Of Mice and Men Summary

Of Mice and Men
Lennie and George are best friends traveling together in search of work on northern California farms. These two are flat broke – as in, "not even any quarters in the couch" broke. This is not good, as they have a dream of owning their own idyllic farm someday. George is the "brains" behind this operation – a smart guy who does all the talking when it comes to finding and keeping work. Lennie is physically strong, yet mentally slow. While both George and Lennie are good workers, they can’t hold down jobs for long due to Lennie's childlike mentality and odd fetish for petting things, which includes mice, rabbits, puppies, and…women. (This last one, of course, being the biggest issue).

Good fortune (of sorts) smiles upon them briefly when they get work at a ranch near Soledad, California. The night before they begin the new job, they hang out in a grove together where George points out a safe spot where Lennie should go if he ever gets in trouble. George and Lennie meet some of the other co-workers including Candy (an old, one-handed fellow who owns a smelly dog), Crooks (a lonely stable hand), and Curley (an unfaithful man with severe anger management problems). Curley is the ranch boss's son and a hotheaded little guy who used to fight in the featherweights. Curley clearly has something to prove, and seems to want to prove that something to Lennie. George warns Lennie to stay away from Curley, though he says if Curley picks a fight, Lennie should fight back.

We learn that Curley also has a new wife, whom no one is allowed to look at (which is difficult, because she quite likes male attention). Though most of the men know to stay clear of Curley's wife, Lennie innocently enjoys her flattering attentions. George warns Lennie to steer clear of her.

Back at the ranch, we meet Slim, our local and wise ranch demi-god. We see Carlson, a callous ranch hand, who notes that Slim’s dog has had some new puppies. He suggests Candy adopt one of Slim’s