CHAPTER 3
Later that evening, George tells Slim about why he and Lennie travel together and more about what happened in Weed. Slim is a trusted character.
The men talk about Candy's ancient dog, which is tired and ill. Carlson shoots it, as an act of kindness. Slim has the final word he is a trusted character his words are like unspoken laws. When the dog gets shoot this is how George learns how to do it without causing any pain.
George tells Candy about their dream of getting a piece of land and Candy eagerly offers to join them - he has capital, so they could make it happen almost immediately. The dream is a month away from being completed, seems like a reality.
Curley provokes Lennie into a fight, which ends up with Lennie severely injuring Curley's hand. Lennie does it because George tells him to.
CHAPTER 4
The following night, most men on the ranch go into town. Crooks is alone in his room when Lennie joins him.
They talk about land - Crooks is sceptical, not believing that George and Lennie are going to do what so many other men he's known have failed to do, and get land of their own. Yet when Candy happens to come in as well, Crooks talks to Lennie because he is so lonely. He know hes lonely because he has books and his work spills over into his spare time.
CHAPTER 5
Next afternoon, Lennie accidentally kills the puppy that Slim had given him by petting it too much. He's only worried about George not letting him ’tend the rabbits’.
Curley's wife finds him and starts talking very openly about her feelings. She invites Lennie to stroke her soft hair, but he does it so strongly she panics and he ends up killing her too. He runs away to hide at the brush (the safety place), as George had told him.
CHAPTER 6
Lennie hides in the brush by the pool. He dreams of his Aunt Clara and the rabbits he will tend when he and George get their land.
George finds Lennie and talks reassuringly to him about the little place they will have together - then shoots him with Carlson's gun.
When the other men find George, they assume he shot Lennie in self-defence. Only Slim understands what George did and why
The brush has changed. At the beginning it was full of light and at the end it has dark.
Did you notice how all of the action is concentrated into only a few days? This makes it much more dramatic: one event follows on from another in rapid succession. There is a sense of inevitability - we sense that there will be no way out for Lennie.
Also, did you notice the time of day that various incidents took place? Lennie and George arrive at the ranch in the morning, early in the day, when possibilities are open; Lennie dies as the sun is setting. Do you think this suggests that Lennie's death was 'right'? The sun sets when a day is complete, so does Lennie die when his life is 'complete'?
CHARACTERS
Not many people had real friends in the American West in the 1930s - it was a case of every man for himself. That is one of the reasons whey the story of George and Lennie's unusual friendship is so poignant. They have each other. No one else in the novel is so lucky.
George Milton
He is a small man, but has brains and a quick wit.
He has been a good friend to Lennie, ever since he promised Lennie's Aunt Clara that he would care for him. He looks after all Lennie's affairs, such as carrying his work card, and tries to steer him out of potential trouble.
He needs Lennie as a friend, not only because Lennie's strength helps to get them both jobs, but so as not to be lonely. His threats to leave Lennie are not really serious. He is genuinely proud of Lennie.
He shares a dream with Lennie to own a piece of land and is prepared to work hard to build up the money needed to buy it.
"...with us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack 'jus because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us."
He is honest with people he trusts. For example, he tells Slim that he used to play tricks on Lennie when they were young, but now feels guilty about it as Lennie nearly drowned.
Lennie Small
He is a big man, in contrast to his name.
He has limited intelligence, so he relies on George to look after him. He copies George in everything George does and trusts George completely.
"Behind him(George)walked his opposite, a hugh man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely."
He shares a dream with George to own a piece of land. Lennie's special job would be to tend the rabbits
He likes to pet soft things, like puppies and dead mice. We know this got him into trouble in Weed when he tried to feel a girl's soft red dress: she thought he was going to attack her.
He can be forgetful - George continually has to remind him about important things.
He is very gentle and kind, and would never harm anyone or anything deliberately.
He is extremely strong: he can work as well as two men at bucking barley.
He is often described as a child or an animal - he drinks from the pool like a horse and his huge hands are described as paws
Slim
Slim is the jerkline skinner (lead mule-team driver) at the ranch. He is excellent at his job.
He is the natural leader at the ranch. Everyone respects his views and looks up to him.
He has a quiet dignity: he doesn't need to assert himself to have authority.
"there was a gravity in his manner and a quiet so profound that all talked stopped when he spoke. His authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject, be it politics or love."
He understands the relationship between George and Lennie. He helps George at the end and reassures George that he did the right thing.
We know little else about him, which gives him a slightly mysterious quality. Do you think he is too good to be true?
Curley
Curley is the boss's son, so he doesn't need to work like the ordinary ranch hands, and he has time to kill.
He's little - so he hates big guys.
He is a prize-fighter and looks for opportunities for a fight.
"He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious."
He is newly- married and is very possessive of his wife - but he still visits brothels.
There is a rumour that he wears a glove filled with Vaseline to keep his hand soft for his wife
Curley’s Wife
She is newly married to Curley.
We never know her name - she is merely Curley's 'property' with no individual identity.
She is young, pretty, wears attractive clothes and curls her hair.
She seems flirtatious and is always hanging around the bunk-house.
She is lonely - there are no other women to talk to and Curley is not really interested in her.
"What kinda harm am I doin' to you? Seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself."
She doesn't like Curley - she tells Lennie that she only married him when she didn't receive a letter she'd been promised to get into Hollywood.
She is naive.
Crooks
Crooks is the black stable hand or buck.
He is the only permanent employee at the ranch, since he injured his back in an accident. His back gives him constant pain.
He is the only black man around and is made to be isolated by his colour - he can't go into the bunk-house or socialise with the men.
He is always called the 'nigger' by the men, which shows how racism is taken for granted. The men don't mean to insult Crooks every time they call him this, but they never think to use his name
All this has made him proud and aloof.
He is lonely
"S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you were black...A guy needs somebody-to be near him....I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."
The only time he mixes with the ranch hands socially is when they pitch horseshoes
He has his own room near the stables and has a few possessions.
He has books, which show he is intelligent and an old copy of the California Civil Code, which suggests he is concerned about his rights.
He has seen many men come and go, all dreaming of buying a piece of land, but is now cynical, as no one has ever achieved it
THEMES
OF MICE AND MEN
The title of the novel comes from a poem by the 18th century Scottish poet Robbie Burns. It is about a mouse which carefully builds a winter nest in a wheat field, only for it to be destroyed by a ploughman. It is written in Scots dialect.
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy!
(The best laid schemes of mice and men
Often go wrong
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
Instead of promised joy!)
The mouse had dreamed of a safe, warm winter and is now faced with the harsh reality of cold, loneliness and possible death. There is a parallel here with George and Lennie's joyful fantasy of a farm of their own, and its all-too-predictable destruction at the end of the story. Perhaps the title is also meant to suggest to us how unpredictable our lives are, and how vulnerable to tragedy
Loneliness and Dreams
The two main themes in 'Of Mice and Men' - foreshadowed by the reference to Burns' mouse - are loneliness and dreams. They interlock: people who are lonely have most need of dreams to help them through.
Study the table below, showing both the loneliness and the dreams of each of the main characters. You could use a table like this as the basis for an exam answer about themes in Of Mice and Men.
