Of Mice and Men
Notes on the Novel as a Whole
Chapter 4
Crooks is cruel too.
so cynical
tortures Lennie
even he starts to believe in the dream
Once Curley's wife is so cruel to him "Do you know what I could do to you?" 80, he gives up on the dream and says "I was just foolin'"
Chapter 5
See think write questions
Curley’s Wife: is she just cruel or is she suffering like everyone else?
Why does she always flirt?
Lennie: why does he kill Curley’s Wife? Can we hold him responsible? What should be done about Lennie?
so quiet after he kills her "quiet" repeated over and over 92
What foreshadowing has occurred hinting at Lennie killing a person? "I should of knew" 94
Chapter 6
Suffering of innocents: dog eat dog world. The heron kills the snake. Quiet, just like when Lennie kills Curley's wife. The quiet world is not so peaceful, disguises predators and death.
Why does George kill Lennie? Was it the right decision? Why or why not? Kills to protect him from Curley (95)
it's a better death, a happy death. Just like Candy should have killed his dog himself. Killing out of love is better than death by a mean, uncompassionate stranger
In the final telling of the dream, George give Lennie the dream. Lennie dies thinking he's going to the rabbit farm and in a sense he is; he's going to Heaven. At the same time, George must let the dream go and resigns himself to a miserable existence just like all the other poor “bindle men” going to place to place, with no goals, no happiness, no friendship, and no enjoyment except the destructive one of blowing their money on drink, gambling, and women. p. 94-95
Symbols
Candy’s Dog
The dead puppy
Dream of the Rabbit Farm
Themes
Title: Of Mice and Men
The world is a cruel, predatory, inhospitable place where dreams cannot come true and friendship cannot last
Men are just like mice (or just like the water snake eaten by the heron), they will be killed because of the predatory, cruel nature of the world they live in
There is no justice, no compassion, death is inevitable
The grim lesson of human existence is that life is not fair and the innocent will die, often will die young, sometimes the guilty will go free
Friendship
In the cruel world, friendship is what sustains men
All want a friend because no one has family
Most are lonely and miserable wasting their money on drinking and gambling
Lennie and George see the truth that they are not like other poor, wretched migrant workers who live a miserable life from paycheck to paycheck, they are different because they have each other
In the end, even this rare friendship is lost; it cannot survive in the cruel, predatory world
With the loss of their friendship, the American Dream is lost too
Impossibility of the American Dream
The dream of living off of the “fatta the land” is the one spark of happiness in George and Lennie’s life.
The dream pulls in Candy immediately, and even Crooks, the cynical one, eventually
In the end, all dreams are crushed
Curley’s Wife marries Curley instead of living her dream to be an actress
Crooks tells Candy to forget that he wanted a place to hoe on the rabbit farm, he was “just foolin’”
Strong vs. the Weak
Oppression does not only come from the strong (Curley), but also from the weak (Crooks and Curley’s wife)
Given an opportunity to be cruel to someone else, the weak will be cruel just as the strong were
The strong will dispose of the weak (Candy’s dog)