Of Mice and Men

    by

John Steinbeck

Paul Tansey

About the Author
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. He was the third child of John and Olive Steinbeck, having two older sisters and one younger. His father was an unsuccessful small businessman who was given a lifetime position as the treasurer of Monterey County, California, by the local citizenry, to help the financially troubled Steinbeck family. His mother, Olive, was a teacher.
Steinbeck aspired to be a writer and attended Stanford University for six years without graduating. He worked as a laborer and farm hand to pay his tuition, and left school for good in 1925 to find a publisher in the ‘big city’, New York. Not finding a publisher, he stayed in New York for one difficult year, working as a laborer, before returning home to California broke and exhausted.
He continued to write and Cup of Gold, a historically fictitious novel about the life of the infamous pirate, Henry Morgan, was accepted for publication in 1929. It was not commercially successful, nor were his next three books; The Pastures of Heaven    (1932); Red Pony (1933); To a God Unknown (1933). However, in 1935, Tortilla Flat, a book that had previously been rejected for publication many times, was finally published. It was an overnight success and established Steinbeck as a writer of merit while affording him the financial means to continue his writing career.
Steinbeck wrote over twenty books after Tortilla Flat, the most famous being   The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. His books were social commentaries of the times, awakening America to the plight of it’s homeless and downtrodden.
Steinbeck was married three times, having two sons, Thomas and John IV, with his second wife, Gwendolyn Conger. He married Gwendolyn after his first marriage of 18 years to Carol Henning ended in divorce. The second marriage lasted only five years, with Gwendolyn claiming, as had Carol, that he was too involved with his writing and didn’t have enough time to spend with his family. He finally found happiness and peace of mind with his third and final wife, Elaine Scott, whom he married in 1950.  
He was truly one of America’s great writers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 and died in New York on December 20, 1968.

About the Story

 Of Mice and Men was published in 1937, during a time of tremendous hardship for the American people. The stock market crash of 1929, coupled with a severe draught in the mid-west which lasted from 1930 until 1941 and led to the destruction of millions of acres of farmland, caused many families to lose their homes and farms. Multitudes of workers were unemployed due to the collapse of the economy and sought employment whenever and wherever they could. Many of them traveled to California, with desperation and hope, seeking their fortune in one of America’s last frontiers. Few found fortune. Most ended up as itinerant workers, harvesting grain or working in the vegetable fields and fruit orchards of the state’s fertile valleys. Of Mice and Men is the tragic story of two of those itinerant farm workers who dreamt of someday owning a small piece of land of their own, and the complex bond that held them together.

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley (often go wrong)
And leave us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy!

Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Scottish poet  
From the poem “To a Mouse”

The Story
Lennie was a huge man with the strength of a bull and the mild manner of a lamb. He was broad-chested and had long, powerful arms that hung nearly to the ground. He walked with a slow gait with his eyes focused down and his lips moving; almost as though he was talking to his shoes. His partner George wasn’t nearly as big and often scolded Lennie when he did something wrong. Lennie didn’t mind being admonished by George, because he loved him; almost like a puppy loves his master.
They had been walking for hours in the sweltering mid-day heat and had come to a small clearing next to shallow river pool just as the scorching southern California sun was beginning to set. The bus that was supposed to take them to the ranch had dropped them off four miles short, the driver claiming that it was only a few minutes walk to the ranch’s front gate. George had made the decision to spend the night camped by the river rather than walk the remaining quarter mile; he wanted one tranquil night under the star filled sky before the heavy labor of harvesting the grain started in the morning. As they started to set up camp, gathering twigs and branches for the small campfire that would heat their dinner, four cans of beans, George noticed that Lennie had taken something out of his pocket and was stroking it with his thumb.
“What you got in your hand - hiding it.”
“I ain’t got nothing, George, honest.”
“Come on, give it here.”
Lennie held his closed hand away from George’s direction.
“It’s only a mouse, George.”
“A mouse? A live mouse?”
“Uh-uh. Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.”
“Give it here!” said George.
“Aw, leave me have it, George.”
“Give it here!”

Lennie’s closed hand slowly obeyed. George took the mouse and threw it across the pool to the other side, among the brush.
“What you want with a dead mouse, anyways?”
“I could pet it with my thumb as we walked along,” said Lennie.
“Well, you ain’t petting no mice while you walk with me. You remember where we’re going now?”
Lennie looked startled and then in embarrassment hid his face against his knees.
“I forgot again.”
Lennie had a penchant for stroking things that felt good which had gotten them in serious trouble in Weed, a small farming town further north where they had been working. It seems that Lennie had taken a liking to the look and feel of a girls dress and was caressing the hem of her skirt, running the smooth, soft material between his thumb and forefinger, when the girl got scared and tried to pull away. The girl screamed but Lennie continued to hold on, too confused and frightened to let go. George came and pulled Lennie away and the girl ran off to the sheriff’s office yelling that she had been raped. The whole town was looking for Lennie, ready to lynch him if they found him, but George found a safe hiding place and they were able to sneak away in the evening.
George and Lennie had come from the same hometown, where George had known Lennie’s Aunt Clara, the woman who had raised Lennie until her death. When George left to find work, Lennie just sort of followed after him, just like a stray dog follows a stranger. They had been together ever since, although George often complained that Lennie was the source of all his problems. When Lennie would hang his head and sulk, saying maybe he should leave George alone by going away to live in a cave somewhere, George would tell him that he didn’t really mind taking care of him and didn’t want him to leave, even if it was a burden, because George knew that Lennie was as innocent about life as a six year old child, and could never take care of himself.
Lennie’s Aunt Clara had known of Lennie’s fondness for soft things and had often given him live mice, but whenever the little mice would bite Lennie for stroking them too hard, Lennie would just pinch their heads a little and they were dead. She finally gave him a rubber mouse that he refused to have anything to do with because it wasn’t good to pet.
Once they had finished eating, Lennie asked George to repeat, once again, the story about the little piece of land they hoped to own in the future. George would tell him about how, some day, they would have a couple of acres of their own with a small house, an alfalfa field, fruit orchards, a smokehouse, and a vegetable garden. It would have a pig, and a cow that would give cream so thick you could hardly cut it with a knife, and whenever it rained in the winter, they would just build a fire in the stove and sit around it, doing nothing. They would also have chickens and a rabbit hutch that George promised Lennie he could take care of, if Lennie was good. Lennie was always excited and giddy when George told the story, especially the part about the rabbit hutch, since he wanted George to believe he was responsible and loved the feel of the rabbit’s long, soft, silky fur.
They got to the ranch in mid-morning and were met at the bunkhouse by a stoop-shouldered old man with a broom. He looked almost as old and worn out as the smelly, rheumatoid, toothless, nearly blind old sheepdog that accompanied him. His name was Candy and he had worked in the ranch’s barley fields for many years, until he lost a hand four years ago in a farming accident and was assigned the job of cleaning the bunkhouse.
He told them the boss was angry because they weren’t there to go out in the fields when the teams left earlier that morning.
The boss came in the bunkhouse shortly thereafter to interview them for the job, and when George answered all the questions directed at Lennie, the boss became suspicious. He asked what was wrong with Lennie that he couldn’t speak for himself. George told him that he was Lennie’s cousin and that Lennie could talk but wasn’t too smart, because he had been kicked in the head by a horse when he was a child (which wasn’t true). He told the boss that Lennie was as strong as an ox, could outwork any three men, and would do whatever was asked of him. The boss left, puzzled but satisfied, because it was unusual for two men to travel together and be so close to one another. Usually, the drifters he hired were loners who only stayed long enough to earn enough money to get them to their next job; few people took any interest in their coming and going.
Curley, the boss’s son, came into the bunkhouse looking for his dad when he spotted George and Lennie. He was a small, mean-spirited, troublemaker, who liked to fight. He had been a fairly good boxer when he was younger, having competed in the Golden Gloves tournaments as a lightweight, and he liked to bully bigger guys into fighting, to see if he still had his boxing skills. He had only been married a few weeks and was jealous and mistrusting, with good reason, of his wife’s behavior. The bunk-hands said see had ‘the eye’ for every man that passed by, and Curley was continually checking on her whereabouts. He took an immediate dislike to Lonnie because of his size and his reluctance to answer his questions.
Right after Curley left, looking for his dad, his wife stuck her head in the bunkhouse door and said she was looking for Curley. Had anyone seen him? This was her usual ploy to flirt with the men and everyone, except Curley, knew it. She had large- curled hair, painted fingernails, heavily made-up eyes and lips, and she wore little red slippers with red ostrich feathers on the sides. George knew instantly that this woman was going to be trouble, and when she left, warned Lennie, who thought she was pretty, to stay away from her.  
The men were returning from the fields for their dinner and Slim, the soft spoken ‘prince’ of the ranch, was the next to enter the bunkhouse. He was the best mule driver around and had won the respect of the other ranch hands with his slow, thoughtful demeanor. He was followed by Carlson, a large, big-bellied ranch hand, who had just taken a bath and was complaining about the awful smell of Candy’s dog. He said that the dog was old, infirm, and suffering, besides smelling terrible, and suggested that Candy shoot it. He said that Slim should offer Candy one of the pups from his dog’s new litter as a replacement.
Just as the men were leaving for dinner, Curley made another fuming trip to the bunkhouse looking for his wife, before angrily stomping off when George told him she had been there but left, looking for him.
Lennie had overheard the conversation between Slim and Carlton about the puppies and begged George to ask Slim if he could have one. Slim happily agreed when George asked him, and George explained to him about Lennie and what had happened in Weed. When Slim asked if Lennie had hurt the girl, George told him no, that Lennie wasn’t mean and wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. Slim accepted that and said that although Lennie wasn’t too bright, he seemed like a nice guy and was a terrific worker.
After dinner, Curley went out to the barn where the female dog, Lulu, nursed her litter, while George stayed in the bunkhouse with Slim, Candy, Carlton and a young farm hand named Whit. Carlton almost immediately started in about the smell of Candy’s dog and offered to shoot it himself if Candy agreed. Candy had had the dog since it was a pup and had trained it to be an excellent sheep dog when it was younger. He looked pleadingly at Slim for support in keeping it, but didn’t get any. Candy lay on his bunk, not moving, staring at the ceiling of the bunkhouse, as Carlton got his Luger and led the crippled dog outside. A few minutes later there was the sound of a shot and every head in the bunkhouse turned to the old man, but Candy just continued to stare at the ceiling. “Then he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent.”
Slim had gone out to the barn to tend to one of his mules that had a sore foot, and Lennie and Carlton had just returned when Curley burst into the bunkhouse looking for his wife. When they told him she hadn’t been there, he asked where Slim was at. They told him he went out to the barn to tar a mule’s hoof about ten minutes ago, and with that, “Curley jumped out the door, and banged it after him.”
Lennie asked George to, once again, tell him the story about the place they would have in the future, and George repeated it, telling about the ten acres and the house with the stove, the vegetable garden and orchards, the smokehouse for when they slaughtered one of their pigs, and the cows, chickens and rabbit hutches. Lennie knew the story by heart but loved to hear George tell it. Candy had been silent ever since Carlton took his dog outside, but on overhearing the story, he quietly asked George if there was, maybe, room for another partner in their venture. He said he knew he couldn’t do much work with only one hand, but he was willing to cook and feed the chickens. Candy became more excited and animated as they talked. He said he had saved the money the boss had given him when he lost his hand, $250.00, plus he had saved another $50.00 dollars and had $50.00 more coming at the end of the month. He was willing to give it all to George if they would let him join them on their future farm. The money, $350.00, was more than half the $600.00 that George had said it would take to buy the farm. George told him he’d consider his proposal. Candy offered to will his share of the farm to them if anything happened to him, and wanted to know if they couldn’t buy the farm right away. George told him that they didn’t have the balance of the money then, but perhaps at the end of the month when they got paid, they’d have enough.
“They looked at one another, amazed. The thing they had never really believed in was coming true. George said reverently, ‘Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her.’ His eyes were full of wonder. ‘I bet we could swing her,’ he repeated softly.”

Candy was old and handicapped and knew his days at the ranch were numbered. They wouldn’t keep an old, one-handed cleaner much longer, and when they let him go, he wouldn’t be able to get another job and had nowhere to go. They might just as well shoot him, just like they did to his poor dog. That was the reason he was so excited about the prospect of a home of his own.
 “George stood up. ‘We’ll do her,’ he said. ‘We’ll fix up that little old place and we’ll go live there.’” George figured they’d have enough money by the end of the month and said he would write to the owners to tell them they’d take the place, including $100.00 of Candy’s money in the letter as a down payment.
“Candy said, ‘George.’”
             “Huh?”
             “I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no
              stranger shoot my dog.”

The door to the bunkhouse flew open and Slim came in, followed by Curley, Carlson and Whit. Curley was trying to apologize to Slim for insinuating that Slim was fooling around with his wife, but Slim was too mad to be talked to, and told Curley to stop bothering him and look after his own wife. And, when Carlton told him he ought to keep his wife at home where she belonged, Curley whirled around and told him to keep his mouth shut or else step outside to fight. Carlton laughed and told Curley he would kick his head off if Curley tried to start a fight with him. Still embarrassed by the confrontation with Carlton, Curley spotted Lennie sitting on his bunk smiling. Lennie was thinking about their future home and the thoughts of the rabbit hutch brought a smile to his face.
            “Curley stepped over to Lennie like a terrier. ‘What the hell you laughin’ at.’”
He started to beat Lennie but Lennie wouldn’t defend himself. All he did was keep his hands down by his sides and whimper. He was taking a vicious beating from Curley, with blood pouring out his nose and down his face from cuts on his forehead. He begged George to tell Curley to stop and continued to whimper as Curley started to go to work on his stomach. When George had seen enough, he shouted, “Get ‘im Lennie.” Curley’s fist was just about to connect with Lennie’s face when it was stopped and engulfed in mid-air
by Lennie’s huge hand. As Lennie squeezed, Curley’s knees buckled and his face whitened, then he started to cry. George came running over and shouted for Lennie to let him go, but Lennie continued to squeeze, too frightened to let go. When he suddenly released his grip, Curley fell to the floor cradling his ruined hand. It looked like almost every bone in it had been broken. Lennie was scared and kept saying he didn’t mean to hurt anybody, and it wasn’t his fault, George had told him to do it. He was worried that George wouldn’t let him take care of the rabbits in their new home because he had done something bad, but George assured him he hadn’t done anything bad. Before taking Curley to the doctor, Slim made Curley promise that George and Lennie wouldn’t be fired over the incident.
After George and the rest of the men from the bunkhouse, except Candy, went into town on Saturday night, Lennie went out to the barn to pet his new puppy. Everyone had told Lennie to leave the puppy alone for a few weeks, until it was weaned, but Lennie just had to go pet it. Crooks, the stable hand, was alone in his room in the barn when Lennie came to his door. Crooks was a lonely old black man with a crooked, aching spine   who had worked on the ranch, taking care of the stables, for many years. Because he was black, he wasn’t allowed in the bunkhouse and no one, except Slim and the boss, had ever been to his room. Crooks cautiously invited Lennie in and they talked for awhile. Crooks told Lennie of his loneliness and Lennie told Crooks about his future home, where he would be in charge of tending the rabbits. Crooks was in the process of telling Lennie that his dream would never materialize, when Candy came to Crooks’ door and
started talking about the possibility of making money from the rabbits. Crook invited Candy in and they talked some more about the future farm. Crooks asked if maybe there
could be some place on the farm for him. He told them he was old but could still put in a good days work.
Curley’s wife came by looking for Curley. She tried to tell them about her dismal relationship with Curley, who only wanted to talk about who he was going to beat up next, and her loneliness as the only woman on the all men ranch, as well as her missed opportunities to be an actress, but both Candy and Crooks saw her as a flirt and a troublemaker and told her to home. She flew into a rage and began insulting them. When she finally stopped, she noticed Lennie’s scratched and battered face and guessed it was Lennie who had hurt Curley and not some machinery accident as she had been told. She smiled at Lennie as she left. 
It was Sunday afternoon, and Lennie was in the barn stroking his pup. All the other men were outside the bunkhouse playing horseshoes for money. The pup was dead. Lennie had only bounced it a little when he thought it was going to bite him, and now it was dead and Lennie was angry and scared. He was angry at the puppy because it had died on him when it shouldn’t have- it was much bigger than a mouse- and he was scared that George would be angry at him for doing something bad and not let him tend the rabbits. As he was putting some hay over the pup’s body to hide it, Curley’s wife came into the barn and asked what he was doing. He told her his pup had died and George was going to be mad at him. She smiled at him and told him not to worry, there were lots more pups in the world. Then, she started to tell him, again, about her awful life on the ranch, her loneliness, and her dislike of her husband Curley. They started talking about the feel of soft things, and Curley’s wife said her hair was fine and soft because she brushed it often and asked Lennie if he wanted to feel it. Lennie was scared at first but slowly and gently stroked her silken hair. The more he stroked, the more excited he got, until his strokes were no longer slow and gentle, but quick and rough. She told him to stop, that her hair was getting messed up, but Lennie continued to stroke her soft, beautiful, silken hair quicker and quicker, and rougher and rougher. When she tried to pull away, he panicked and grabbed a handful of hair and wouldn’t let go. She started to yell, and Lennie started to cry. He just knew George was going to be mad at him and wouldn’t let him tend the rabbits if he heard her. He pleaded with her to stop while putting a hand over her mouth. She started to squirm and fight and Lennie started to get angry. She was going to get him in trouble and she had no right to do that. He picked her up and shook her, much as a dog does when playing with a toy, and she became quiet and still-he had broken her neck. When she didn’t respond, Lennie was panic stricken. He was bewildered but somehow knew she was dead, and he kept walking around in small circles, repeating, “I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing.”  
Candy was the first to discover the body. She was only partially covered with straw and looked serene and peaceful, almost as though she was sleeping. When he didn’t get any response to his questions, he excitedly ran to get George. They both knew what had happened and knew their dreams of a piece of land they could call their own were over. Lennie had indeed done a bad thing, and this was something George couldn’t fix. Candy started crying and then became angry at Curley’s wife for destroying their future.
“George said softly, ‘—I think I knew from the very first we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.’”
George sadly asked Candy to go get the men while he went back to the bunkhouse unnoticed; he didn’t want the others to think he was involved with the death or that he was trying to protect Lennie.
The men charged into the barn and stopped near the body. Slim knelt by the body and felt for a pulse. When he didn’t find one, he ran his hand over her slightly misshapen neck and found the break. Curley was angrily screaming he knew who did it, since Lennie was the only one not playing horseshoes. He told the men to get their guns, that he was going to gut shoot that ‘big bastard’ when he found him. Carlton’s Luger was missing and they all assumed that Lennie was not only dangerous, but armed.
Lennie came silently into the clearing by the river that they had stayed at the night before going to the ranch; it was the place George had told him to come to if he ever got in trouble. He sat down heavily and started speaking softly to his Aunt Clara.
“And when she spoke, it was in Lennie’s voice. ‘ I tol’ you and tol’ you,’ she said.’ ‘I told you to min’ George because he’s such a nice fella an’ good to you. But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things.’”

The he started quietly talking to a gigantic rabbit that had mysteriously appeared.
 “‘Tend rabbits, it said scornfully. ‘ You crazy bastard. You ain’t fit to lick the boots of no rabbit. You’d forget ‘em and let ‘em go hungry. That’s what you’d do. An’ then what would George think.’”
            “George came quietly out of the brush and the rabbit scuttled back into Lennie’s
brain.”

Lennie was scared and anxious that George was going to scold him, or maybe, even leave him. He knew he had done a bad thing and offered to go away and live in a cave so he wouldn’t be any more of a problem to George. But George reassured him, telling Lennie he wanted him to stay with him, not run away. And when he felt a little more at ease, Lennie asked George to repeat the story about their future home. George asked Lennie to look out at the river and visualize the story as he told it. 
“A man’s voice called up from the river, and another man answered.”
When George raised the Luger to the back of Lennie’s head, his hand shook violently. He continued to recite the story of the house, and pigs, and cows and rabbit hutches as he despondently pulled the trigger.
At the sound of the shot, the men raced into the clearing. Slim slowly approached George.

Questions

1. Why do you think George, Lennie, and Candy were so excited about their future home? Please discuss this in a small group (3 or 4) and report back to your class.
2. What do you think happened to George? Do you think he ever got that farm? Discuss this with a partner.
3. Do you think George did the right thing? Why or why not? Discuss this in a small group and repot back to your class.
4. How do you feel about Candy’s wife? Discuss this with a partner and report back to your class.
5. How do you feel about Lennie? Discuss this in a small group and repot back to your class.
6. Why do you think George was so devoted to Lennie, when Lennie caused him so many problems? Discuss this with a partner and report back to your class.
7. What do you think of Candy? What do you think happened to him? Do you think he stayed at the ranch? Discuss this in a small group and report back to your class.
8. Is it good to have plans and dreams of the future? Discuss this in a small group and repot back to your class.
9. What was wrong with Lennie? Why did he hurt things? Do you think he was crazy? Mean?  Discuss this in a small group and report back to your class.
10. Why was Lennie so devoted to George? Discuss this with a partner and report back to your class.