Of Mice and Men By: John Steinbeck

Nicole Nouel

January 13, 2017

Period 2

Of Mice and Men by: John Steinbeck

Overview Summary: This novel, takes place during the era of the Great Depression, which begins with two migrant workers George and Lennie walking/hiking to their new jobs at a close by ranch since their bus driver dropped them off 10 miles away from their destination. Later they reach a nearby river where they stay at until the next morning to continue their walk to the new ranch. They recently got out from their previously job, a farm near Weed where Lennie, a mentally deficient yet gentle man, was falsely being accused for rape when he touched a woman’s soft dress just to feel its softness. When they reach the new bunkhouse at where they will work at, an old man named Candy shows them around their and informs them that their new boss is pretty angry that they didn't arrive the day before. The Boss eventually begins questioning his new workers George and Lennie and discovers Lennie has a type of mental impairment and doesn’t understand why George travels with him until George had to lie and say that Lennie is his cousin. After the boss leaves, Lennie and George begins meeting more workers in this ranch throughout the day, some people found them weird because they were always together but others did not, which began creating tension. After a day of decent work, the men return to the bunkhouse where everybody hangouts. Slim, has a dog that has puppies and gives Lennie one of them. The next following morning, Lennie accidentally kills his new puppy that Slim gave him, when he bounces it too hard against the floor. Eventually Curley's wife finds Lennie in the barn with the dead puppy. She feeling sorry for him, and allows him to feel her soft her. Lennie starts handling her with too much force without noticing because he is unaware of his own strength, she begins to screams. Lennie covers her mouth in panic without thinking twice and eventually snaps her neck without noticing, killing her. After this, he flees from the ranch remembering what George told him, that if anything bad happens run to the brushes and hide there. Soon Candy and George finds the body in the farm, where Lennie left her and understands Lennie's guilt. Candy informs the other men about Curley’s wife, so Curley finds out and gets furious; forming men to begin searching for Lennie to kill him. George steals Carlson's gun, letting the other men to believe that Lennie stole it before he left. George, eventually finds Lennie in the brush where he told Lennie go to. George begins to tell Lennie about their dream of owning their own farm with different kinds of animals to distract Lennie. Getting ready to shoot Lennie, George hears the men in the distance, and shoots Lennie. The other men find George and Lennie, seeing Lennie on the ground, so George informs them that Lennie was the one that stole Carlson’s gun and also that he was the one that shot Lennie.