wrong, he should go hide
in the brush by the pond candy is the first to find Curley’s wife, he calls in
George and they both know that Lenny did it and that curly is gonna want to
have Lenny, lynched kandi wonders if they can still get the farm together and
George replies that he guesses he knew it would never happen all the guys go
into the barn, and they know right away who killed Curley’s wife, Curley wants
to find Lenny and kill him, Carlson says his gun is missing and they think
Lenny must have taken it, George knows there’s nothing he can do, he has to go
with them so they don’t think he had a part in the murder, Lenny goes back to
the pond where George told him to hide, he says to himself that George is going
to yell at him, then he hallucinates he sees his hand.
Clara
says if it weren’t for Lenny George could do anything, he wants like spend his
pay in a whorehouse, then Lenny sees a giant rabbit the rabbit tells him that
George won’t ever let him take care of the rabbits, it says George is going to
beat him with a stick and tells him over and over that George is going to leave
him, George arrives at the pond, Lennie asks George to tell him why they’re not
like other guys, and George says most guys don’t have any family or anyone who
cares about them, but he and Lennie have each other, Lennie wants to hear about
the farm they’re going to have while George talks , he tells Lennie to take off
his hat and he takes out Carlson’s pistol when Lennie looks off and imagines
the farm, George shoots him in the back of the head and kills him, all the
other guys show up and see that George shot Lennie, slim tells George that he
had to do it, he helps him up and takes him to get a drink, Carlson and Curley
wonder why George and slim are so upset .