Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, have been let off of a bus a ways away from the California

On pages 63 to 65, Lennie struggles internally over his own unrealized strength. After Lennie crushed Curley’s hand, Lennie sat cowering in the corner. He’s scared that he did something wrong but he never meant to hurt Curley. He only fought back because George told him to. George and Slim assured George that it wasn’t his fault and that he didn’t do a bad thing. On pages 44 to 48, Candy undergoes a personal struggle. When Carlson tells him that his dog is old and suffering and should be put down, Candy does not want to give up his dog. After Slim agreed that Candy’s dog should be put down on page 45, “Candy looked helplessly at him, for Slim’s opinions were law.” After being defeated by Carlson’s reasonable argument, Candy finally forces himself to give up his dog, knowing that he won’t have to suffer any more.

Curley refuses to let her talk to anyone on the ranch, isolating her from everyone and setting the stage for trouble. This trouble happens in Section 3, where he accuses Slim of being with his wife and is completely wrong. He is ganged up on by the ranch workers, and picks on Lennie in order to vent his anger at being picked on. This turns out to be a mistake. Lennie quickly crushes his hand, and Curley has to be taken to the hospital. Luckily for George and Lennie, Slim comes to there aid, telling Curley “your hand got caught in a machine”.

John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men follows the journey of two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, who struggle through the navigation of working on a ranch in California and fulfilling their dreams together during a time of financial depression. The novel begins with George and Lennie traveling through the California wilderness to get to a new ranch just south of Soledad where they are going to begin new work. They had to leave their previous jobs in a town called Weed because Lennie had caused trouble with a girl by holding on to her red dress because he wanted to feel it, and this incident spiraled into rape allegations against Lennie. As George and Lennie make their way to the new ranch, Lennie; who is a large, but simple minded man; found a dead mouse and wanted to keep it to pet because he likes soft things. George, who is more serious and protects Lennie, takes the mouse away from him because even though it’s dead, he should not be messing with it. Lennie often does not realize his strength because of his mental incapabilities and as a result, he causes a lot of trouble and harm. George finds taking care of Lennie to be taxing, but he knows that their friendship is an important bond that he does not want to be without. In order to comfort Lennie in the wilderness, George tells the story of their shared dream to own their own ranch where they can follow their own rules and live as they please. When they finally arrive at the ranch the next day, George and Lennie

His love of soft things instantly overwhelms the rest of his thoughts. His mental disability causes him to forget everything George taught him: about not going near her, about how she is trouble. Even though he didn’t want any trouble, her hair reminds him of the rabbits. As soon as Curley’s wife starts to get uncomfortable and asks him to stop, Lennie can’t. Curley’s wife is suddenly in horror, so she yells out for help. Upon hearing this, Lennie instantaneously cups his massive hands around her mouth and nose, knowing what consequences will follow if he gets caught in trouble again. Lennie’s childish actions causes Curley’s wife to start suffocate until he eventually breaks her neck. It takes a few moments for Lennie to react to what he has done an then he remembers whar George told him to do if he got in to trouble, “Lennie if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush” . This is the only thought he can think of at this point, so he sets out for the river.

Slim insults Lennie in front of George. He replies, “‘He ain’t no cuckoo’, said George. ‘He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy. I ain’t so bright neither, or I would be buckin’ barley for my fifty and found’” (39). George feels the need to defend and protect Lennie, even when Lennie is not around. George wants to persuade people into thinking that Lennie is a normal farm worker. George finds a way to convince people Lennie is normal, by comparing his own work on the farm to Lennie’s work. In later chapters, Curley picks a fight with Lennie. George encourages Lennie to fight Curley. After the fight, Lennie is worried about if he will be fired and what George thinks. Lennie looks for comfort in George, he replies, “You don’t need to be scairt no more. You done jus’ what I tol’ you to” (65). George pressures Lennie to fight Curley. At the beginning of the fight, Lennie does not want to hurt Curly. Lennie looks up to George for guidance and protection. This trait of Lennie’s allows George to make all of Lennie's decisions. This event is the turning point in George’s feelings towards

George saved Lennie by shooting him with a gun in the back of the head. It was fast and painless, but Curley had other plans for Lennie, “We oughtta let ‘im get away. You don’t know that Curley. Curley gont’ta wanta get him lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed”( Steinbeck 94). Candy knows that Curely will lynch Lennie if he finds him. George knew he had to find Lennie before Curley. George decided to shoot Lennie because he knew Lennie would have either been locked up in jail his entire life, or have been beaten up and lynched by Curley. After George shoots Lennie, Slim reassures George that he did the right thing, “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda”(Steinbeck 107). George needed Slim to let him know that it was the right thing to do. Slim gave George closure, because George was in awe. George realized he did the right thing after he followed Slim out of the

But Lennie, perfecting his craft one incident at a time, messes everything up. Lennie’s biggest fear was not being able to tend the rabbits when they get their own land, and he loved those rabbits. Lennie grieving over killing his puppy starts conversing with Curley’s wife, a decision he should have never made. Lennie got caught in an unbelievable predicament with Curley’s wife, he was holding her mouth shut while pulling her hair, getting angry at her tell her to shut up, because he does not want to get in trouble. Because, if he did he would not be able to tend the rabbits. As she continued to scream, louder and louder as seconds went by, Lennie with his harmless intentions did not know what to do, so he shook her to get her to shut up but unintentionally broke her neck (Steinbeck, 91). Lennie knowing what to do if he ever did something bad, escapes to the hideout that only him and George know about. Eventually, everybody finds out about Curley’s wife when Candy found her dead body in the barn. At this moment, George knew he had two decisions that would change his life forever. He would either side with his new friends and find Lennie, or escape with Lennie and find another place to work. George makes the right decision and sides with his friends, but he knew they wanted Lennie dead, so he decided to do it himself. George met up with Lennie at their hideout and told him to look the other way and envision everything good about the farm, not wanting to harm Lennie he made sure he was as happy as he could be at that very moment. As George started to describe the farm to him, he put the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the

Because Lennie is confused he grabs her hair and tries to make her stop yelling. But because Lennie does not know how to control his own strength, he squeezes Curley’s wife’s neck too hard and crushes her spine. Lennie then flees the ranch because Curley wants to kill him for what he did to his wife. So Lennie is not brutally murdered by Curley, George finds Lennie and, because he cannot get him out of trouble, shoots Lennie. Lennie’s uncontrollable strength and ignorance destroyed his, George and Candy’s dream

The killing of Candy's dog was related to when George killed Lennie in several ways. First of all, both the dog and Lennie were weak, and killed as soon as they became useless to the society. Also, the dog was Candy's friend, and Lennie was George's friend. In both cases, Slim viewed the deaths as mercy killings. The last similarity was that both Candy and George felt lonely after the death of their companions. The difference was that Carlson killed the dog for selfish reasons, while George killed Lennie out of mercy. This was how the killing of the dog relates to the killing of Lennie.

George reminds Lennie to stay away from Curley and his wife because their trouble. A fight broke out between Curley and Lennie. Curley accused Lennie of laughing at him. Curley throws the first punch and Lennie responds by grabbing Curley's fist in a tight hold. Curley's hand starts bleeding baldy. The co-workers threaten turkey to not say anything. Curley agrees and says his hand got caught in a machine. The next day, Curley's wife is suspicious on how Lennie got his bruises on his face. She figures out that Curley caused them. Later on, all the boys except lennie are playing horseshoes. Lennie goes into the barn to play with his puppy. As expected, Lennie killed the puppy because he wasn’t gentle. In this moment, Curley's wife decided to enter the

Meaning, Curley killing Lennie would result in no significance to him, but because if the bond George and Lennie have established, Lennie suffering in George's hands would mean the most to him. George said, "I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun". (Steinbeck 41) Meaning George and Lennie have virtually and unbreakable bond that was formed. They have been together for a long time now and have done everything together. George needs Lennie as much as Lennie needs George, they provide comfort and support for one another even if Lennie does takes it over board many times. They have an amazing bond therefore George knew that Lennie was going to get killed, and he knew he needed to be the one to do so. In addition, At the begging of Mice of Men candy's old dog was suffering and everyone at the ranch knew it had to go. Slim and candy had no connection therefore when slim had shot what meant mist to candy, he regretted not shooting the off himself. "Quote about candy regretting not killing his dog". Connecting back to the first quote. Candy knew it would mean more to him if he were to kill the dog himself, and let the animal he loved to suffer in his own hands, not in a strangers which would mean absolutely nothing to him. The author wants to describe how an Individual is obligated to

Like the man, Lennie’s actions/brute force result in unintended harm. This is evident through Lennie’s encounters first with the pup and later with Curley’s wife. It is also demonstrated anecdotally with tales of unfortunate mice from Lennie’s childhood.

Old Candy overhears George and Lennie’s conversation about their dreamland farm and asks to join them. George finally lets Candy join in on their dream of living off the fatta land after Candy offers to contribute his savings. Now also becoming Candy’s dream, Candy is deeply disappointed when he learns that the dream will forever be a dream after Lennie killed Curley’s wife. Unable to accept the reality, Candy expresses his disappointment by blaming Curley’s wife. He lets out his anger as he says, ““you God damn tramp”…“You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. … “I could of hoed in the garden and washed dishes for them guys.” (47). On the other hand, Candy is not the only character that has to painfully deal with the failure of attaining their

In the book, Lennie would repeatedly be found petting both mice and dogs, but every time he would end up killing them. Often times he would kill them just because he pet them too hard. When he was little his aunt would give him mice all the time, but he would accidently kill every last one of them. In the book, Slim had a dog that gave birth to nine puppies, which was too much for him to keep so he was willing to give some away. He gave one to Lennie, who went in to the barn almost every day to pet it. One time when he was in the barn, Lennie was petting the dog when it started to bite him. Lennie was afraid so he hit the dog and then “he looked at a little dead puppy that lay in front of him” (Steinbeck 82). Lennie had not only killed the mice, but he also killed the puppy. Lennie killed all of these animals on accident which would foretell that he would kill something else, Curley’s wife, on accident. Next, Lennie was a pretty big man and he was very strong. He often did not know how strong he actually was. In the book, George mentioned to Slim that he had “never seen such a strong guy” (Steinbeck 39). When Lennie goes to work he outworks everyone. He could buck barely better than anyone on the farm because of his strength. Everyone on the farm knows how strong Lennie is, but Lennie does not. Thirdly, Lennie loves to touch soft things and he has for all of his life. For example, he loved to touch mice, dogs, fabric, and hair. One of the times that Lennie was in the barn, Curley’s wife came in. As they began to talk, Lennie brings up the fact that he “like[s] to pet nice things with [his] fingers, sof’ things” (Steinbeck 87). Curley’s wife had soft hair implying that Lennie would want to touch it and due to his inability to let go and his strength he would accidently kill her. Curley’s wife’s death was therefore foreshadowed by Steinbeck in the

In the novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the relationship between Lennie Small and George Milton is complex. Lennie and George are two companions who look for work and brave the hardships of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression together. Although Lennie and George are both grown men, their relationship resembles more of a child and a single parent, or a boy and his dog. Lennie is portrayed as animalistic and childish through his behavior and Steinbeck’s comparisons. This reveals the crucial power dynamic in George and Lennie’s relationship.