Of+Mice+and+Men

=Characters= Here you can find descriptions of the major characters' personalities, physical appearances, and roles in the novel, along with some of their memorable quotes.

Lennie:
Lennie is described as a huge man, who, because of his size, has a rather shapeless face. He has large eyes, wide shoulders, and is said to be immensely strong. George claims that he can “put up a four hundred pound bale.” (pg. 22) Lennie is, as a result of his implied mental retardation, somewhat childish and easily confused. He also has poor memory, although George mentions that he remembers anything that has to do with food and it is seen that he remembers things he’s been told several times. Lennie is very hard working, willing to do anything he is told, so long as it is not too complex or multi-staged. He also likes touching soft things, saying that he likes to “pet nice things with my fingers, sof’ things.” (pg. 90) He also loves rabbits, likely because of their fur, as one of the things he says most often is that he’s going to get to take care of rabbits in his future farm. He does not particularly dislike anything, so much so that many people enjoy talking to him because he’s non-judgmental. His only strong dislike is of threats to his future rabbits, which it seems he would react violently against, claiming he’d “break their God damn necks. I’ll…I’ll smash ‘em with a stick.” (pg. 58) if the cats they’d have tried to hurt his rabbits. He also wants what he can’t get like when he asks for ketchup to eat with his beans when they don’t have any and continuing to insist on it once George tells him such. In fact, George gets angry, telling him that “whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want.” (pg. 11) The main importance Lennie has is that he drives the plot forward. The problems he creates are constantly developing the plot and leading the story towards its climax. For example, they were forced out of Weeds and to the new plantation when Lennie grabbed a woman’s dress. He also breaks Curly’s hand, earning his hatred, kills a puppy, leaving himself confused about what to do to avoid losing his rabbits, and kills Curly’s wife, forcing George to kill him. Thus, until Lennie actually killed someone, he’d forced George to continuously move through the countryside to avoid trouble, leading them to meeting Curly’s wife, who ultimately shapes the conclusion. Lennie, because he is not a particularly bright character, does not have any particularly memorable quotes, since the majority of the time he only talks about petting things or about his future rabbits, however, something that is rather important about him is how he thinks about George, which explains why he trusted him, saying that they’re different “because… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why” (pg. 14)

George:
Is the opposite of Lennie; instead of being strong and dumb, he was small and smart,as if his intelligence compensated the fact that he was small He looked after Lennie, had to make choices, and answer questions for him; because his aunt Clara asked him to before she passed away Even though he liked Lennie and looked after him, he many time lacked patience. He would tell Lennie how his life would be much better if he didn’t need to look after him. “God almighty, if I was alone I could live so easy” (page 11) “When I think of the swell time I could have without you (...)” (page 12) At the same time that George felt annoyed with how Lennie was clueless and always needing attention (in order to stay out of trouble) George somehow like their relationship, and the company. “ Guys like us, that work in ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world (...) With us it ainn’t like that. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. (...) I got you to look after me, and you’ve got me to look after you”(page 14)

Crooks:
A very lonely man who suffers exclusion because of his skin color. “ A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.” (page 72) “His lean face was lined with deep black wrinkles, and he had thing, pain-tightened lips which were lighter than his face.” (page 67) Self-excludes himself because he knows how people were racist at the time; isolates himself. “Cause I´m black (...) I can’t play ‘cause I’m black.” (page 68) A very nice guy, but feels inferior to others because of how strong racism was at the time. He needs to get to know people first, and is usually rude with them before he actually knows them. ‘Crooks said sharply, “You got no right to come in my room. (...)”’ (page 68) Even though he doubts that George, Candy and Lennie’s dream will come true, he likes the idea of it, and even wants to join as a worker. “If you guys... would want a hand to work for nothing (...)” (page 76)

=Plot:= The novel begins with Lennie and George in a clearing heading for work on a ranch as stated in page 6, paragraph 6. George hints that something bad happened in their ranch in Weed because as George says, “they was lookin’ for us, but they didn’t catch us.” Lennie and George then have a heated argument where George foreshadows they might separate for he says his life would be easier when he says, “if I was alone I could live so easy.” Right after George tries to fix it up by talking about their dreams of having a ranch themselves. The rising action begins when George and Lennie meet the boss and he becomes suspicious of Lennie, where George scowls him again: “dam near lost us the job.” More heat is added to the action when Curley picks on Lennie, causing the sense of danger between Curley and Lennie. In the barracks they meet Curley’s wife, whom George recognizes as trouble for Lennie: “Listen to me… don’t even take a look at that bitch.” (page 32, paragraph 7). As a side note, both meet Slim, the skinner, Carlson, and Candy. George then tells Slim about him and Lennie and how and why they were together. He then talks about how in Weed Lennie grabbed a girl’s dress because he wanted to pet it and feel it and got accused of rape. The workers then try to persuade Candy to kill his dog, which Carlson is assigned to do. Lennie then asks George to tell their story of how they would buy their own house and live tending their need instead of working for money, when Candy overhears the conversation and asks if he could join them, because he’d put in “three hundred and fifty bucks right there” (page 59, paragraph 7). Slim comes back with Curley pestering him and says, “well, you been askin’ too often. I’m getting God damn sick of it,” (page 61) while Lennie was smiling with memories of the dream and Curley punches him, with Lennie in reflex then smashing his hand, justifying it, “I didn’t wanta.” (page 64). Lennie then goes to the stable buck’s room to talk with Crooks. Crooks tortures him by asking what if questions, such as “s’pose he does not come back” (page 79). Candy joins them, where the two begin to tell Crooks about their plans. Curley’s wife comes in and Crooks and Candy try to woo her out when George comes in and rebukes both “I though I tol’ you not to tell nobody about that.” (page 83, paragraph 2.) The climax begins when Lennie kills a pup while petting and when he is covering him up, Curley’s wife shows up. They begin to talk and Lennie pets her hair when she lets him, and she becomes distressed after a time, and for her not to shout he places his hand on her mouth and accidently asphyxiates her. When the workers discover, they set out to kill Lennie and bring George together to “not think you (George) had nothin’ to do with this.” (page 98, paragraph 9). He takes Carlson’s gun while no one’s looking so that he may be the one to kill Lennie. The falling action is seen when Lennie is at the clearing he was supposed to wait for George. AS he is having hallucinations about his Aunt Clara, George appears in the clearing and begins telling the story of the house they would buy while Lennie stares to the far end of the horizon. George places the Luger on Lennie’s neck, and when the story finishes, shoots him: “the hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger.” (page 106, paragraph 14). The workers then find them and take George back, as he seems in a state of shock.

=Setting=

=Themes= __The “American Dream”:__ Something on //Of Mice and Men// which we can see as a recuring theme is the term commonly known as “ The American Dream”. All throughout the story, we hear how Lennie and George dream of owning a few acres of land, having friends sleep over, not having to answer to anyone, living from the land, working for their own benefit. They desire this sense of freedom and stability, which takes shape in the form of the farm. As the novel proceeds, we see that not only Lennie and George dream of this farm, but also, as soon as Candy becomes aware of the plan, he offers his life savings for a small job in the farm: “I ain’t much good with one hand. I lost my hand right here on this ranch. That’s why they give me a job swampin’. An’ they give me two hundred and fifty dollars ‘cause I lost my hand. An’ I got fifty more saved up right in the bank, right now. That’s three hundred, and I got fifty more comin’ the end a the month. Tell you what, s’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be?” (page 59) And with Candy joining in, the dream appears to be coming true, and their excitment is clearly visible: “We’ll fix up that old place an’ we’ll go live there. S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing. We’d just go to her. We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say “We’ll go to her”, an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.” (he says in pages 60 and 61, reinforcing the idea of the freedom the farm woudl provide them, if at any time, they wanted to do something, they would just do it.) At another section, when Lennie is talking to Crooks, the stable buck affirms that everyone attempts to get a farm, but no one ever gets it (“ I seen hundreds of men come by the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds 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.” - page 74) Despite affirming that these plans of having a land to live out of never work, Crooks can’t contain his excitment and eventually asks for a small job in the farm as well, “I never seen a guy really do it. I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but evr’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes” (this statement on page 76 furthers the impossibility of their dream being achieved, however the following statement contradicts us and leads the reader to believe Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks will actually own the farm) “ ...If you...guys would want a hand to work for nothing – just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to.” One other possible insight we can get from the story is that none of the characters actually believe they will come to own the piece of land, but they are driven into believing in it by someone else’s excitment. George, for instance, at first seems to only be telling the story of the farm to Lennie, but as Lennie becomes eager with the possibility of owning the land, George also gets driven into this state of desiring it so much, that he actually believes it will happen. The same thing also happens with Crooks, who at first is hell bent of believing it won’t happen, but as Candy and Lennie tell him they have the money to actually do it, Crooks wants in. The novel also suggests that the American Dream is rather impossible given that no matter how close the characters in the novel seem to achieving it, and how the reader is lead to believing they will achieve it, in the end, as in the stories Crooks tells them, the dream shatters and is never turn into reality.

Loneliness: “Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place.”(George to Lennie- page 3) Loneliness is a recurring theme on “Of Mice and Men”, and perhaps one of the novels main themes. Not only does the novel center around typically lonely people as we can see in the statement above (Georges quote), but also, at one moment, almost every character admits to being lonely, and not having friends to discuss these feelings with, they open up to complete strangers. Regarding loneliness, one character in the novel, books, suffers deeply from it, mainly due to racism. For the stake luck was and African-American man, his room was separated from the rest of the workers in the brink house. When Crooks is near or inside the brink house, the other workers don’t want him there and perhaps that’s the reason why he’s so hostile towards white men coming into his room. We can see it in the following quote “This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me.”(Page 68) The barrier that separates white and black men in “Of Mice and Men” can also be better explained through a line Crook said when Lennie inquired why he wasn’t with the other guys: “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.”(Page 68) Nevertheless, one Lennie and Candy tell Candy tell crooks about their dream, this barrier doesn’t stop him from wanting to join them and have companions. Curley’s wife and loneliness: We perceive just how lonely Curley’s wife is in the section she goes to speak to Lennie in the barn, moments after he’s killed his pup. In the beginning of the page 87, we can see obvious evidence to that as she states “I get lonely. You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to nobody.” Another thing on //Of Mice and Men// which we can see as a recuring theme is the term commonly known as “ The American Dream”. All throughout the story, we hear how Lennie and George dream of owning a few acres of land, having friends sleep over, not having to answer to anyone, living from the land, working for their own benefit. They desire this sense of freedom and stability, which takes shape in the form of the farm. As the novel proceeds, we see that not only Lennie and George dream of this farm, but also, as soon as Candy becomes aware of the plan, he offers his life savings for a small job in the farm: “I ain’t much good with one hand. I lost my hand right here on this ranch. That’s why they give me a job swampin’. An’ they give me two hundred and fifty dollars ‘cause I lost my hand. An’ I got fifty more saved up right in the bank, right now. That’s three hundred, and I got fifty more comin’ the end a the month. Tell you what, s’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be?” (page 59) And with Candy joining in, the dream appears to be coming true, and their excitment is clearly visible: “We’ll fix up that old place an’ we’ll go live there. S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing. We’d just go to her. We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say “We’ll go to her”, an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.” (he says in pages 60 and 61, reinforcing the idea of the freedom the farm woudl provide them, if at any time, they wanted to do something, they would just do it.) At another section, when Lennie is talking to Crooks, the stable buck affirms that everyone attempts to get a farm, but no one ever gets it (“ I seen hundreds of men come by the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds 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.” - page 74) Despite affirming that these plans of having a land to live out of never work, Crooks can’t contain his excitment and eventually asks for a small job in the farm as well, “I never seen a guy really do it. I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but evr’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes” (this statement on page 76 furthers the impossibility of their dream being achieved, however the following statement contradicts us and leads the reader to believe Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks will actually own the farm) “ ...If you...guys would want a hand to work for nothing – just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to.” One other possible insight we can get from the story is that none of the characters actually believe they will come to own the piece of land, but they are driven into believing in it by someone else’s excitment. George, for instance, at first seems to only be telling the story of the farm to Lennie, but as Lennie becomes eager with the possibility of owning the land, George also gets driven into this state of desiring it so much, that he actually believes it will happen. The same thing also happens with Crooks, who at first is hell bent of believing it won’t happen, but as Candy and Lennie tell him they have the money to actually do it, Crooks wants in. The novel also suggests that the American Dream is rather impossible given that no matter how close the characters in the novel seem to achieving it, and how the reader is lead to believing they will achieve it, in the end, as in the stories Crooks tells them, the dream shatters and is never turn into reality. =Imagery=

=Symbolism= Ranch – The ranch represents a dream both Lennie and George had. “(...) we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’a cow and some pigs and –“. It also symbolizes home, freedom, liberty, protection and independence. “And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work (...)”. (Quotes from page 14).

Pets – Lennie’s pets symbolized friendship, caring for, helpfulness, and love. We can see that with the quotation from page 6, “I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along”. Lennie’s puppy is the manifestation in which the author uses to symbolize Lennie’s strength characterized by his victory.

Lennie – Lennie represents a strong ( “I wasn’t doing nothing bad to it, George. Just stroking it.”), but naïve men ( “Blubbering like a baby! (...) A big guy like you” ). Both quotations from page 9.

George – “But you ain’t gonna say a word.” He symbolizes intelligence and leadership. He also represents a short-tempered but devoted friend. =Foreshadowing=

Bruna and Santiago FORESHADOWING 1. Page 44- lines 19-29 “Carlson said: “That stink hangs around even after he´s gone” He ain´t no good to you, Candy. Why´m´t you shoot him, Candy? Then Candy explains: “I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup” You wouldn´t think it to look at him now, but he was the best damn sheep dog I ever seen” Analysis: This conversation tells us how Candy´s and his dog relationship was so strong, that Candy wanted him to stay with him, but he had to get him killed, because no one liked him, and it was the best for the dog. It very is parrallel to George´s and Lennie´s relationship. No one likes Lennie and they are going to kill him, so George prefers to kill Lennie himself. This shows foreshadowing because in the middle of the book, we know that something similar might happen to Lennie. 2. Page 74- line 3 “Crooks says: “I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an´ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back and that same damn things in their heads...An´ never a God damn one of em ever gets it.” Analysis: This is foreshadowing because it shows that Lennies´and Georges dream is imaginary and impossible, and that they can´t achieve it. 3. Page 9- lines 12-13 “Lennie: “I wasn´t doing nothing bad with it, George. Jus stroking it” Page 9- lines 32-33 “George: “You always kill ´em” Lennie: “They was so little, “I´d pet em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead, because they was so little.” Analysis: We already know that Lennie is going to do something bad with Curleys wife because of how he starts touching her. It remembers us of the preoblem that he had in Weed, where he started touching a girl in a red dress, until she freaks out and thinks she was raped. So we can see at the beggining of the story where he starts staring at her. So Lennies obsession with touching things and harming them, such as the mice and puppies, it gives the readerand idea of how it is going to end.