The Dream Farm

George and Lennie’s dream farm, the story of which Lennie has George repeatedly narrate, and which Candy and for a short time Crooks join, represents the unattainable dream of owning one’s own farm, a lost dream of many labourers in Depression-era America. It also represents a place of security; for the innocent Lennie this means being able to live freely, tending rabbits without fear of being harmed by anyone, for George, a place where he will be able to look after Lennie more closely and avoid him getting into trouble, and for Candy, a place where he can retire safely and tend a plot of land. For a time, the dream keeps the men’s hopes alive, however, the ideas of freedom, independence and security the dream evokes are in constant tension with the daily reality of the struggles and hardships that oppose the men in their fight to achieve their dream.

The Dream Farm Quotes

‘An’ live off the fatta the lan’,’ Lennie shouted. Chapter 1

‘Sure,’ said George. ‘All kin’s a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We’d jus’ live there. We’d belong there.’ (George to Lennie about their dream farm) Chapter 3

‘You seen what they done to my dog tonight? 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.’ (Candy to George) Chapter 3

‘I can still tend the rabbits, George?’ (Lennie to George) Chapter 3

‘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.’ (Crooks to Lennie) Chapter 4

‘Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ som’thin’ that was his. Som’thin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it.’ (Candy to Crooks) Chapter 4

George said softly, ‘I think I knowed from the very first I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.’ (George to Candy about the dream of buying the farm) Chapter 5

Candy’s Dog

Candy’s dog parallels both Lennie and Candy and their impending fates, and links closely with mercy. Perceived as old and of no further use in the harsh and unforgiving nature of the Depression-era landscape, Candy and his dog are presented in positions of weakness, their previous contributions no longer valued, their lives unapologetically discarded in a world where only the strong and healthy survive. Fortunately, for Candy’s dog and for Lennie, when his actions lead to consequences George can no longer manage, their fates are carried out by merciful people who want to spare them physical pain, and in the case of Lennie, of being ‘put … in a cage’. Candy’s situation remains unresolved at the end of the text, his fate in the hands of the cruel societal forces that prevailed at the time which seem devoid of mercy.

Candy’s Dog Quotes

‘Yeah. I had ’im ever since he was a pup. God, he was a good sheep dog when he was younger.’ (Candy’s sheepdog) Chapter 2

‘You seen what they done to my dog tonight? 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.’ (Candy to George) Chapter 3

‘… An’ s’pose they lock him up an’ strap him down and put him in a cage. That ain’t no good, George.’ (Slim to George) Chapter 5

Slim said, ‘You hadda, George. I swear you had-da. Come on with me.’ (after George shoots Lennie) Chapter 6

Lennie’s Puppy

Closely related to Candy’s dog in symbolising the fate of the weak more broadly, is Lennie’s puppy. As with the many mice he has played with over the years, Lennie is unaware of his immense strength and although his intentions are pure in wanting to care for soft, small creatures, he inadvertently causes them their worst outcome: death. The image of Lennie’s huge hand stroking a tiny day-old puppy is thus a powerful image that suggests inevitability even in the absence of intentionality. Further to this point is the example of George, whose best efforts to care for the intellectually impaired Lennie and keep him out of trouble will be shown as pointless since he cannot be with Lennie all of the time, which serves to compound the idea of inevitability in that it will only be a matter of time before the strength of the gentle giant gets him into irrevocable trouble.

Lennie’s Puppy Quotes

George said, ‘You get right up an’ take this pup back to the nest. He’s gotta sleep with his mother. You want to kill him? Just born last night an’ you take him out of the nest. You take him back or I’ll tell Slim not to let you have him.’ (to Lennie) Chapter 3

‘Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice.’ (Lennie to the dead puppy) Chapter 5

Nature

The use of nature in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men sets the mood for the textual events and serves as a motif. The deep pool which is so vividly described at the start of the novella presents as a sanctuary from the harshness of the surrounding environment, void of other humans but alive with the buzz of wildlife. It presents as a safe and secure place that George has Lennie remember so that he may return to it should he get into trouble at the farm. When he does eventually return at the end of the text, the scene is lonely and no longer safe and secure; as the heron swallows up the water snake, Lennie’s own death is foreshadowed.

The escalating nature of the behaviour of the horses in their stables is a mirror to the suspense that builds throughout the text. In Chapter 2 they can be heard as ‘feet stirring’ but by Chapter 3 when Lennie is in Crooks’ barn the horses are ‘moving restlessly’ and one of them neighs. In Chapter 4 when Curley’s wife comes to Crooks’ barn ‘some horses snorted and some stamped their feet’, a behaviour which then recurs and intersects with the narrative as the climactic event of Curley’s wife being found dead in the stable approaches.

Nature Quotes

George motioned with his spoon again. ‘Look, Lennie. I want you to look around here. You can remember this place, can’t you? The ranch is about a quarter mile up that way. Just follow the river?’ (about the deep pool that features at the start and end of the text) Chapter 1