The first two characters that we meet are George and Lennie, two drifters. George comes across as the leader of the two; his job is to keep Lennie out of trouble. He shows great patience in dealing with Lennie whose mental age is the equivalent of a small child. During the book we do see George lose his temper with Lennie because it appears that he is always messing things up for George. For example when they are on their way to the new ranch Lennie produces a dead mouse from his pocket and George gets angry, ”You crazy fool”, “You gonna give me that mouse or do I have to sock you?” and “Blubberin like a baby? Jesus Christ! A big guy like you.” George claims he only keeps Lennie around because he made a promise to his Aunt Clara that he would. Even if this is true she is now dead, and so George has no real reason to keep looking after Lennie, especially as Lennie seems to mess up everything that goes right for George. However, George still puts up with Lennie and this, it would seem, is mainly to avoid the loneliness that is caused by all the travelling. While Lennie may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, he is still someone to converse with on long lonely walks.
We learn from early on in the book that George and Lennie also share the American dream, they dream of one day having, “a little house and a couple of acres an a cow and some pigs”.This ambition highlights one big difference between George and Lennie’s grasp on reality, whilst George says he dreams of this, he must know deep down inside of him that they will never fulfil the dream. Lennie on the other hand is completely different he believes so deeply in the dream that at one point George actually threatens to not let Lennie tend the rabbits when they achieve their dream. The dream that these two share leads us to meet the next character that also suffers great loneliness.
We first meet Candy when Lennie and George arrive at the ranch. He is the first person they meet. He is also the one who takes them to see the boss. Candy only has one arm and we find out later that he lost his arm in a machinery accident in the fields. However, the ranch still employs him and he was given compensation for his injury. Due to the loss of his arm he cannot work in the fields, instead he has to stay behind and sweep up. This causes him great loneliness because he has no one to talk to, his best friend is his dog, but tragically later in the story the other workers convince Candy to shoot him because he is old and useless. While the other workers can go into town at the end of the month, giving them the opportunity go out and have a good time, Candy cannot join them because he is too old to be out drinking until late in the night. His circumstances cause him to suffer from great loneliness, so it is not surprising that when he over hears Lennie and George talking about their dream, he tries to buy in to it. With the money that Candy got in compensation for his arm, it begins to look as though the dream may become a reality more quickly than George or Lennie imagined.
The next character that we meet is Crooks the stable buck. He suffers from loneliness because he is black. This means he has to sleep in his own dorm and is not allowed to stay in the same dorm as the other workers. He is lonely purely because he is alone all the time and has no one to talk to. Crooks is also a cripple as a horse kicked him when he was working, leaving him with a crooked back, this prevents him from joining in many activities. He pretends, when Lennie goes into his dorm to be really angry, ”I ain’t wanted in the bunk-house, and you ain’t wanted in my room.” But as time goes on he begins to warm to Lennie, “Come on in and set a while”, “Long as you wont get out and leave me alone you might as well sit down.” I think this is mainly because he was just glad to have someone to talk to, after being on his own for so long. Even after this though he could not resist getting revenge on the white folk, he teases Lennie asking him, “S’pose George don’t come back no more.” And he persists and begins to scare Lennie until finally Lennie gets so scared he decides to go and check if George was back yet. But Crooks quickly apologises at the thought of being left all alone again. A few minutes later Candy turns up and although Crooks acts as though he is resentful he still invites him in.
The next character to appear at Crook’s door is Curley’s wife. She is the only woman on the ranch, and the guys refuse to talk to her because of Curley. He is very protective and jealous of her and will try and beat up anyone who he thinks might be making a move on her. When the guys in Crooks dorm seem to shut her out she begins to insult them, “Standin here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs- a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep.” Showing a spiteful side to her character. She only married Curley to spite her mother in the first place. One night in a bar she met a man who claimed he could make her a great star actress. We are not told how the man took advantage of her. He said that he would send a letter to her, but she never received it and blamed her mother, accusing her of destroying the letter, then to spite her she ran off and married Curley.
The story has a tragic ending, all the way through the story George had warned Lennie about getting to close to Curley’s wife. But this turned out to be the ‘downfall’ of their dream, which had seemed so much more likely since the addition of Candy to the plot. Lennie is in the barn when she appears and starts talking to him. They start sharing stories, and she asks him why he is so obsessed with rabbits. He tells her about his obsession with stroking nice things, and she allows him to stroke her hair. She starts to complain that he will, “muss it up”, but when she pulls away Lennie’s grip tightens and she begins to scream. He puts his hand over her mouth and begs her not to because George will get angry. Her body, ’flopped like a fish’, Lennie had broken her neck. The first people to find the body were Candy and George. They new it had to be Lennie. It is at that point that the dream is thrown into real jeopardy. Candy recognising this, immediately tries to convince George that they can still achieve their hopes, “You an me can get that little place, can’t we, George? Can’t we?” But Candy already knew the answer. George knows that Lennie was such a big part of the dream, it could not continue without him, it would almost be disloyal.
George knows that the other workers, especially Curley would not allow Lennie to live after this. George goes off to find the other workers. Candy is now alone with the body of Curley’s wife in the barn, he blames her for destroying the dreams of three men, himself, George and Lennie. He actually begins to shout at her, “You god damn tramp.” “s’pose you’re glad.” George follows the other workers into the barn. He acts as though it is the first time he has seen the body. The other workers assure him that they think he had nothing to do with it, and they set off in search of Lennie. The story ends with George and Carson, one of the ranch hands, standing over Lennie. George has the gun to the back off Lennie’s head. He and Lennie have been talking about the dream, before Lennie knows it George pulls the trigger and Lennie is dead. The last thing we see is George going to the highway with Carson, Curley and Slim. He and Slim walk away to get a drink, George knowing that it’s all over. The dreams that he and Candy have shared, and that have kept them going have been destroyed.
