Of Mice and Men

The novel, which takes place during the Great Depression, begins beside the Salinas River near Soledad, California, where two migrant workers, Lennie Small and George Milton, are walking on their way to a nearby ranch. They had recently escaped from a farm near Weed where Lennie, a mentally deficient yet docile man, was wrongly accused of rape when he touched a woman to feel her soft dress. George is his physical opposite, a small man with defined features. George scolds Lennie for playing with a dead mouse and warns him not to speak when they arrive at their new place of employment. When Lennie complains about not having ketchup for the beans they eat for dinner, George becomes angry, telling Lennie that he would be better off if he didn't have to travel with his retarded friend. George soon delineates his dream: he and Lennie will raise enough money to buy a patch of land, where they will have a small farm with a vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch. The rabbit hutch is the only detail of the plan that Lennie consistently remembers. George tells Lennie that, if he gets into trouble as he did in Weed, he should return to the brush near the river and wait for George to find him.

When George and Lennie reach the bunkhouse at the farm where they will work, an old man named Candy shows them their beds and tells them that the boss was angry that they didn't show up the night before. George and Lennie were late because the bus driver who brought them near Soledad dropped them off several miles away from the ranch. The boss questions George and Lennie and finds them suspicious because George speaks for Lennie. He cannot understand why George would travel with Lennie until he explains that Lennie is his cousin. After the boss leaves, his son, Curley, enters the bunkhouse looking for the boss. Curley is a short man who hates larger men out of jealousy and insecurity, and has a new wife who everyone suspects is unfaithful. His wife visits the bunkhouse later that night searching for Curley, and flirts with the other men. Later, Curley returns looking for his wife, and confronts George in an attempt to start a fight.

After a day of work, the men return to the bunkhouse. Slim, whose dog had a new litter of puppies, gives Lennie one of them. George admits to Slim that he and Lennie escaped lynching when Lennie was accused of rape. Carlson complains about Curley's dog, a decrepit creature that barely survives. He offers to shoot the dog, and after repeated complaints, Curley relents, despite his obvious wish to keep the dog. George complains about Њtarts' such as Curley's Wife, and when the other men suggest that they visit a whorehouse the next night, George says that he prefers the company of whores, since there is no chance of danger. When George tells Lennie the story about the house that they will have, Candy says that he knows about an available house that they could have if the three men pooled their money. Curley searches for his wife once more, and fights Lennie when he suspects that Lennie is laughing at him. Curley punches Lennie several times, but Lennie does not fight back until George gives him permission. He crushes Curley's hand, and does not stop until