Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men.

Summary

Introducing George & Lennie: The novella is set in California, a few miles south of Soledad. It focuses on an curious pair of men, migrant workers who travel together. George Milton is small and quick, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. His companion Lennie Small is huge and clumsy, with wide, sloping shoulders, large pale eyes and a shapeless face. They are heading south to take up a seasonal job as farm hands. It is immediately obvious that Lennie is completely dependent on his partner for his existence. Lennie looks like a big bear and behaves like a big child. He does not remember things, he even forgets the aim of their journey. Despite his physical strength he is timid and essentially harmless.

Camping for the Night: George and Lennie were incorrectly informed by a bus driver that the ranch where they want to get is not very far. The driver probably did not feel like pulling to the gate because in fact the two hike several miles and then are forced to make a camp for the night. They arrive at the Salinas River. Lennie lies flat on his stomach and gulps water without using his hands. He sits on the ground and exactly imitates George’s position. George discovers that Lennie hides a dead mouse in his pocket. Lennie likes touching smooth things, only he petted the mouse too hard so that it got killed. George throws the mouse away and Lennie is on the verge of crying. George reproaches Lennie for bringing them into troubles. They had to leave their former employment in Weed because Lennie was accused of rape. Lennie only wanted to touch a girl’s red dress but he frightened her terribly. Lennie and George escaped their pursuers, who wanted to lynch Lennie, only by hiding in an irrigation ditch. George complains:

‘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. [...]’ ‘An’ whatta I got?’ […] ‘I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time. An’ that ain’t the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.’ (p. 22)

Dreaming of a Home: Lennie thinks that he would leave George and live on his own. He does not mean it really, though, and George knows that Lennie would not survive if left alone. Lennie makes George retell their plans, a story that Lennie knows by heart but never tires of listening to it. They work to put up a stake so that they could purchase a little farmhouse and work for themselves on their own land. They will keep some animals, including rabbits which Lennie will be allowed to tend. George thinks that their having each other makes them different from other migrant workers who are alone:

‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. ’ […] Lennie broke in. ‘But not us! An’ why? Because... because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.’ (p. 25-6).

George makes sure that Lennie will remember to return to this place, hide in a bush and wait for him if there are troubles. At the same time he warns Lennie to avoid troubles because otherwise he will not let him tend the rabbits.

Arriving at the Ranch: George and Lennie arrive at the ranch later than they were expected because of the delay caused by the bus driver. The boss, a little stocky man, is displeased. He accepts their working cards but warns them that he will keep an eye on them. He finds their travelling together suspicious, as well as George’s speaking on behalf of the inarticulate Lennie. George claims that Lennie is his cousin who was kicked in his head by a horse. Lennie is not bright but he is a great worker. In fact the two are not related and Lennie was not kicked by a horse. They were both born in Auburn and George knew Aunt Clara who raised Lennie from a child. George at first played jokes on his simple-minded play fellow but Lennie never even understood that he is being fooled, which spoilt the fun. Lennie does whatever George tells him, he would jump off a cliff if he were told to do so. After Aunt Clara’s death George felt responsible for Lennie and took him under his protection.

Meeting Fellow Workers: George and Lennie are accommodated in a bunk-house for eight occupants. They meet Candy, a tall stoop-shouldered old man whose one hand is amputated at the wrist. He had a working accident at the ranch, which is why he was allowed to stay as a swamper (sweeper). Candy is followed by a drag footed sheep dog with pale, blind old eyes. The poor old creature has no teeth and Candy feeds it milk. George and Lennie are allocated to Slim’s group as barley buckers (loaders). Slim is a big tall man, grave, quiet but friendly. He has a face with ageless features, he could be thirty five or fifty. He is a master jerk line skinner (cart driver) and a natural authority. His bitch had pups last night and Slim agrees to giving one to Lennie. George promised Lennie to get him a pup as this can be petted harder than a mouse. Only the pups are still too young to be taken from the mother so Lennie has to wait. Carlson, a powerful big stomached man, suggests giving another pup to Candy whose old dog should be shot. Candy does not have the heart to do it himself, so Carlson does it, much to Candy’s dismay:

‘The skinner had been studying the old dog with his calm eyes. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘You can have a pup if you want to.’ He seemed to shake himself free for speech. ‘Carl’s right, Candy. That dog ain’t no good to himself. I wisht somebody’d shoot me if I get old an’ a cripple.’ (p. 67).

Making Friends & Enemies: Lennie is hated by Curley, the son of the ranch’s owner. Curley is a thin young man with curly hair, a lightweight boxer. He wears a work glove full of vaseline on his left hand, claiming that he keeps the hand soft for his wife. Curley has been married for several weeks to a pretty but flirtatious girl who constantly seeks the company of workers. They do not welcome her to avoid conflict with the jealous husband. Candy overhears George and Lennie talking about their dream farm. He immediately wishes to join the plan:

‘You seen what they done to my dog to-night? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs.’ (p. 87).

Candy has some money in a bank which he got as as compensation for his lost hand. With Candy’s money, the farm could be purchased after the end of the month. George accepts Candy’s offer and binds him with silence. Curley bursts into the bunk-house in search of his wife. The men make fun of him and Curley gets furious. He tries to provoke Lennie to a fight but Lennie does not defend himself even when Curley starts beating him. Only on George’s encouragement Lennie catches Curley’s fist and presses it so hard that the bones break. Slim warns Curley to say that his hand got caught in a machine or the men will openly ridicule him.

Revealing the Plans: All the men leave to spend the evening in a town. Lennie remains in the stable playing with his puppy. He notices that the black stable buck Crooks also did not go to the town. Crooks has his back crooked where a horse kicked him. As a black he is not wanted in the bunk-house and he feels lonely and ignored. He is aloof and keeps his distance but in fact he is pleased that Lennie wishes to make him company. Crooks provokes Lennie by asking him what he would do if George did not return. Lennie gets frightened but he is sure that George will return. The two are joined by Candy who confirms Lennie’s babbling about the purchase of the farm. Crooks regards their dreams with wistful scepticism:

‘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. […] Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.’ (p. 105)

Curley’s wife attempts to join the company but she is refused. She feels lonely because she has nobody to talk to, Curley being gone to the town as well. The men send her away and she threatens them but leaves.

Doing a Bad Thing: All the men are outside competing at horseshoe pitching. Lennie is in the barn, despairing over his puppy that he accidentally killed. Curley’s wife appears and draws Lennie into a conversation. She married Curley only to get away from her mother but she is discontented with both her husband and her life. She wanted to become an actress and she was promised a career by one man but nothing happened. She lets Lennie touch her soft hair but when she wants to draw away, Lennie does not let her go. She is frightened and tries to cry aloud. In his attempts to make her quiet, Lennie accidentally breaks her neck. He runs away from the body. Curley gathers the men and sets off to lynch Lennie. George finds Lennie at the spot where he told him to come if there were troubles. Lennie is tortured by remorse on behalf on George. George comforts him and tells him to face the river while he is rehearsing the tale with the rabbits. He pulls out Carlson’s gun and shoots Lennie. The book concludes:

Slim said: ‘You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me.’ He led George into the entrance of the trail and up toward the highway.

Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said: ‘Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?’ (p.149)

Analysis

Mice and Men: The novella’s title is supposed to come from a poem by Robert Burns, ‘To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest, With the Plough’, which meditates on the fates and the vulnerability shared by both mice and men: ‘The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley, / An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, / For promis’d joy!’ The novella painfully exposes the fragility of men’s dreams which can be easily shattered even when they seem almost within reach. George, Lennie and Candy have less than a month remaining after which they will have earned enough to purchase their home, but their dreams turn into dust after a single unfortunate encounter of Lennie with Curley’s wife. The story also shows the precariousness of men’s very lives. The life of Curley’s wife ends suddenly, without warning and without evil intention, and so does the life of Lennie.

Solitude: In many ways the novella manifest the essential loneliness of the modern man. It focuses on migrant workers, the lonely travellers without family and home. It draws attention to the isolation of men from society which excludes certain individuals: the mentally afflicted (Lennie), the crippled and the old (Candy), the black (Crooks). It shows that a person may feel lonely even when surrounded by people (Curley’s wife). The setting of the novel near Soledad is of symbolical resonance, the name of the town is Spanish for solitude. Similarly, George spends his time by playing solitaire, the card game for a single player.

Social Question: The novella uses a sensitive story to suggest the crucial roles of society and humanity. It indirectly argues for social equality and the integration of all social groups into a single community. It shows the failure of society which has no place for those who become useless: Candy’s old crippled dog may be shot, but what about the old crippled man himself? Similarly Lennie becomes a criminal and is certain to be killed even though he not able to clearly understand that he committed a crime. Considering the circumstances, George’s shooting Lennie will be regarded probably as an act of humaneness but at the same time it is clear that there is something radically wrong with the society which disposes of unfit individuals by shooting them.