Chapter 1 – Chapter 3

Chapter 4 – Chapter 6

Chapter 4

The chapter commences with a description of the accommodation of the stable hand, Crooks, who has accumulated a lot of possessions, being more of a permanent worker than the other farmhands. Crooks is a reader of books, neat and tidy, and ‘… a proud, aloof man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs’.

Crooks is applying some ointment along his disfigured spine when Lennie appears at the door having been to see his pup in the barn. Crooks tells Lennie he has no business coming into his room and explains the order of things, that being black, ‘I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room’. The differences between him and Crooks don’t seem to bother Lennie and he explains that all the other guys have gone into town and he just dropped in when he saw Crooks’ light on. Crooks, perhaps seeing Lennie as similarly ostracised by the others as himself, relents and invites Lennie in, and Lennie, forgetting his promise, eventually divulges the plans he, George and Candy have for starting their own ranch. Crooks talks about his past, how his father had a chicken ranch and that they were the only ‘coloured family for miles around’, an isolation that mirrors his present circumstances being the only black man on the ranch. He shares how his father didn’t like him playing with the white kids and that he finally now understands why. When Lennie goes on to talk about his puppy, Crooks realises he hasn’t grasped anything of what he’s said. Crooks then takes it too far when, thinking he’s figured out that George only stays with Lennie for the sake of his company, since it doesn’t matter what is said to Lennie, he doesn’t comprehend it, Crooks cruelly asks Lennie what he would do if George didn’t come home tonight. Crooks doubles down on his prank when he sees Lennie’s apprehension and says the authorities would throw Lennie into the booby hatch (facility for the mentally ill).

Lennie’s complete dependence on George is again exposed when, not understanding that Crooks is kidding, he approaches him with a maddened face, asking whose hurt George. Realising his gone too far, Crooks tries to get Lennie to accept that George is in fact okay, turning what he’s saying into a narrative of his own experience of being lonely, ostracised for being black, but Lennie can’t comprehend what Crooks is saying and becomes agitated and confused, and fixates on reassuring himself that George is okay and not hurt. It is only when Crooks reminisces with further detail about the farm that he had lived on in his childhood that Lennie starts to hear what Crooks is saying and goes on to talk about the rabbits he’ll be looking after at the ranch he and George will have. This exchange shows that Crooks longs for the physical company of others and values what George and Lennie have as positive, even if it means that they don’t always hear what the other is saying. When Crooks finally hears what Lennie is saying about the farm, he belittles the likelihood of them achieving their dream, sharing that he’s seen many labourers come and go with the same dream, perhaps also frustrated at his own lost freedoms lived on his family’s farm, but Lennie doesn’t hear it.

Candy appears at the door, looking for Lennie. He hesitates coming in but is eventually invited by Crooks, the first time Candy has even been in Crooks’ room. There is a sense of new beginnings and ground being broken as the men converse. Candy brings up the farm and Crooks strongly interjects that they’ll never achieve their dreams, that Candy will finish up ‘in a box’ and Lennie will be gone in a few weeks, that he’s seen it all before, also pointing out that George is currently at the whorehouse spending their money. However, Candy speaks optimistically about their plans, confirming they’ve got the land picked and nearly all the money saved. As Candy talks, the imagery of the crops and animals they’ll be looking after seems to overwhelm Crooks and a seed of hope is planted. Crooks asks to be part of the plan, offering to work only for his keep.

The reverie of the men is broken when Curley’s wife appears at the door, again looking for Curley. She speaks derogatorily to the men, stating the others ‘… left all the weak ones here’. She admits knowing where Curley is, signalling to the reader that whenever she’s out looking for Curley it has generally been an excuse for interaction. She points out that the men have no problem talking with her one-on-one but whenever they’re in a group they act differently, like ‘you’re all scared of each other’. Candy suggests Curley’s wife go back to the house, that she’s got a husband and not to cause trouble. Curley’s wife uses this remark to segue into a rant about her married life and how Curley only talks about boxing. When she asks how Curley’s hand got hurt, there is an embarrassing silence. Candy says he got it caught in a machine but Curley’s wife doesn’t buy it. She goes on to lament about how she could have had another life, working in movies but was now stuck on the ranch on a Saturday night talking to ‘a bunch of bindle stiffs’ (a bindle is a bundle of belongings carried by nomadic people).

Candy gets angry at Curley’s wife’s characterisation of them and tells her she’s not wanted and to get out. In his emotion, he is concerned that he could get them fired and starts talking about their plans to get off the ranch. Candy eventually restrains his anger and again urges Curley’s wife to leave. Curley’s wife sees the bruises on Lennie’s face and deduces that it was he who had hurt Curley’s hand. When she starts in on Lennie, Crooks speaks up and asks her to leave, saying she’s got no right being in a black man’s room. Curley’s wife cruelly turns her attention on Crooks and reminds him that she could have him ‘strung up on a tree’, to which Curley retreats into himself and becomes completely compliant to her commands. Curley’s wife’s need to put Crooks in his place highlights the social order of the day in that a black man was even more marginalised than a woman. Curley says that if she does anything to Crooks, they would tell everyone that she framed him, however, agrees with Curley’s wife assessment that probably no one would believe them. Curley’s wife eventually leaves when Candy says they men will be back soon, but not before telling Lennie she was happy he had hurt Curley and that she sometimes would like to hurt him herself. Shaken by the incident, Crooks asks Candy and Lennie to leave.

George has returned and is calling out for Lennie. He finds him in Crook’s room and admonishes him for being there although Crooks says he didn’t mind as Lennie’s ‘a nice fella’. In front of Crooks, Candy talks about an idea for making money with rabbits and George berates him for not keeping their plans a secret. When Candy says he ‘only told Crooks’ the implication is that Crooks’ race makes him invisible to Candy: not a person. The chapter ends with Candy’s discrimination of Crooks based on his race compounding the cruel words spoken to Crooks by Curley’s wife’s to dash the hopeful new beginnings that were blossoming at the start of the chapter. Reality sets back in as Crooks tells Candy to forget about him joining in with the dream farm project and, after the men leave his room, he goes back to applying ointment to his back.

Chapter 4 Quotes

This room was swept and fairly neat, for Crooks was a proud, aloof man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs. Chapter 4

He whined, ‘A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya,’ he cried, ‘I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.’ (Crooks to Lennie) Chapter 4

‘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

‘Come on in. If ever’body’s comin’ in, you might just as well.’ It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger. (Crooks to Candy) 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

‘They left all the weak ones here’ … (Curley’s wife to Lennie, Candy and Crooks) Chapter 4

And while she went through the barn, the halter chains rattled, and some horses snorted and some stamped their feet. Chapter 4

‘Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.’ (Curley’s wife to Crooks) Chapter 4

… Crooks sat perfectly still, his eyes averted, everything that might be hurt drawn in. (Crooks’ response to being racially vilified by Curley’s wife) Chapter 4

Candy was crestfallen. ‘Didn’t tell nobody but Crooks.’ (Candy to George) Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Lennie is in the barn with a dead puppy laying in front of him. The other men can be heard playing horseshoe outside. As predicted by several of the characters, the puppy has died from Lennie’s overhandling of him and now Lennie is worried that George will find out. Lennie proceeds to bury the dead puppy then, uncovering it, decides he’ll tell George that he found the puppy dead. Reasoning that George will see through the lie, Lennie gets angry at the puppy for dying and jeopardising his chances at tending rabbits. Lennie throws the puppy away from him. He remembers how the men told him the puppy was not old enough to be handled and laments how easily it was able to be killed compared to a mouse.

Curley’s wife appears in the barn entrance. She asks what Lennie is up to and Lennie says that he is not supposed to be talking to her. She says she’s lonely and has no one to talk with, except Curley. Curley’s wife sees the dead puppy that Lennie has been trying to hide and consoles him about its death, pointing out that he can get another one. However, Lennie is unable to be comforted and focuses on the consequences of what he’s done, that he won’t be able to tend rabbits.

Thinking she has Lennie’s ear, Curley’s wife goes on to talk about herself and laments how she had an opportunity to make something of her life as an actress. When she was 15, she was offered to join a show that came through her town but her mother forbade it. Another time, a Hollywood talent scout said he would write to her with a movie offer but she suspects her mother intercepted the letter. In the end, she married Curley whom she confides in Lennie she dislikes. Lennie, continuing to stroke the dead puppy, is unable to relate to what Curley’s wife is saying and takes in none of her conversation. Curley’s wife gets frustrated at having shared with Lennie the dreams she has told no one else, which portrays her in a sympathetic light, but Lennie continues to fixate on the rabbits. When she asks him why he is ‘so nuts about rabbits’, Lennie tells her about the farm he and George are working towards, and that he ‘likes to pet nice things’.

Curley’s wife shares that she enjoys to feel soft things too, like velvet, and offers Lennie to feel how soft her hair is. Lennie enjoys the experience but as his strokes become rougher, Curley’s wife demands that he stop. As she pulls away, Lennie’s hands hold tighter to her hair and, when she starts to scream, Lennie panics. Covering her mouth with his large hand, he begs her to stop screaming. They struggle like this for some time until Lennie’s concern that Curley’s wife will indeed get them into trouble like George predicted turns into anger and he shakes her violently, breaking her neck. Realising he had ‘done another bad thing’ and that George will be angry with him, he covers Curley’s wife with hay, takes the dead puppy and heads for the clearing in the woods that was established at the start of the novella as the place Lennie should hide if he got into any trouble. In death, the narrator describes Curley’s wife’s as ‘pretty and simple, sweet and young’ and absolves her of her ‘meanness’, which suggests that through dying she was restored to the earlier innocence that the circumstances of her cruel world had robbed her.

Candy enters the barn looking for Lennie but instead discovers the dead body of Curley’s wife. When George enters, he immediately knows that it was Lennie who was responsible. He contends to Candy that they’ll need to tell the others, expressing hope that Lennie might be treated fairly. Candy suggests letting him get away, confirming that, realistically, Curley will want to kill Lennie. Candy asks if they’ll still be able to buy the farm, but George says he always knew the dream wouldn’t materialise and that he only started to believe in it because Lennie liked to hear the story so much. Like every other farmhand, George suspects he’ll end up working just to spend his earnings at the brothel. Candy can’t believe that Lennie was capable of what he did but George assures him it was unintentional and that Lennie has no meanness in him.

Assuming the other guys will think George was complicit in Curley’s wife death, he tells Candy that he’ll head to the bunkhouse and Candy is to wait a couple minutes before calling out that he’s found Curley’s wife’s body. Candy agrees to the plan. George leaves and an angry Candy curses the dead woman for having ruined their hopes of working their own farm. He tells the others and all men rush into the barn. Curley is furious and sets upon killing Lennie. Carlson goes for his gun but finds its missing. Slim tells Candy to stay with the dead woman while the men set out to find Lennie. He tells George he’ll try and keep Curley from killing Lennie, but raises the reality that death might be better than the crude alternative of being locked up ‘in a cage’. George tries to persuade Curley not to shoot Lennie, telling him he’s ‘nuts’ and didn’t know what he was doing’. Curley directs Whit to get the sheriff and tells George to come with them ‘so we don’t think you had nothin’ to do with this’.

Chapter 5 Quotes

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

‘I get lonely,’ she said. ‘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 anybody?’ (Curley’s wife to Lennie) Chapter 5

‘Seems like they ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself.’ (Curley to Lennie) Chapter 5

‘I like to pet nice things …’ (Lennie to Curley’s wife) Chapter 5

And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. (Curley’s wife, dead) Chapter 5

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

‘… 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

‘I’ll come. But listen, Curley. The poor bastard’s nuts. Don’t shoot ‘im. He di’n’t know what he was doin’.’ (George) Chapter 5

Chapter 6

At the clearing in the woods, a heron captures and eats an unsuspected water snake, another example of the dog-eat-dog world Steinbeck paints of the times when the strong preyed on the weak. The tranquil setting presented in the first chapter of the text is drained of its safety and security. Lennie appears and drinks from the pool, then sits back nervously waiting for George and the trouble he is in for.

Lennie has a vision of Aunt Clara who speaks to him in his own voice, berating him for causing George trouble and never appreciating all that he does for him. Lennie says his usual, that he’ll go off and live alone in a cave but Aunt Clara calls his bluff and says he’s always saying he’ll do that but never does. Next, a gigantic rabbit appears in Lennie’s thoughts and also speaks in Lennie’s voice, continuing the tirade and saying that this time George is ‘gonna beat hell outa you an’ then go away an’ leave you’. Lennie covers his ears to stop the voices that seem to represent his guilt, and he calls for George. George appears in that moment but doesn’t scold Lennie when Lennie admits ‘I done another bad thing’. A resigned George says it doesn’t matter, which seems out of place to Lennie, and Lennie insists George verbally punish him like usual. George obliges, and mechanically goes through the ritual of what he could do if he didn’t have to look after Lennie – live so easy, go to the brothel, etc. – but his voice doesn’t have the usual conviction and he does it only for Lennie’s benefit. In the same manner as always, after having been scolded, Lennie asks George to talk about the farm they will work together. George again obliges and goes through the ritual again, but this time he asks Lennie to take off his hat and look across the river. Lennie obeys George with his usual innocence.

George produces Carlson’s gun from his pocket as men’s voices can be heard up the river. Lennie excitedly asks George to go on with the story. George tells this story with more emphasis now, and asks Lennie to visualise it: the place where he’ll be able to tend the rabbits and no one will ever be able to hurt them, the dream of freedom this represents to them both. George assures Lennie he’s not mad at him when he asks and as he assures Lennie that they’ll get to that place now, he positions the gun at the back of Lennie’s head and pulls the trigger. When the men from the farm arrive, George lets them believe that Lennie had stolen the gun and George stole it back from him before shooting him. Only Slim knows the profoundness of what really happened, that George did for Lennie what Carlson did for Candy’s dog. Slim consoles George, telling him that he did the right thing and offers empathetically to take him for a drink. Carlson and Curley’s puzzlement at the connection they witness between Slim and George indicates the rarity of companionship and mutual trust among Depression-era migrant workers, and that was more prevalent in the post-war struggle to survive was an emphasis on individualism, competition, and independence.

Chapter 6 Quotes

‘You . . . . an’ me. Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gon-na hurt nobody nor steal from ’em.’ (George to Lennie, as he prepares to shoot him) Chapter 6

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

Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, ‘Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?’ (about Slim and George) Chapter 6