Of Mice and Men film posters, old and new:

1939-



1992-

Summaries of the last two chapters from Of Mice and Men:

Chapter 5:

Lennie is sitting in the barn stroking his dead puppy angry that it died even though it was his fault, because he crushed it just like the mice. Curley’s wife enters and Lennie hides the puppy from her. He tells her how George doesn’t want him to even look at her much less talk to her. She says it is okay to talk to her and comforts him by sympathizing over his dead puppy. She then again turns to her talks about how lonely she is, and how mean her mother was to her when she was younger. She also tells him about how she dislikes Curley even though she married him. She asks Lennie why he likes animals so much and he tells her that he likes to stroke them because they are soft. She lets him stroke her hair but when he is too rough she tries to pull away and screams. Lennie tries to quiet her by clamping his hands over her mouth and in the struggle he ends up breaking her neck. He tries to hide her body in the barn in panic but is unsuccessful, so he runs off to the meeting place where George told him to hide if he got in any trouble. Candy finds the body in the barn and tells George, both the men realize what has happened. George goes off to find Lennie (but not before taking Carlson’s gun) and Candy goes to warn the rest of the ranch.

Chapter 6:

George realizes where Lennie has gone and gets there before the search party, who wants to catch then lynch Lennie. George knows that if they catch Lennie they will first torment him and berate him before finally killing him. Because of this George knows what he must do in order to spare Lennie all that pain. Lennie asks George to tell him the story of the farm and the rabbits again, so George agrees but tells Lennie to remove his hat and face away from him. In the middle of George’s description of the farm he hears the search party getting closer so he pulls Carlson’s gun out of his jacket and shoots Lennie in the back of the head. The shot grabs the attention of the men and they come running to the river where they see Lennie lying on the ground and George standing over him. He tells them that he wrestled the gun from Lennie and shot him. Only Slim understands what George has done and tells hi that he had to and it was for the best.

Here are some more summaries of the novel Of Mice and Men:

Chapter 3:

Slim finally agrees to let Lennie have one of his pups, after this Lennie spends all his free time lying with the pups. George tells Slim how he met Lennie saying he knew his Aunt and when his Aunt died he had to take care of Lennie. At first he would always tease Lennie about being so stupid, but one day when Lennie nearly drowns in a pond George told him to swim in he begins to feel bad and from that point on has always taken care of Lennie. When Lennie enters the bunkhouse he is clearly hiding a pup under his coat and George yells at him for taking it away from its mother and tells him to put it back straight away. Then Curley enters asking where his wife is and begins to believe that she is with Slim. George asks Lennie if he has seen Slim in the barn with Curley’s wife and Lennie says ‘no’, George believes him without a doubt. When Curley returns he realizes that Slim was not with his wife, but he was still angry and looking to take out his anger on someone. So he begins to punch Lennie in the face and in the gut, but then George tells Lennie to fight back and Lennie grabs his fist and breaks his hand almost effortlessly. Slim warns Curley not to have George and Lennie fired because then he will become the laughing stock of the ranch.

Chapter 4:

All the men except Candy, Crooks, and Lennie have gone into town. Lennie comes back from lying with the pups in the barn and want company so he goes to Crooks’ stable. At first Crooks doesn’t want any company but then allows Lennie to enter. They talk about the farm that Lennie and George are going to buy, but Crooks constantly shoots down the dream. Later Candy enters and they all begin to talk about the farm and even Crooks begins to believe that the farm may one day exist. Curley’s wife appears in the doorway complaining about how her husband never treats her right saying how lonely she always is. She teases Lennie about the bruises on his face that he got in his fight with Curley; she then realizes how her husband’s hand was broken. Candy says that he hears the guys coming back and Curley’s wife quickly disappears. George is upset that Candy and Lennie have been talking about the farm in front of other people, but forgives them later. As the three of them leave Crooks yells out that he doesn’t really want to be part of their farm after all.

Today I began to read Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck; here are my summaries of chapters 1 and 2:

CHAPTER 1:

The two main characters George and Lennie are very different people. George is short but very smart and logical, but Lennie is very big and mentally disabled. However the two are best of friends and look out for each other. The book opens with George and Lennie on their way to a new job as ranch-hands, but George decides to rest for the night then go to the ranch in the morning. Lennie loves to pet small things, like mice, but he is always too rough and ends up killing them. George catches him with one in his pocket and forces him to give it up. George always has to reprimand Lennie for acting stupid and not remembering anything he tells him. However George always forgives him after he yells at Lennie saying how his life would be so much better without the burden of taking care of him.

CHAPTER 2:

The next day George and Lennie arrive at the ranch and meet old swamper named Candy who tells George about the ranch and the boss. Later on George and Lennie meet the boss who is very nice but suspicious of why Lennie never talks. The next day they meet Curley, the boss’ son, he is a short guy who doesn’t like big guys and really dislikes Lennie right away; George warns Lennie to stay away from him. He also warns him to stay away from Curley’s wife, who Lennie describes as “purty”; she likes to flirt with the ranch-hands. Another ranch-hand, Slim, has an old dog who has just given birth to a litter of puppies that Lennie likes very much and hopes one day to have one as his own.