OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck

Characters
Plot synopsis
Themes
Genre/style
Critical context
Useful quotations
Sample essays

o Steinbeck’s use of stereotypes in the novel Of Mice and Men (629 words)

The friendship between George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men (514 words)
Describe the devices Steinbeck uses to create atmosphere in Of Mice and Men (442 words)
Dreams and Reality in the novel Of Mice and Men (552 words)

Characters

George Milton

George Milton is the central character in the story. He is described as ‘small and quick, dark of face with restless eyes and sharp, strong features’. He looks after Lennie and dreams of a better life. George symbolises the migrant worker’s way of life. He leads a nomadic existence, moving from ranch to ranch to find work. The only thing that keeps him going is his dream of owning his own ranch, although deep down he knows it is only an illusion and will never actually happen.

He needs Lennie’s friendship to stave off his major fear, which is loneliness. He is loyal to Lennie because he knows that he is an innocent but outwardly his attitude is one of intolerance.

George has a strong understanding of the possibilities in a situation and, as Lennie’s self-appointed protector, he has to think and plan for him too. His feelings for Lennie have deep roots. This is demonstrated by his revelation of the time he asked Lennie to jump into the Sacramento river although he couldn’t swim. He describes to Slim how guilty he felt afterwards and it is obvious he has come to appreciate the basic decency of Lennie’s nature.

‘He damn near drowned before we could get him. An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more.’

This revelation shows that George is capable of moral growth, which is exemplified by his killing of Lennie at the end of the novel.

Lennie Small

Lennie Small is a mentally retarded man who travels with George. He dreams of ‘living off the fatta' the lan’ and being able to tend to rabbits. He has a child's mental ability but is very strong physically and is sometimes unable to control his own strength. This results in a series of accidental killings when the objects of his affection try to escape him (for example, mice and his puppy).

He loves to listen to George’s plans for their shared future. Not only are we made aware of Lennie’s physical size, he is also described to the reader in terms of a series of running animal associations. He is seen, for example, as a bear and as a domestic dog, but these associations enhance rather than undermine his innocence. He is vulnerable and yet he has a certain amount of cunning in concealment and knows how to get his way with George. He threatens to go to a cave and fend for himself, knowing that George won’t let this happen.

Candy

Candy is an old ranch worker who has lost a hand in an accident and is near the end of his useful life on the ranch. He knows he has little to look forward to, especially when another ranch hand, Carlson, decides to kill his old dog because it annoys everyone in the bunk house with its bad smell.

He has a little bit of money put by and decides he wants to contribute towards George and Lennie’s little ranch, as long as he can be a part of the dream.

‘S’pose I went in with you guys. That’s three hundred and fifty bucks I’d put in… How’d that be? ‘

Candy’s desperate attempt to be a part of the dream shows how lonely he is.

Curley

Curley is the ranch owner’s son. He is aggressive and was once a semi-professional boxer. He has a jealous nature and is domineering, particularly towards his wife. He immediately takes a dislike to Lennie. He is very self-important. He thinks he owns his wife and that he can dictate what she can and can’t do.

Curley's wife

Curley’s wife is young and pretty but is referred to as a ‘tart’ by the men and mistrusted by her husband. The other characters refer to her only as ‘Curley's wife’. If she tries to talk to the ranchmen they ignore her, because they are afraid of Curley. She has no female friends and so she feels very isolated. Candy believes her to be the cause of all that goes wrong at Soledad:

‘Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up. You wasn't no good.’

The workers, George included, see her as having ‘the eye’ for every man on the ranch, and they cite this as the reason for Curley's insecurity and hot-headed temperament. Like George and Lennie, she once had a dream. She dreamt of becoming an actress and living in Hollywood; now, full of self-pity, she is married to an angry man, and lives on the ranch without any friends and is seen as a trouble-maker by everyone there.

Slim

Slim is a ‘jerk line skinner’ (the main driver of a mule team), referred to as ‘prince of the ranch’. Slim decides on the mercy-killing of Candy's dog. It is Slim who helps Lennie avoid getting sacked after his fight with Curley. He is wise and humane.

He understands George’s friendship with Lennie. He is angry Curley suspects him of seeing his wife and is treated by Steinbeck in an idealised manner. He is the judge, holding the balance between right and wrong. Though he is a man of few words, he conveys his understanding and acceptance of George’s shooting of Lennie:

‘You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me.’

Crooks

Crooks is the only African American hand on the ranch. Like Candy he is crippled, hence his nickname which refers to his crooked back resulting from being kicked by a horse. He sleeps apart from the other workers because the society in which he resides in is racist. He, like most of the other characters in the novel, suffers from extreme loneliness:

‘A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick.’

Carlson

Carlson is a ranch hand who wants to shoot Candy's old dog because he doesn't like its smell. He says it is useless and old. He seems to accept Slim’s word as law and does not emerge as a positive character.

The Boss

The Boss is Curley's father, the owner and director of the ranch.

Whit

Whit is only concerned with what he thinks is good living, going down to the cat-house on Saturdays and reading pulp magazines and playing cards in the bunkhouse. Only the merest description is given of his character.

Plot Synopsis

The main characters are two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression. One is George Milton and the other Lennie Small. George is described as ‘small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose.’ Lennie is large and physically strong but mentally retarded. He is described as ‘a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders.’

The two unlikely friends have come to a ranch in Soledad, California to ‘work up a stake’. They hope one day to fulfill their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream, which he never tires of hearing George describe, is merely to have soft rabbits on the farm, which he can pet. George protects Lennie from himself by telling him that if he gets into trouble he won't let him ‘tend them rabbits’. They are escaping from their previous employment in a place called Weed. The childlike Lennie was run out of town, with George accompanying him, because Lennie's love of stroking soft things resulted in an accusation of attempted rape when he touched a young woman's dress.

At the ranch, the dream appears to become possible. Candy, the aged, one-handed ranch-hand, even offers to put money in with Lennie and George so they can buy the farm by the end of the month. The dream crashes when Lennie accidentally kills the young and attractive wife of Curley, the ranch owner's son, while trying to stroke her hair. A lynch mob led by Curley gathers. George, realising he is doomed to a life of loneliness and despair like the rest of the migrant workers, and wanting to spare Lennie a painful death at the hands of the violent mob, shoots Lennie in the back of the head before the mob can find him. The shot comes while Lennie is distracted by one last retelling of the dream.

Themes

There are many important themes in this novel including the importance of loyalty and friendship, loneliness, fate, racial intolerance, class conflict, mental disability, idealism and reality.

The title of the novel is taken from Robert Burns’ famous poem written in November 1785 ‘To a Mouse, on turning her up in her nest with the Plough’. The reference comes in the seventh verse, the last two lines of which read:

‘The best laid schemes o’ mice and men

Gang aft a-gley.’

The last line means ‘often go wrong’. Burns and Steinbeck share the same pessimistic views on fate.

In the book, the two main characters, George and Lennie, share a dream. George dreams of a piece of land of his own. Lennie dreams of tending rabbits. We are introduced to them both at the beginning of the book. As the two talk, it becomes clear that Lennie has a mental disability but is deeply devoted to George and dependent upon him for protection. Loneliness is a recurrent theme in the novel. ‘Guys like us,’ George says, ‘that work on the ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.’ Lennie replies: ‘But not us. And why. Because . . . because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look' after you, and that's why.’ The alternative to the companionship that George and Lennie share is loneliness. George frequently affirms the fraternity between them. ‘He's my . . . cousin,’ George tells the ranch boss. ‘I told his old lady I'd take care of him‘. The boss is suspicious of the bond between George and Lennie, and the other characters in turn also question this friendship: they have simply never seen anything like it. In their world, isolation is the norm. Even Slim, who is usually sympathetic and understanding, expresses surprise. ‘Ain't many guys travel around together. I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damned world is scared of each other.’

Somewhat related to the theme of loneliness is racism, which also results in personal isolation. Crooks, the old black man on the ranch, lives alone, ostracised by the ranch hands because of his race. The barrier of racial prejudice is briefly broken, however, when Crooks becomes an ally in the dream to buy a farm. Crooks has a cynical honesty that illustrates Steinbeck's own criticism of American society's failures in the Depression era of the 1930s.

Class conflict is another theme in the novel. Although George and Lennie have their dream, they are not in a position to attain it. In addition to their own personal limitations, they are also limited by their position in society. Their idealistic dream is eventually destroyed by an unfeeling, materialistic, modern society. The tensions between the characters are deeply embedded in the nature of American capitalism and its class system. Curley, the son of the ranch owner, is arrogant and always looking for a fight. This is not merely a personality trait. His position in society has encouraged this behavior; his real strength lies not in his fighting ability but in his power to fire any worker. Similarly, Carlson, the only skilled worker among the ranch hands, is arrogant and lacks compassion. Carlson would be difficult to replace in his job as a mechanic; therefore, he feels secure enough in his status to treat the other workers sadistically. This trait is seen when he orders Candy's dog to be shot and when he picks on Lennie. The other workers go along with Carlson because they are old or afraid of losing their jobs. Lennie's mental retardation also symbolises the helplessness of people in a capitalistic, commercial, competitive society. In this way, Steinbeck illustrates the confusion and hopelessness of the Depression era.

Genre and Style

Of Mice and Men is a tragic novel told from the point of view of a third-person omniscient narrator who can access the point of view of any character as required by the narrative. It is the first of Steinbeck's experiments with the novel-play form, which combines qualities of each genre. The novel in fact needed few changes before appearing as a play on Broadway. The language Steinbeck uses varies from sentimental, tragic, doomed, fatalistic, rustic, moralistic and comic to poetic. The poetic element of Steinbeck’s style is balanced by the realism of the language his characters use. His writing is mainly simple and direct but sometimes the tone does become lyrical.

Among the many literary devices Steinbeck uses in the story, the techniques of repetition and foreshadowing in order to build up to the climax of the tragedy are some of the most effective. Almost every scene points towards the dreadful ending. For instance, at the beginning of the book, we learn that Lennie likes to stroke mice and other soft creatures but has a tendency to kill them accidentally. This foreshadows the death of his puppy and the death of Curley’s wife. Also, when George reveals that Lennie once grabbed a woman’s dress and would not let go, the reader can more or less predict that similar trouble will arise at the ranch, especially once Curley’s wife appears on the scene. Finally, the scene in which Lennie brutally squeezes Curley’s hand foreshadows the force with which he grabs Curley’s wife by the throat, unintentionally breaking her neck.

Lennie’s fate is also foreshadowed in the events surrounding Candy’s dog. Candy dotes on the dog in the same way that George is devoted to Lennie, yet he must survive the death of his companion, who is shot in the back of the head, just as Lennie is killed at the end of the book. When Candy says that he would rather have shot the dog himself rather than allow Carlson to do it, this episode clearly anticipates the difficult decision that George makes to shoot Lennie rather than leave him to the mercy of the ranch hands.

The point of view of the novel is generally objective—not identifying with a single character—and limited to exterior descriptions. The third-person narrative point of view creates a sense of the impersonal. With few exceptions, the story focuses on what can be readily perceived by an outside observer: a river bank, a bunkhouse, a character's appearance, card players at a table. The focus on time, too, is limited to the present: there are no flashbacks to events in the past, and the reader only learns about what has happened to Lennie and George before the novel's beginning through dialogue between the characters. Thoughts, recollections, and fantasies are expressed directly by the characters.

Critical Context

At the time of the book's publication, critical reaction was mostly positive, although at the end of the 1930s, after Steinbeck had written The Grapes of Wrath, there was some re-evaluation of Steinbeck's earlier work. Some critics complained that Of Mice and Men was flawed by sentimentality. Other critics faulted Steinbeck for his portrayal of poor, earthy characters.

Critical opinions of Steinbeck's work have always been mixed. Both stylistically and in his emphasis on manhood and male relationships, which figure heavily in Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck was strongly influenced by his contemporary, Ernest Hemingway. Even though Steinbeck was hailed as a great author in the 1930s and 1940s, and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, many critics have condemned his works as being superficial, sentimental, and too moralistic. Though Of Mice and Men is regarded by some as his greatest achievement, many critics argue that it suffers from one-dimensional characters and a contrived plot, which renders the lesson of the novel more important than the people in it.

Recent criticism, beginning in the 1980s, has acknowledged that Steinbeck's best work is timeless at its deepest level. Over sixty years after its publication, Of Mice and Men is a classic of American literature. It has been translated into a dozen foreign languages.

Useful quotations

‘A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.’

‘Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.’

‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. . . . 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.’

‘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.’

‘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.
We could live offa the fatta the lan'.’

‘He damn near drowned before we could get him. An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in. Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more.’

‘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.’

‘A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.’

‘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.’

‘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.’

‘Never you mind. A guy got to sometimes.’

Sample Essays

1. Discuss Steinbeck’s use of stereotypes in his novel, Of Mice and Men

There is arguably not much character development in Steinbeck’s short novel, Of Mice and Men. The author concentrates on revealing his characters and presenting them as sympathetic or unsympathetic to focus the reader's attention on their predicament. The main characters in the novel are from the lowest social class. Both George and Lennie are poor and homeless. George is portrayed as intelligent but the reader gets the impression that he knows he is only fooling both himself and Lennie in inventing schemes to buy a ranch where the two of them will settle down to raise crops and livestock. Lennie is mentally retarded and has trouble understanding social situations. He is able to remember only selected information. The dream of living on his own place has stuck in his imagination, however, and he believes wholeheartedly in George's ability to make that dream come true.

George and Lennie are the only two characters in this short novel who are explained in any detail. The other characters could all be described as stereotypes. Even the names of the characters, which are all short and descriptive, say something about them: Slim, the capable uncomplaining ranch hand; Curley, the ranch owner's son, who is jealous of his wife and quick to pick fights; and Curley's wife who is a flirtatious young woman. She has no name indicating her powerless position on the ranch. The use of these stock characters adds to the plot. Crooks is a character who is mistreated in many ways because he is black. Crooks is the stable buck of the barn. It is not certain whether Crooks is his name, or his nickname, but we learn that he got kicked in the back by a horse and has had a crooked back ever since. Nevertheless he gets yelled at by the boss every time something’s wrong.

‘The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck don’t give a damn about that.’

He keeps his distance and demands that other people keep theirs. Crooks is bitter, indignant, angry and ultimately frustrated by his helplessness as a black man in a racist
culture. He listens to Lennie's talk of the dream and 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 lower to whites and, out of pride, he refuses to take part in their future farm.

Lennie is not so much stereotyped, but rather trapped because of his size. Because Lennie is so big, Curley thinks he has to prove something by beating up Lennie. Lennie is then forced to fight. ‘I don’t want no trouble,’ he says. ‘Don’t let him sock me, George.’

Curley’s wife is probably the most loathed person on the ranch. She is stereotyped as an empty-headed flirt. ‘Jesus, what a tramp,’ George says. ‘So that’s what Curley picks for a wife.’ The ranch hands don’t like or trust her because they think she’ll get them in trouble. They make judgments without getting to know her first. Curley, her husband, doesn’t trust her with the other ranch hands.

In summary, by his clever use of stereotypes in this short novel, Steinbeck has highlighted important human issues, including the importance of friendship, the need for people to take responsibility for others less fortunate than themselves, the tragedy of circumstances interfering with people's plans for the future and the insensitivity of some people toward those of different racial background, social status, or intellectual prowess. These social issues are dramatised in a carefully plotted story that keeps the reader's attention focused on the main characters, building to a violent climax in which the ethics of violent solutions to human problems are called into question.

629 words

2. Discuss the friendship between George and Lennie in Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men

The friendship that George and Lennie share forms the central part of the novel. The two men are different from all of the other characters in the story and Lennie sums this up when he states ‘I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why’. The initial interview by the ranch boss emphasises the unusual quality of their relationship and Slim too remarks on this later in the story when he says to George, 'Funny how you an' him string along together’. Although they are not related, they are linked together by a shared past, by a dream of the future, and by current circumstances.

From Lennie’s perspective, George is the most important person in his life, his guardian and only friend. Every time he does anything that he knows is wrong, his first thought is of George’s disapproval. George, on the other hand, thinks of Lennie as a constant source of frustration. He has assumed responsibility for Lennie’s welfare and has, several times, been forced to run because of the trouble Lennie has unintentionally caused. Life with Lennie is not easy.

However, despite George’s frequent bouts of anger and frustration and his long speeches about how much easier life would be without Lennie, George is clearly devoted to his friend. He flees from town to town not to escape the trouble Lennie has caused, but to protect Lennie from its consequences.

In the same way that Lennie needs mice and pups and rabbits to take care of, George needs Lennie to look after. As George reveals to Slim, the incident that sealed the bond between the pair came when he told his friend to jump into the rushing Sacramento River and was then forced to save him from drowning. In a way, George also uses Lennie as an excuse for the hardships that he must endure. He continually claims that life would be ‘so easy’ for him were it not for the burden of caring for Lennie.

However, despite the two men being so different, they have one thing in common. They both share the same dream of owning their own ranch and after many years of hard work, moving from ranch to ranch, living in complete poverty and working for very little remuneration, they finally seem to be getting nearer to achieving this lifelong dream. Lennie believes unquestioningly in their dream, and his faith enables the cynical George to imagine the possibility of this dream becoming reality. In fact, George’s belief in it depends upon Lennie, for as soon as Lennie dies, George’s hope for a brighter future disappears. It is really dependency and not brotherly love which unites the two men and maintains their friendship.

(514 words)

3. Describe the devices Steinbeck uses to create atmosphere in Of Mice and Men.

The story is set in California's Salinas Valley and the action takes place on a large ranch during the Great Depression. One of the ways Steinbeck creates atmosphere in the novel is the way in which he uses nature as a background and ‘medium’ of his characters. Nature is seen in minute detail. The opening of the novel illustrates this and the description is full of nostalgia. The tone is simple and immediate:

‘There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down form the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening.’

There is a poetic element to Steinbeck’s style, as seen in the following quotations: the sycamores have ‘mottled, white, recumbent limbs’, the ‘rabbits sat as quietly as little grey sculptured stones’, a heron is ‘stilted’ and a lizard ‘makes a great skittering’. He uses various literary devices including similes and metaphors, onomatopoeia and personification. The closeness of man to nature is emphasised in the novel and Lennie is seen frequently as a bear or a dog; the imagery emphasising the simple responses of his nature.

The settings are simple in detail but powerfully symbolic. The secluded spot in the woods by the stream is the uncomplicated world of Nature; the bunkhouse is the bleak home of hired working men trying to make sense of their lives and gain comfort in a limited environment; the barn is the place of working life, of seed and harvest, birth and death, the harness room with Crook's bunk symbolises social constraints; the ‘little place of our own’ about which George and Lennie dream is the Paradise we all yearn for.

Light is another very important element in the novel which Steinbeck uses to create atmosphere. The natural light of the sun and the artificial light of the interiors is an important part of the author’s unvoiced commentary. The action begins on the evening of a hot day, continues with George and Lennie talking in darkness and half-darkness with the fire lighting the trunks of the trees until the ‘sphere of light’ from the fire grows smaller. The next day they go to the ranch house and we are told at 10 o’clock in the morning ‘the sun threw a bright, dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars’.

The poetic element of Steinbeck’s style is balanced by the realism of the language his characters use. His writing is mainly simple and direct but sometimes the tone becomes lyrical.

(442 words)

4. Dreams and Reality in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

The novel describes the life migrant ranch workers in rural America. It tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two lonely nomadic farm workers who belong nowhere. George protects the mentally retarded but physically strong Lennie from the tricks of both ranch bosses and other hands, but, in so doing, George has considerably reduced the possibilities of his own successful attainment of independence and peace. In order to soothe his childish companion, George has invented a fantasy in which both of them operate their own farm and Lennie, in particular, is in charge of the rabbits. It is a vision which immediately quiets any of the good-natured Lennie’s anxieties, as well as bringing comfort to the otherwise realistic and rather cynical George.

When the two friends arrive at the latest farmhouse, Lennie promises faithfully to obey his companion and be good. George arranges jobs for both of them. Curley takes an immediate dislike to Lennie simply because of his strength. After a series of provocations, Lennie is drawn into a fight with Curley. Unable to control his massive strength, he breaks the bones of Curley’s hand before his co-workers can pull him away from the victim. From this moment on, Curley plans full revenge.

The opportunity presents itself in the person of Curley’s own wife, a coarse but pathetically lonely creature who frequently attempts to attract advances from hired hands to relieve the tedium of her life on the ranch. Driven away from the bunkhouse in which the men have their quarters by her jealous husband, the young woman waits until all but Lennie have left the ranch, and then proceeds to engage him in conversation. So preoccupied with her own misery is the girl that she does not realise her potential danger. Enthusiastically recalling an opportunity she once had to appear in Hollywood films, she invites Lennie to feel the soft texture of her hair. At first reticent, he is soon persuaded. Suddenly she is locked in his grasp and moments later, her dead body slumps to the floor of the bunkhouse.

When George and Candy, a down-on-his-luck worker who had expressed great interest in joining the friends in their dream farm, realise what has happened, Lennie is told to take refuge in a secret place George had once designated for some emergency. Taking Curley’s gun, George waits for the others to form a search party. Raging with jealous anger and despair, Curley makes it clear that, when found, Lennie will not be brought back alive. During the course of the chase, George manages to separate from the others. Finding his friend at the appointed meeting place, he suggests that Lennie watch out across the river and try to picture that farm they will one day share. As his friend complies, George raises the gun and fires into the back of Lennie’s head. When the others catch up to him, George explains that he had happened to stumble upon Lennie who was killed in a struggle for the gun which he tried to use against George.

The major figures in Steinbeck’s story are all driven by a compelling faith in the possibility of dreams coming true. George and Lennie are the protagonists and, in a certain sense, the author has them epitomize all the dreams of the others.

(552 words)

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'Of Mice and Men' help sheet