that his wife was looking for him. They leave the bunk house and chapter two, and the final character to enter through the door is Candy's old dog, who wearily lies down on the floor.
Chapter 3
We again find ourselves inside the bunk house on the same day. George and Slim enter, in the midst of a conversation. We learn that Slim has agreed to let Lennie have one of his pups. Slim comments on what a strong worker Lennie is and George grows proud. Slim again remarks on the rarity of two guys traveling together and how funny it is that a smart guy like George would be with a "cuckoo" (43) like Lennie. George defends Lennie, saying that he isn't cuckoo, that he is dumb but not crazy. George claims that he is the dumb one: "If I was bright, if I was even a little bit smart, I'd have my own little place, an' I'd be bringin' in my own crops, 'stead of doin' all the work and not getting what comes up outta the ground" (43). George tells Slim, who invites confidence, that he knew Lennie's Aunt Clara and when she died, "Lennie just come along with me out workin'. Got kinda used to each other after a little while" (44). George goes on to confess to Slim that he used to be mean and play tricks on Lennie because he was so dumb. After realizing that Lennie would do anything for George, including drown himself, George stopped his malicious ways. George doesn't want to go around on the ranches alone because people who travel alone "don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean" (45). Despite the nuisance that Lennie can be, George admits that "you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him" (45). George continues to tell Slim of the trouble that Lennie got them into in Weed when he held on to the woman's dress.
After George's private conversation with Slim, Lennie enters the bunk house and George immediately notices that Lennie has smuggled his new puppy in from the barn and is secretly petting it on his bunk. George makes him take it back, warning him that it's not good for the little puppy's health to be away from its nest, and Lennie leaves.
Candy, his old dog and Carlson enter and Carlson presses Candy about shooting his worthless dog and Candy grows defensive: "No, I couldn't do that. I had 'im too long" (49). Carlson offers to shoot the dog for Candy so that he doesn't have to watch his own dog die. Slim agrees with Carlson and offers Candy one of his pups, at which Candy grows helpless and uncomfortable because he knows and respects Slim's unarguable authority. Another young worker, Whit, enters and diverts attention for a while by talking about a former worker whose letter to the editor appeared in a magazine. But Carlson is not to be distracted. He offers to "put the old devil out of his misery right now" (52) and pulls a pistol out from underneath his bunk. Candy looks helplessly at Slim for a change in judgment, but Slim gives him none. Finally Candy, beaten, tells Carlson to take his dog and lies back on his bunk, staring at the ceiling. After anuncomfortable silence in which everyone in the bunk house waits to hear Carlson's gun, the shot sounds. We remember that Lennie has not returned from putting his pup back in the barn. After the gunshot, everyone looks toward Candy, who slowly rolls over and faces the wall.
Crooks, the Negro stable buck, appears in the doorway to tell Slim that he has warmed up some tar for the wounded foot one of Slim's mules. He also tells Slim that Lennie is "messin' around your pups out in the barn" (55). Slim assures him that Lennie is fine and the two of them leave.
This leaves Whit and George and the silent Candy alone together. Whit asks George if he's seen Curley's wife and goes on to tell her, as Candy did before, that she's got the eye: "Seems like she can't keep away from guys. An' Curley's pants is just crawlin' with ants, but they ain't nothing come of it yet" (56-57). Whit then invites George to go out to a brothel with the rest of the guys the next night, and George agrees with some hesitation, stating that him and Lennie are trying to save some money.
Carlson enters with his gun, keeping his eyes averted from Candy, who says nothing. Lennie enters with him. Curley appears immediately after them, looking for his wife. When he notices that Slim isn't in the bunkhouse, he suspects foul play between Slim and his wife, and quickly departs. Whit and Carlson follow shortly after, hoping to see a fight between Curley and Slim. George and Lennie stay, not wanting any trouble.
After some conversation, Lennie coaxes George into telling of the dream of the farm and the rabbits again. George does, and the two become enraptured by George's description of the farm, forgetting about Candy, who rolls over and listens, as fascinated as Lennie. Candy breaks in saying he knows of a place that they could buy and offers to put in some money if he is allowed to
become part of George and Lennie's dream: "I ain't much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some" (65). George hesitates, but cannot refuse the three hundred and fifty dollars that Candy offers to put toward the place. All three grow confident in the approaching reality of what was once a distant dream. "We'll do her," George says, "We'll fix up that little old place an' we'll go live there" (66). The three men hear voices approaching from outside and George makes them all agree to keep their dream a secret.
Slim, Curley, Carlson, and Whit enter. Curley is apologizing to an angry Slim, who warns him: "If you can't look after your own God damn wife, what you expect me to do about it? You lay offa me" (68). Carlson joins Slim in warning Curley to look after his wife and soon Candy joins in the teasing of Curley. Curley, unable to intimidate the others, frustrated and angry, turns to Lennie, who is still smiling, imagining the ranch and his rabbits. Curley thinks Lennie is laughing at his expense, and begins to attack Lennie, punching him in the face. Lennie backs away, too scared to defend himself, while Curley bloodies his face. Lennie, terrified, begs George to make Curley stop. George tells Lennie to "get" Curley and Lennie reaches for one of Curley's swinging fists and crushes it in his own hand. Curley writhes in agony and Lennie is too scared to let go, despite George urging him to do so. After much yelling and slapping in the face on George's part, Lennie releases Curley's mangled hand. Slim tells the whimpering Curley to tell everyone that he got his hand caught in a machine: "But you jus' tell an' try to get this guy canned and we'll tell ever'body, an' then will you get the laugh" (71). Carlson takes the humiliated Curley to a doctor and Slim and George reassure the frightened Lennie that he did nothing wrong. Lennie is relieved to know that he can still tend the rabbits.
Chapter 4
Chapter four begins in the novel's third setting-Crooks' room. It is the next night. After a long description of the room and Crooks himself (see the profile section for more details), Lennie enters. Crooks (who is called such because of a crooked spine as a result of being kicked by a mule) is in the process of rubbing liniment on his back and angrily tells him that he has no right coming into his room. Lennie has been left alone by the other men, including George, who have all gone into town. Lennie explains that he was on his way to see his puppy and saw the light in Crooks' room and just wants to come in and sit. Crooks eventually agrees to letting Lennie sit a while, and Lennie immediately tells him of his and George's and Candy's plan to get a place and have a farm, and the secret dream, once Lennie and George's only, continues to be spread. Crooks laughs at Lennie, saying that George just talks and Lennie is too stupid to remember, so it doesn't matter what George talks about.
Crooks begins sewing doubts as to whether or not George will come back to him. Lennie grows scared and confused, then angry, and threatens Crooks, asking who hurt George. Crooks backs down, sensing Lennie's anger, and assures him that George will be back. He then welcomes Lennie's company and admits to being lonely: "Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody" (80). Lennie mentions the secret of the piece of land again and Crooks responds that he's seen hundreds of men come through the ranches "an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it" (81). No longer does the dream of George and Lennie seem so unique.
Candy, who is too old to go into town, enters Crooks' room. Crooks irritably lets Candy come in and Candy begins to talk to Lennie about the farm, also forgetting about the promise to keep it a secret. Crooks again chides them: "You guys is just kiddin' yourself" (83). But Candy and Lennie stubbornly assert that they have the money and that they're actually going to get a place. Crooks finally becomes convinced and, allured by the reality of the dream, asks for a share in it: "If you . . . . guys would want a hand to work for nothing-just his keep, why I'd come an' lend a hand" (84).
Suddenly Curley's wife comes to the door, looking for Curley. Steinbeck has now assembled for us the outsiders of his cast of characters-the old cripple, the Negro, the idiot, and the woman-all of them gathered in Crooks' room while the men are out of town. Crooks and Candy act coldly toward her while Lennie stares, fascinated. Curley's wife knows that the others, including her husband, have gone to the brothel, and grows angry at the treatment she receives from the three remaining men. She indignantly confesses to being lonely up in the house all the time and to not liking Curley's company: "Spends all his time sayin' what he's gonna do to the guys he don't like, and he don't like nobody" (85). She asks what really happened to Curley's hand and when Candy stubbornly tells her that he got it caught in a machine, she grows angry again. Candy defends the three against her contempt and triumphantly announces that they are going to have a house of
their own. Curley's wife scoffs at Candy's indignation and doubts what he says: "If you had two bits in the worl', why you'd be in gettin' two shots of corn with it and suckin' the bottom of the glass" (87).
Candy controls his temper and orders Curley's wife to leave, telling her that she's not wanted. Before she leaves she notices the bruises on Lennie's face and realizes what really happened to Curley's hand. Crooks tries to make her leave, but she is undaunted, threatening to hang him if he acts up against her, at which Crooks retreats to his servile self. At the sound of the other men coming back, Curley's wife leaves, not before telling Lennie that she is glad that he busted Curley's hand.
George enters and orders everyone out of Crooks' room. Crooks tells Candy to forget what he said about working on their farm: "I wouln' want to go no place like that" (91). They leave Crooks alone and he returns to rubbing liniment on his back.
Chapter 5
We find ourselves in the barn. It is Sunday afternoon (Lennie and George arrived on the ranch on Friday morning). All the men are participating in a horseshoe tournament. Lennie is alone in the barn with his puppy, which is dead. Lennie still strokes it sadly, saying, "Why do you got to get killed? You ain't so little as mice. I didn't bounce you hard" (93). He fears he has done a bad thing and that he won't get to tend the rabbits, the ultimate punishment.
Curley's wife finds Lennie alone and tries to start a conversation. Lennie stubbornly says that he is forbidden to talk to her, but she persists. She asks what Lennie has covered in the hay and Lennie reveals his dead puppy and she consoles him; she tells him not to worry about talking to her, that no one will notice because they're all playing horseshoes. Curley's wife continues talking to the woebegone Lennie, who does not listen, telling him of how lonely she is and how she dislikes Curley and how she twice missed an opportunity to become an actress and live in Hollywood and wear nice clothes-her equivalent to Lennie and George's dream of the farm and the rabbits.
Lennie, ignorant of her story, muses on the rabbits. When Curley's wife asks him what he likes so much about rabbits, Lennie says: "I like to pet nice things" (98). Curley's wife is initially frightened by this confession, but soon realizes that Lennie is not mean. She says that she is the same way and sometimes likes to sit and feel her own hair. She invites Lennie to feel how soft it is and the careful reader immediately recognizes the danger of this invitation, remembering the soft, dead mouse and the soft, dead puppy. Sure enough, Lennie enjoys the feel of Curley's wife's hair, but he likes it a bit too much. She tells him not to mess it up and jerks sideways, at which Lennie, in a panic, grabs on firmly. Curley's wife screams and Lennie, not wanting George to hear, covers her mouth and nose. As she continues to struggle, Lennie grows angry and orders her to be quiet, but she is too terrified to stop. Lennie shakes her in an effort to subdue her, but breaks her neck instead. Realizing that he has "done a real bad thing" (100), Lennie scoops some hay onto her dead body and creeps out of the barn with the dead puppy in his coat.
Candy enters the barn in search of Lennie, and finds Curley's dead wife. Horrified, he runs to get George, who is equally upset. Candy asks who did it, but George knows: "I should of knew," he says, "I guess maybe way back in my head I did" (103). Both men realize that Curley will want Lennie lynched and, even worse, that their dream of a place of their own has been shattered by Lennie's actions. George says sadly: "I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would" (103).
George says that Candy has to tell the rest of the men about it and George will pretend like he doesn't know what's going on, so that Curley won't think George was involved. Candy agrees and George leaves, and Candy hopelessly sheds tears of anguish over Curley's dead wife, whom he blames for all that happened. He then departs to go tell the others.
The men, George and Curley included, come in and gather around Curley's dead wife. Curley realizes that Lennie did it because everyone else was playing horseshoes. He furiously declares that he will kill Lennie, and urges the others to come with him. Carlson runs off to get the pistol that he used to kill Candy's old dog. Slim consoles George, but tells him that Curley will want Lennie killed. Carlson comes running back, claiming that Lennie stole his gun. Curley follows him with a shotgun and tells Carlson to take Crooks' shotgun. George weakly begs Curley not to
shoot Lennie, but Curley refuses his request for mercy. The men leave and Curley makes George go with them to prove he had nothing to do with the killing of Curley's wife. They depart and Candy, whose last dream has died inside him, remains with Curley's dead wife.
Chapter 6
Steinbeck returns to the setting that started the novel, alongside the pool of the Salinas River, where George and Lennie first appeared to us. We remember that George told Lennie to return here if any trouble should happen, and it is only fitting that the course of events lead the reader back to the beginning. Lennie appears and approaches the pool's edge, where he stoops and drinks. He then sits on the bank facing the trail, waiting for George and congratulating himself for not forgetting what George said. Despite having remembered, Lennie knows that George will be angry and he prepares to react to his anger, saying: "If George don't want me . . . . I'll go away. I'll go away" (110).
In his solitude, Lennie is confronted by two ghosts, who curiously speak to him in his own voice. The first is Aunt Clara, who reproaches him for giving George trouble all the time: "You do bad things. . . You never give a thought to George. He been doin' nice things for you all time" (111). Lennie miserably agrees with the voice of his own conscience and says he will go away into the hills, but Aunt Clara says that he will just "stick around an' stew the b'Jesus outa George all the time" (111). The next apparition to appear is a rabbit-not one of the little rabbits that sat near the river in chapter one, but a gigantic rabbit. The rabbit scolds Lennie, saying that he is too stupid to care for any rabbits. Speaking of George, the rabbit tells Lennie: "Well, he's sick of you. He's gonna beat hell outa you an' then go away an' leave you" (112). Lennie is terrified by the rabbit's prophecy and covers his ears and cries out George's name.
Quietly, George enters from the brush and, as Steinbeck writes, "the rabbit scuttled back into Lennie's brain" (113). George is stiff and silent, but tells Lennie, when he asks, that he will not leave him. Lennie confesses that he has "done a bad thing," and asks George to "give him hell" (113). As in chapter one, George tells Lennie that his life would be better without him, but the difference here is that George speaks without emotion, as if rehearsing a script that no longer means anything to him. Lennie doesn't notice the lifelessness in George's tone, and happily urges him to tell about the little place with the rabbits. George tells Lennie to look across the river "so you can almost see it" (115), and Lennie turns away from George and stares dreamily across the pool.
George begins the familiar story of the little farm and the rabbits, and while he speaks, he removes Carlson's pistol, which he has stolen, and aims it at the back of Lennie's head. The voices of the search party are audible from up the river. George tells Lennie, who still has his back to him, that he isn't mad: "I never been mad, an' I ain't now" (117). Lennie begs George to get the little place right now, and George agrees, and then pulls the trigger. Lennie dies instantly. George throws the gun away and the others enter the little clearing. George, tired and speaking softly, convinces the others that he forced Lennie to give him Carlson's pistol and then he shot him with it. Slim, who knows the truth, suggests that he and George go for a drink and walks off with him, saying, much to the curiosity of Curley and Carlson, "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda" (118).
Character profiles
George: George is the story's main protagonist, a small, quick man with well-defined features. A migrant ranch worker, George dreams of one day saving enough money to buy his own place and be his own boss, living off of the land. The hindrance to his objective is his mentally handicapped companion, Lennie, with whom he has traveled and worked since Lennie's Aunt Clara, whom George knew, died. The majority of George's energy is devoted to looking after Lennie, whose blunders prevent George from working toward his dream, or even living the life of a normal rancher. Thus, George's conflict arises in Lennie, to whom he has the ties of long-time companionship that he so often yearns to break in order to live the life of which he dreams. This tension strains George into demonstrating various emotions, ranging from anger to patience to sadness to pride and to hope.
Lennie: George's companion, the source of the novel's conflict. Lennie, enormous, ungainly, and mentally slow, is George's polar opposite both mentally and physically. Lennie's ignorance and
innocence and helplessness, his childish actions, such as his desire to pet soft things, contrast his physical bulk, making him likeable to readers. Although devoid of cruel intentions, Lennie's stupidity and carelessness cause him to unwittingly harm animals and people, which creates trouble for both him and George. Lennie is tirelessly devoted to George and delights in hearing him tell of the dream of having a farm, but he does not desire the dream of the American worker in the same way that George does. His understanding of George's dream is more childish and he grows excited at the possibility of tending the future rabbits, most likely because it will afford him a chance to pet their soft hides as much as he wishes. Nevertheless, a dream is a dream, different for everyone, and George and Lennie share the similar attribute of desiring what they haven't got. Lennie, however, is helpless to attain his dream, and remains a static character throughout, relying on George to fuel is hope and save him from trouble.
Candy: The old, one-handed swamper who is the first to befriend George and Lennie at Soledad. Humble and weary, Candy seems to be at the end of his line after Carlson shoots his last possession and companion, his old, blind dog. "When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me" (66), Candy confesses to George and Lennie, hoping for a similar fate as his dog. But when he overhears the two talking of their little place, Candy offers all his money and his meager services to be in on the dream. His substantial sum of money and the fact that he knows of a place make it impossible for George to refuse him. Candy clings to this hope of a future as a drowning man would to a piece of driftwood. It rekindles life within him, but it also becomes an obsession, and in his excitement and indignation, he lets the secret slip to both Crooks and Curley's wife. And when Lennie kills Curley's wife and shatters the reality of the dream, Candy becomes hopeless and full of anguish, the broken shell of a man.
Curley: The boxer, the son of the boss, the angry and hot-headed obstacle to George's attempt to keep Lennie out of trouble at Soledad. Insecure of his size and over-protective of his wife, Curley is eager to fight anyone he perceives as a threat to his self-image. From the outset, Lennie unwittingly incurs Curley's antagonism simply because of his size, and the reader immediately braces for future confrontation. Curley remains undeveloped, forever little and forever mean, poking his head in at various points in the novel, either to look for his wife or to stir up trouble on account of her.
Curley's Wife: Nameless and flirtatious, Curley's wife is perceived by Candy to be the cause of all that goes wrong at Soledad: "Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up. You wasn't no good" (104-105), he says to her dead body in his grief. The workers, George included, see her as having "the eye" for every guy on the ranch, and they cite this as the reason for Curley's insecurity and hot-headed temperament. But Curley's wife adds complexity to her own characterization, confessing to Lennie that she dislikes Curley because he is angry all the time and saying that she comes around because she is lonely and just wants someone with whom to talk. Like George and Lennie, she once had a dream of becoming an actress and living in Hollywood, but it went unrealized, leaving her full of self-pity, married to an angry man, living on a ranch without friends, and viewed as a trouble-maker by everyone.
Crooks: Called such because of a crooked spine, Steinbeck does not develop Crooks, the Negro stable buck, until the fourth chapter, describing him as a "proud, aloof man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs" (74). Crooks is bitter, indignant, angry, and ultimately frustrated by his helplessness as a black man in a racist culture. Wise and observant, Crooks listens to Lennie's talk of the dream of the farm with cynicism. Although tempted by
Candy, Lennie, and George's plan to buy their own place, Crooks is constantly reminded (in this case by Curley's wife) that he is inferior to whites and, out of pride, he refuses to take part in their future farm.
Slim: The tall, jerkline skinner whom Steinbeck describes as something of a living legend: "he moved with a majesty only achieved by royalty and master craftsmen. He was a jerkline skinner, the prince of the ranch, capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders. He was capable of killing a fly on the wheeler's butt with a bull whip without touching the mule. There was gravity in his manner and a quiet so profound that all talk stopped when he spoke. . . His hatchet face was ageless. He might have been thirty-fice or fifty. HIs ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought" (37). Slim lingers in the shadow of his overwhelming description throughout the novel. He serves as the fearless, decision-maker when conflicts arise among the workers and wins the confidence of George, offering advice, comfort, and quiet words of wisdom.
Metaphor analysis
Candy's Dog: "A dragfooted sheepdog, gray of muzzle, and with pale, blind old eyes" (26), Candy's dog is a far cry from his sheepherding days. Carlson says to Candy, in regard to the dog: "Got no teeth, he's all stiff with rheumatism. He ain't no good to you, Candy. An' he ain't no good to himself. Why'n't you shoot him, Candy?" (49). And Candy is left with no other option, but to shoot his longtime companion. This sub-plot is an obvious metaphor for what George must do to Lennie, who proves to be no good to George and no good to himself. Steinbeck re-emphasizes the significance of Candy's dog when Candy says to George that he wishes someone would shoot him when he's no longer any good. And when Carlson's gun goes off, Lennie is the only other man not inside the bunk house, Steinbeck having placed him outside with the dog, away from the other men, his gun shot saved for the novel's end.
The Cripples: Four of Steinbeck's characters are handicapped: Candy is missing a hand, Crooks has a crooked spine, Lennie is mentally slow, and Curley acquires a mangled hand in the course of the novel. They are physical manisfestations of one of the novel's major themes: the schemes of men go awry. Here, to re-iterate the point, Steinbeck has the actual bodies of his characters go awry. It is as if nature herself is often doomed to errors in her scheme. And whether they be caused at birth, or by a horse, or by another man, the physical deformities occur regardless of the handicapped person's will or desire to be otherwise, just as George and Lennie's dream goes wrong despite how much they want it to be fulfilled.
Solitaire: George is often in the habit of playing solitaire, a card game that requires only one person, while he is in the bunk house. He never asks Lennie to play cards with him because he knows that Lennie would be incapable of such a mental task. Solitaire, which means alone, is a metaphor for the loneliness of the characters in the novel, who have no one but themselves. It is also a metaphor for George's desire to be "solitaire," to be no longer burdened with Lennie's company, and his constant playing of the game foreshadows his eventual decision to become a solitary man.
The Dead Mouse and the Dead Puppy: These two soft, furry creatures that Lennie accidentally kills are both metaphors and foreshadowing devices. As metaphors, they serve as a physical representation of what will happen to George and Lennie's dream: they (Lennie in particular) will destroy it. Lennie never intends to kill the thing he loves, the soft things he wants more than anything, but they die on him nonetheless. The dead mouse is also an allusion to the novel's title, a reminder that dreams will go wrong, even the desire to pet a mouse. And because bad things come in threes, Lennie's two accidental killings of animals foreshadow the final killing of Curley's wife, an accident that seals his fate and ruins the dream for him, George, and Candy.
Theme analysis
When discussing the thematics of Steinbeck's novel, we would do well to first examine the title, which is an allusion to a line of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft aglay." Translated into modern English, the verse reads: "The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." This cynical statement is at the heart of the novel's action and serves as a foreshadowing prophecy of all that is to come. For, indeed, the novels two main characters do have a scheme, a specific dream of changing their current way of life in order to have their own place and work only for themselves. The tragedy, of course, lies in the fact that no matter how elaborately our heroes plan, regardless of how intensely they hope and dream, their plan does not find fulfillment.
This is a novel of defeated hope and the harsh reality of the American Dream. George and Lennie are poor homeless migrant workers, doomed to a life of wandering and toil in which they are never able to reap the fruits of their labor. Their desires may not seem so unfamiliar to any other American: a place of their own, the opportunity to work for themselves and harvest what they sew with no one to take anything from them or give them orders. George and Lennie desperately cling to the notion that they are different from other workers who drift from ranch to ranch because, unlike the others, they have a future and each other. But characters like Crooks and Curley's wife serve as reminders that George and Lennie are no different from anyone who wants something of his or her own.
All the characters (all the ones that Steinbeck has developed, at least) wish to change their lives
in some fashion, but none are capable of doing so; they all have dreams, and it is only the dream that varies from person to person. Curley's wife has already had her dream of being an actress pass her by and now must live a life of empty hope. Crooks' situation hints at a much deeper oppression than that of the white worker in America-the oppression of the black people. Through Crooks, Steinbeck exposes the bitterness, the anger, and the helplessness of the black American who struggles to be recognized as a human being, let alone have a place of his own. Crooks' hopelessness underlies that of George's and Lennie's and Candy's and Curley's wife's. But all share the despair of wanting to change the way they live and attain something better. Even Slim, despite his Zen-like wisdom and confidence, has nothing to call his own and will, by every indication, remain a migrant worker until his death. Slim differs from the others in the fact that he does not seem to want something outside of what he has, he is not beaten by a dream, he has not laid any schemes. Slim seems to have somehow reached the sad conclusion indicated by the novel's title, that to dream leads to despair.
Another key element is the companionship between George and Lennie. The two men are not unique for wanting a place and a life of their own, but they are unique in that they have each other. Their companionship contrasts the loneliness that surrounds them-the loneliness of the homeless ranch worker, the loneliness of the outcast black man, the loneliness of the subjected woman, the loneliness of the old, helpless cripple-and it arouses curiosity in the characters that they encounter, Slim included. And indeed, the reader becomes curious as to their friendship as well. And can we call it friendship? Lennie would call George a friend, but George would perhaps be hard-pressed to admit the same of Lennie. As he tells Slim, he has simply become so used to having Lennie around that he "can't get rid of him" (45). Despite his annoyance, George also demonstrates protectiveness, patience, and pride when it comes to Lennie. He is perhaps motivated to stay with Lennie by a sense of guilt, or responsibility, or pity, or a desire to not be alone himself. Most likely it is a combination of all of these motivations. Yet it seems strange that George would choose to remain with Lennie, given the danger that Lennie causes for the both of them. George is not blind to the fact that life would be easier without Lennie, and he often yearns for independence when Lennie becomes troublesome, creating a major source of tension in the novel. This tension is not resolved until the final gunshot by the riverside, when the strain of Lennie's company makes it impossible for George to survive with his companion.
By killing Lennie, George eliminates a monumental burden and a threat to his own life (Lennie, of course, never threatened George directly, but his actions endangered the life of George, who took responsibility for him). The tragedy is that George, in effect, is forced to shoot both his companion, who made him different from the other lonely workers, as well as his own dream and admit that it has gone hopelessly awry. His new burden is now hopelessness and loneliness, the life of the homeless ranch worker. Slim's comfort at the end ("You hadda George" (118)) indicates the sad
truth that one has to surrender one's dreams in order to survive, not the easiest thing to do in America, the Land of Promise.
Top Ten Quotes
1) George, on life without Lennie: "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want" (11-12).
2) George, on the worker's dream: "All kin's a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We'd jus' live there. We'd belong there. There wouldn't be no more runnin' round the country and gettin' fed by a Jap cook. No, sir, we'd have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house" (63).
3) The Boss, on George and Lennie: "Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is" (25).
4) George, on loneliness and Lennie: "I ain't got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time. . . 'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him" (45).
5) Crooks, on a black man's loneliness: "S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go
into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" (80).
6) Crooks, on George and Lennie's dream: "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their head" (81).
7) Crooks, on human rights: Maybe you guys better go. I ain't sure I want you in here no more. A colored man got to have some rights even if he don't like 'em" (90).
8) Curley's wife, on men: "If I catch any one man, and he's alone, I get along fine with him. But just let two of the guys get together an' you won't talk. Jus' nothing but mad. You're all scared of each other, that's what. Ever' one of you's scared the rest is goin' to get something on you" (85).
9) George, on the lost dream: "-I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would" (103).
10) Slim, on George's killing of Lennie and the dream: "Never you mind. A guy got to sometimes" (117).
Biography
John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University, but disenrolled in 1925, after six years, without a degree. He moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. Soon thereafter, Steinbeck married and moved back to California, where he published two more novels (The Pastures of Heaven and To a God Unknown), as well as worked on short stories. With the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck achieved popular success and financial security. A relentless and dedicated writer, Steinbeck experimented with many forms: In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath (considered to be his masterpiece) focus on the California laboring class; he wrote a screenplay entitled The Forgotten Village; he studied marine biology and wrote Sea of Cortez; when World War II came, Steinbeck wrote Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team; he published a nonfiction account of his travels through America with his dog, Charley; East of Eden, published in1952, is a saga based on Steinbeck's family history. Steinbeck spent the last years of his life in New York City and Sag Harbor, writing and traveling with his third wife. He won the Nobel Prize in 1962 and died in 1968, leaving a sizeable body of literature behind him.
