Summary of Mice and Men

Of mice and men by John Steinbeck takes place in Salinas Valley, California on a ranch near the town of Soledad, during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The novel is centered around two main characters, George Milton an intelligent, small, dark faced, and strong featured man, and his cousin Lenny Small who is the polar opposite, an enormous man who is mentally retarded, and needs George’s constant attention and care. Lennie loves soft furry things and does not realize his own strength and so he has a tendency to hurt or even worse kill them, and George because of his love for Lennie makes many sacrifices for his cousin’s sake.

“‘Can I tend the rabbits George?’” A repeating question of Lennie to have George repeat their dreams of owning their own ranch. Lennie wants to have and tend for the rabbits there. He has a longing and a love for soft things, however, he has no idea the power of his strength. Slim a respected jerk line skinner notices Lennie’s delight in furry animals, and presents him with the gift of one of his puppies. Lennie loves this puppy, and tries to be very careful with this puppy. However, later in the story he is petting the animal in the barn and accidentally kills it. The puppy is a signal and leads way to the cascading effect of the whole plot. Lennie is constantly trying his hardest to obey and make George proud so that Georges doesn’t yell or get mad at him. So when Lennie gets the puppy he tries very hard not to kill it, but later he accidentally does, and he doesn’t want George to find out. Lennie is then in the wrong place at the wrong time when Curly’s “loose” wife comes into the barn.

The moment poor Lennie meets Curly All hell breaks loose. Curly’s detestation of Lennie’s size is automatic. It doesn’t take long for Curly to start a fight with him, and Lennie doesn’t fight back until George tells him to defend himself. Curly goes into to punch him again and Lennie grabs Curly’s hand and squeezes so hard that he breaks it. The next night Curly’s wife wants to know what happened to his hand and so while the men are at town she comes