# Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Source: https://thegisthub.com/books/of-mice-and-men-by-john-steinbeck Last updated: 2026-10-24 Published 1937 · 112 pages · ISBN 9780140177398 · Categories: Fiction, Relationships John Steinbeck's short novel about George and Lennie, two migrant ranch hands in Depression-era California who share a dream of owning land. For readers who want the plot, the characters and what the ending means. ## The gist George Milton and Lennie Small are migrant workers who move from ranch to ranch in California during the Great Depression. George is small and sharp. Lennie is huge, strong and mentally disabled, and he loves to touch soft things. They share a dream: a small farm of their own where Lennie can tend rabbits. At a ranch near Soledad they meet an old swamper named Candy, a Black stable hand named Crooks, the boss's aggressive son Curley and Curley's lonely wife. For a few days the dream looks possible. Then Lennie's strength and his love of soft things collide, and George has to make a choice that ends the dream. ## Key ideas ### 1. Loneliness is the normal condition of the ranch George's story about the dream opens with the claim that men who work on ranches are the loneliest men in the world. Steinbeck proves it with each character. Candy has only his dog. Crooks lives alone in the harness room because he is Black. Curley's wife has nobody to talk to. Slim notes that almost nobody travels in pairs. The farm dream matters because it is a plan to stop being alone. The novel treats company, not money, as the real thing people lack. ### 2. Dreams keep people going, even when they will not come true George says he always knew the farm would never happen. He tells the story anyway, because Lennie loves it and because telling it makes George believe it for a moment. Candy and Crooks both attach themselves to it within minutes of hearing it. Curley's wife has her own version: the Hollywood letter that never came. Steinbeck shows dreams as the thing that makes a hard life bearable. The title, from Burns's poem, warns that the best plans still fail. ### 3. Strength without understanding is dangerous Lennie never means harm. He kills mice, a puppy and finally a woman by holding on too hard when he is frightened. Each death is bigger than the last, and Steinbeck sets them up so the reader sees the ending coming. Lennie's strength is why the boss hires him and why Curley fears him, but it is also what makes him unsafe. The book asks what you owe to someone who cannot control what he does, and what the world does to him when he fails. ### 4. The weak are discarded Carlson shoots Candy's dog because it is old and smells, and he offers a puppy in exchange as if nothing is lost. Candy sees his own future. He says that when he can no longer work, the ranch will put him out. Crooks is kept apart because of his race. Curley's wife is treated as property. Steinbeck shows a society that keeps people as long as they are useful. The farm dream is partly a plan to escape that rule. ### 5. Power is used by those who have little of it Curley is the boss's son and picks fights with bigger men to prove himself. Curley's wife, the most isolated person on the ranch, uses the one power she has when she threatens Crooks with lynching. Crooks, in turn, torments Lennie with the idea that George might leave him. Steinbeck shows a chain of people who are hurt and pass the hurt down. The scene in Crooks's room is the clearest picture of how it works. ### 6. Companionship comes with responsibility George promised Aunt Clara to look after Lennie. He gets Lennie jobs, lies for him, hides him when things go wrong, and gives up the easy life he keeps describing. In return he has someone who needs him and someone to talk to. Steinbeck presents the bond as rare and valuable, and also as a burden that limits George's life. Slim sees it as the strange and admirable thing about them. The book never says the bargain is easy. ### 7. (Spoiler) Mercy can look like betrayal George shoots Lennie while telling him the dream, so that Lennie dies happy and unafraid. Candy's regret about his dog explains the choice: he wishes he had done it himself rather than let a stranger. George takes that lesson and acts on it. Slim tells him that a man sometimes has to. Steinbeck leaves the moral open. George saves Lennie from a lynching, but he also ends the only relationship either of them had, and the farm dies with Lennie. ### 8. (Spoiler) The ending returns to the beginning The novel opens and closes at the same pool by the Salinas River. In the first scene George tells Lennie to come here if anything goes wrong. In the last scene Lennie does exactly that, and George follows. The circular shape makes the ending feel fated: it was planned from the first page. Steinbeck also repeats the dream speech, the hat, the look across the river. The story that once promised a future becomes the words Lennie dies hearing. ## Questions this book answers ### What is Of Mice and Men about? Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck follows George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers in California during the Great Depression. They share a dream of owning a small farm. At a new ranch, an old worker named Candy offers to join them, and the dream briefly looks real. But Lennie, who is strong and does not understand his own strength, keeps killing the soft things he loves, and the book ends with the dream destroyed. ### What does the title Of Mice and Men mean? The title comes from the Robert Burns poem 'To a Mouse,' which says the best-laid plans of mice and men often go wrong. In the novel, George and Lennie plan a farm of their own, and Candy and Crooks attach themselves to it. The plan collapses because of events none of them control. The dead mouse in Lennie's pocket in the first scene also points to the title. ### Why does George kill Lennie in Of Mice and Men? Spoiler: After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, Curley leads a group of men to hunt him down. Slim tells George that they will either lynch Lennie or lock him in a cage. George finds Lennie first at the river, tells him the dream one last time, and shoots him while he is calm and happy. George chooses a quick death by a friend over a brutal one by strangers, echoing Candy's regret that he let someone else shoot his dog. ### What are the main themes of Of Mice and Men? The main themes are loneliness, the power of dreams, and the way society discards people who are weak or different. Almost every character is isolated: Candy by age, Crooks by race, Curley's wife by her marriage. The farm dream gives George, Lennie and Candy a reason to keep going. Steinbeck also shows friendship as rare and costly, and he traces how hurt people pass their hurt on to someone weaker. ### Who is Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men? Curley's wife is the only woman on the ranch and the only major character without a name. The men call her a tart because she talks to them, but the book shows her as lonely and trapped. She once dreamed of being in the movies and married Curley to escape her mother. She confides in Lennie in the barn, and her death at his hands ends the story. ## Quotes > Guys like us, that live on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. (George, telling Lennie the story of the dream by the river.) > Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other. (Slim, talking with George in the bunkhouse.) ## Full summary ### Two men and a dream **Of Mice and Men** is a short novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1937. Steinbeck called it a "play-novelette." It has six scenes, each set in one place, with most of the story told in dialogue. He adapted it for the stage the same year. The title comes from Robert Burns's poem "To a Mouse": the best-laid plans of mice and men often go wrong. The book is set in the Salinas Valley of California, Steinbeck's home region, during the Great Depression. Thousands of men moved between ranches then, hired for a harvest and let go after it. Steinbeck had worked beside them as a young man. The story opens at a pool on the Salinas River, a few miles south of Soledad. Two men walk down to the water. **George Milton** is small, quick and sharp-featured. **Lennie Small** is enormous, shapeless and slow. He drinks from the pool like a horse. George tells him not to drink so much, and we learn in the first pages how their relationship works: George thinks and gives orders, Lennie copies him and forgets things. Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket. He likes to stroke soft things, and he killed the mouse by petting it too hard. George throws it away. We learn that they had to run from their last job in Weed. Lennie had touched a girl's red dress, held on when she screamed, and the men of the town came after them with dogs. George complains that life would be easy without Lennie. Then Lennie asks him to tell the story of the rabbits. George, softening, recites their dream. Men like them, who work on ranches, are the loneliest men in the world. They have no family and no place. But George and Lennie have each other. One day they will have a little house and a few acres, a cow, some pigs, and rabbits that Lennie will tend. They will live off the fat of the land. George tells Lennie that if anything goes wrong at the new ranch, he must come back to this spot by the river and hide. ### The ranch and its people The next morning they arrive at the ranch. The bunkhouse is a long room with eight bunks. **Candy**, an old swamper who lost his right hand in a machine, shows them in. His ancient, half-blind dog follows him everywhere. The boss questions them, suspicious because George does the talking for Lennie. George claims Lennie is his cousin who was kicked in the head by a horse. Then **Curley** comes in. He is the boss's son, a small man and a former boxer who picks fights with big men. Candy explains that Curley has recently married and is tense about it. His wife, who is never named, is already called a tart by the men. She appears in the doorway soon after, in heavy makeup, asking for Curley. George warns Lennie to stay away from both of them. Two more men matter. **Slim** is the jerkline skinner who drives the mule team. He is calm and respected, and everyone brings their problems to him. **Carlson** is a big, practical ranch hand. Slim's dog has had puppies, and he gives one to Lennie, who is overjoyed and keeps sneaking out to the barn to pet it. That evening, Carlson complains about the smell of Candy's old dog. He suggests shooting it and giving Candy a puppy instead. Candy resists, but Slim agrees that the dog is suffering, and Candy gives in. Carlson takes the dog out with his Luger pistol. The men wait in silence for the shot. Afterward, Candy says he should have shot the dog himself, rather than let a stranger do it. The scene prepares the reader for the ending. ### The dream almost comes true Later that night George tells Slim the truth about Lennie. They grew up in the same town, and George promised Lennie's Aunt Clara to look after him. George admits he once teased Lennie for fun and told him to jump into a river. Lennie nearly drowned and then thanked George for pulling him out. George stopped teasing him after that. Slim says it is strange how two men travel together, since most ranch hands are alone. George and Lennie talk about the farm again. Candy overhears. He has three hundred and fifty dollars saved, compensation for his hand, and he offers it all if they will let him join. With his money and a month of their wages, they could buy a place George knows about. Suddenly the dream is real. George sets a date and tells Candy and Lennie not to say a word to anyone. Then Curley bursts in looking for his wife. He has been shamed by Slim and wants a fight. He sees Lennie smiling at the thought of the rabbits and attacks him. Lennie does nothing until George tells him to fight back. Then he catches Curley's fist in his hand and crushes it. Slim makes Curley agree to say his hand was caught in a machine, or the whole ranch will laugh at him. Lennie's only worry is that George will not let him tend the rabbits. ### Crooks and Curley's wife On Saturday night the other men go into town. Lennie wanders into the room of **Crooks**, the Black stable hand, who lives alone in the harness room because the white workers will not let him in the bunkhouse. Crooks has a crooked back from a kick by a horse. He has books and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and he is bitter and proud. He first tells Lennie to leave, then lets him stay because he is lonely too. Crooks taunts Lennie by suggesting that George might not come back. Lennie becomes frightened and angry, and Crooks backs off. He talks about his childhood on a chicken ranch his father owned and about what it is like to have nobody to talk to. A man needs someone near him, he says, or he goes crazy. Candy joins them, and they talk about the farm. Crooks scoffs, then quietly asks whether he could come and work there for nothing. Curley's wife appears. She is lonely as well. Curley spends his Saturday night in a brothel, and she has nobody. The men try to get rid of her, and she turns on them. When Crooks tells her to leave his room, she reminds him that she could have him lynched with a word. Crooks withdraws into himself. After she goes, he tells Candy that he was only joking about the farm. ### The barn On Sunday afternoon Lennie sits in the barn with his puppy. It is dead. He petted it too hard, and when it bit him he hit it. He is afraid George will not let him tend the rabbits now. He covers the puppy with hay. Curley's wife comes in. She tells him about her life. A man once told her she could be in the movies. She was going to get a letter from Hollywood, and it never came. She married Curley to get away from her mother and now spends her days alone in a house, with a husband who talks only about fighting. She asks Lennie why he likes soft things, and lets him stroke her hair. He strokes harder. She tells him to stop and tries to pull away. He panics and holds on, as he did with the girl in Weed. She screams. He covers her mouth, shakes her to make her stop, and breaks her neck. He understands that he has done a bad thing. He remembers what George told him and runs for the river. Candy finds the body and fetches George. George understands at once what has happened, and he understands that the dream is over. Candy asks if they could still buy the place, just the two of them, and George says he always knew they never would. Then he asks Candy to give him a minute to go back to the bunkhouse before raising the alarm, so the men will not think he was involved. Curley wants Lennie shot in the stomach. Carlson finds that his Luger is missing and assumes Lennie took it. Slim tells George that if the men catch Lennie, they will lynch him, and if they lock him up, they will put him in a cage. The men set out with guns. ### Spoilers: the ending This section reveals the ending. Lennie reaches the pool by the river where the story began. As he waits, he sees visions. His Aunt Clara appears and scolds him for always getting George in trouble. Then a giant rabbit tells him that George will beat him and leave him. George arrives. He is calm and gentle. Lennie asks if George is going to give him hell, and George makes himself say the usual words about how easy his life would be alone, but without any anger. Lennie offers to go and live in a cave. George tells him to stay. Then Lennie asks for the story, and George tells it one last time: the little place, the cow, the rabbits, how they will have each other. He tells Lennie to take off his hat and look across the river, where he can almost see the farm. While Lennie looks, George takes Carlson's Luger from his jacket, puts it to the back of Lennie's head and fires. The other men arrive. George lets them believe that Lennie had the gun and that he took it from him. Curley and Carlson are satisfied. Slim understands what George did and why. He tells him that a man sometimes has to, and he walks him up to the road for a drink. The book ends with Carlson asking what is eating those two guys. The ending repeats the shooting of Candy's dog. Candy regretted letting a stranger kill his dog. George refuses to let Curley do the same to Lennie. He kills him in the one moment Lennie is happy, with the dream in front of him, rather than let him die afraid. The reader is left to decide whether it was mercy, surrender, or both. ### What the critics say The book was an immediate success and a stage hit, but it has drawn two lines of criticism. Some critics find it sentimental and too neatly built: the dog, the puppy and Lennie fall in a visible pattern, and almost every character is defined by a single weakness. Curley's wife is criticized as a stereotype, though Steinbeck, in a letter to the actress who first played her, described her as a lonely girl rather than a tart. The book has also been banned or challenged in American schools for its profanity, its racial slurs and the killing at the end. Defenders answer that the language is the language of its setting and that the book is about the people it depicts, not against them. ### Who should read it Read it if you want a short, direct novel about friendship, loneliness and the gap between what people hope for and what they get. It takes two or three hours and works well for discussion in a class or a reading group. ## Do this week - Read the first and last scenes back to back and list every detail Steinbeck repeats, then write one sentence on what the repetition does to the ending. - Write a half-page from Curley's wife's point of view about her Saturday night, using only facts the book gives you. - Discuss with someone whether George had any option other than the one he took, and argue the opposite side from the one you believe. - Write down a dream you keep telling yourself, then note whether you are taking any step toward it or only retelling it. - Name one person in your life who is alone in the way Candy or Crooks is alone, and contact them this week. Summary by The Gist Hub (https://thegisthub.com). In our own words, not the book's text.