Aspect	Details
Author	John Steinbeck
Setting	California during the Great Depression
Social Context	Economic collapse, poverty, unemployment, migrant labor
Main Idea	Friendship, dreams, loneliness, and survival in a harsh world

Characters

Character	Description
George Milton	Small, intelligent, protective, practical
Lennie Small	Physically strong, mentally disabled, innocent
Candy	Elderly ranch worker, lost a hand, owns an old dog
Curly	Boss’s aggressive son, insecure and violent
Curly’s Wife	Lonely, unnamed, isolated on the ranch
Slim	Respected ranch worker, calm and wise
Crooks	Black stable hand, intelligent, isolated due to racism

Plot

Plot Stage	Key Point
Exposition	During the Great Depression in California, George and Lennie, migrant workers, arrive near Soledad. Lennie has a mental disability, and George looks after him. Their dream of owning a small farm is introduced.
Rising Action	They begin work at the ranch, meet the other workers, and face growing tension. Lennie kills a puppy, Curly attacks Lennie, and Candy offers money to join their dream.
Climax	Lennie accidentally kills Curly’s wife in the barn while stroking her hair.
Falling Action	Curly leads a violent hunt for Lennie. George realizes Lennie cannot be saved from a cruel death or imprisonment.
Resolution	George finds Lennie by the river and kills him mercifully to protect him from suffering. Slim comforts George at the end.

It’s a tough world, as there was a great economic collapse in California during the great depression.Businesses failed, workers lost their jobs and families fell into poverty. Men travel from as far South as Alabama to look for work on the ranches. The migrant workers stay on as long as the job takes and then they move on.

Most of the men travel alone. The story set in a beautiful landscape, it has the deep green Salinas river and the majestic Gabilan mountains. Two men approached the town who walked across America together. The two men are opposites, George is small and clever, while Lenny is big and strong. Lenny also has an intellectual impairment. He understands very little about the world around him.

So George looks out for him. Lenny likes picking up dead mice and keeping them in his pockets to stroke, because they are soft. They were run out of town on their last job because Lenny scared a woman by stroking her dress. 

Lenny can’t keep a job and often gets in trouble because he’s misunderstood. He is lucky to have George. The friends have a dream that keeps them going to own their own ranch one day. Lenny loves hearing about the rabbits that he will care for George plans to have his own land and be his own boss.

After walking for miles,George and Lenny arrive at a ranch near the town of Soledad. They meet Candy, an elderly ranch worker who lost his hand in a machinery accident many years before. Candy shows them their beds in the bunkhouse and tells them how the other men are unpleasant to crooks. Because Crooks is an African American and has a crooked back.

When the boss comes in to meet his new employees, George does all the talking. He doesn’t want the boss to realise that Lenny has a disability; the boss is suspicious and wonders why George is so interested in getting Lenny a job. The boss leaves and candy comes in with his beloved old dog. The poor thing is toothless and arthritic. but candy loves that dog to the moon and back. 

Candy is followed by the bosses of noxious son, Curly. He is a short angry man who picks fights with other men. Curly and his wife have only been married for a few weeks and she is already lonely.

Lenny thinks she is pretty but George warns Lenny that he should better avoid Curly and his wife. Slim, a senior man on the ranch, comes in to meet George and Lenny. Meanwhile Carlson thinks that Candy should just shoot his old dog and get a puppy instead. 

That evening, Lenney has required a new puppy from Slim. When George thanks him,Slim gets curious about why George and Lenny travel together. George explains that he knew Lenny’s aunt, Clara who raised Lenny.

George took Lenny under his wing, after she died. He also tells Slim about what happened at their last job. They fled town because Lenny was wrongly accused of rape. He had frightened a woman by touching the fabric of her dress. Slim agrees with George that Lenny is a good person. Lenny comes in with his new puppy. 

A ranch worker called Witt is chatting with George when Crook comes in. Crooks warns that Lenny might harm the pups by petting them. When the men go to sort Lenny out, Witt talks about visiting prostitutes in town. He doesn’t think highly of women, particularly Curly’s wife. Women really are outsiders on the ranch.

Once Lenny comes back from the pubs, he wants George to tell him about their dream. He is never tired of listening to George talk about keeping animals and owning a vegetable garden.

Candy wants to get in on this. He has a bit of money saved up, maybe who could help them. Curly storms in again bringing trouble with him; he is worried that one of the other men has been playing around with his wife. Lenny doesn’t know what is going on and grins innocently at Curly. This makes Curly angry and he viciously attacks Lenny.

Lenny doesn’t fight back because George orders him not to. when George enters, he Orders him to fight back. He is scared but he’s a strong man. He grips Curly’s hand for a long time, crashing all the bones. When the men take Curly to see a doctor, the scene shifts to Crook’s room. He is clearly an intelligent man; he reads a dictionary and a legal book in his spare time.

It’s now Saturday night and Crooks, Lenny and candy are left on the ranch alone. The other men are having a big night out. Lenny wanders into the stable room to see the puppies, Crooks values his privacy and isn’t pleased to see Lenny. But Lenny isn’t like the other white men who exclude Crooks.

Lenny has an innocence about him, Crooks tells him about his childhood and Lenny tells him about his dream of tending to rabbits on a ranch. Candy joins Crooks and Lenny to talk about the dream. There’s a moment when Crooks even suggests that maybe he could leave the ratch with that. They were interrupted by Curly’s wife . Eddie and crooks both tell her to go away. She gets fed up and threatens to get crooks into trouble. He’s probably the only person on the ranch who is treated worse than her. 

on a Sunday afternoon, Lenny is cradling his puppy. Sadly, the puppy is dead. He is confused and upset; he doesn’t fully understand that he has killed the puppy by over petting it. It’s a sad ending for the puppy and heartbreaking for Lenny. He worries that George won’t let him take care of the rabbits in future once he knows that hes accidentally killed his own puppy. 

When Curly’s wife comes into the barn again, he starts talking to her. She’s friendly to Lenny, so he tells her about the dream of the rabbits. He loves those rabbits. she likes to have her soft hair stroked she even invites Lenny to feel her hair.

Just like with the puppy, Lenny doesn’t know when to stop. He keeps on stroking Curly’s wife’s hair until she gets alarmed and wants him to let go. Lenny panic and shakes her. He just wants her to stop yelling. 

Suddenly, her body flops like a fish. Lenny has accidentally broken her neck. Lenny is terrified, so he leaves the body of curly’s wife among the hay. He tucks the dead puppy under his coat and runs away.

Candy finds Curly’s wife and tells George. Candy knows that curly will make sure Lenny dies for this. When the other men burst into the room. Curly is outraged and vows to seek revenge. Carlson also realises that his gun has been stolen.

George hopes that they can find Lenny and hand him over to be locked up. he’s still hoping that Justice will be done. Curly can’t wait to shoot Leany. Curly doesn’t care about Lenny’s disability.

The hills are rosy in the sun and there’s a soft breeze. Lenny is out there waiting for George. He is lost in his thoughts. A rabbit hops near Lenny Lenny imagines that the rabbit is angry at him too. When George finds Lenny George is calm and gentle. He tells Lenny his favorite story, the story of their dream. He also tells Lenny to take off his hat and look over the river. 

George can’t let other men hurt Lenny. but there’s only one way can protect him: George stoIe Carlson’s gun. He knows what he must do now. As the other men get closer,George keeps on soothing Lenny with his words. he lifts the gun and pulls the trigger.

Lenny’s body slumps forward onto the sand and he lies there without quivering. George doesn’t say much; he doesn’t correct Carlson when he suggests that Lenny must have been on the loose with his gun. Slim leads George away for a drink and tells him that the deed had to be done.