Of mice and men

Of mice and men

1. Chapter 1

   • It's a hot afternoon near Soledad, California, sometime during the 1930s. Everyone (or nearly everyone) is poor and scrambling around desperately for work, food, and money. We meet Lennie Small and George Milton: two guys who are among the poor and the scrambling. These two are dressed nearly identically, but there the similarities end. George is small and smart, Lennie is huge and mentally slow. We can tell from his dialogue and actions that he's got some major problems. Lennie drops to his knees and drinks from a pool of dirty water, slurping out of it like a horse. George verbally swats him. This is the dynamic of their relationship in a nutshell: Lennie acts like a kid, and George admonishes him like a parent. Make that a parent who swears a lot. George reminds Lennie (and us) about where they are going and why: a ranch where they can buck barley for 50 dollars a month. George also reminds Lennie why they lost their last job: something about a girl with a soft, red dress that Lenni