Of Mice And Men Summary Chapters

Of Mice and Men Chapter 1 Summary
• It’s a hot afternoon near Soledad, California, sometime during the 1930s. Everyone (or nearly everyone) is poor and scrambling around desperately for work, food, and money.
• We meet Lennie Small and George Milton: two guys who are among the poor and the scrambling.
• These two are dressed nearly identically, but there the similarities end. George is smalland smart, Lennie is huge and mentally slow. Though the narrative doesn’t explicitly say what his disability is, we can tell from his dialogue and actions that he is severely challenged.
• Lennie drops to his knees and drinks from a pool of dirty water, slurping out of it like a horse. George verbally swats him. This is the dynamic of their relationship in a nutshell: Lennie acts like a kid, andGeorge admonishes him like a parent. Make that a parent who swears a lot.
• George has to remind Lennie about where they are going and why: a ranch where they can buck barley for 50 dollars a month.
• George also reminds Lennie about why they lost their last job: something about a girl with a soft, red dress that Lennie liked to pet (the dress, not the girl; although technically, yes, the girlwas in the dress at the time).
• This "petting" is a genuine problem for Lennie. Lennie likes to pet things a little too hard and a little too long – an activity that keeps resulting in dead rabbits.
• Lennie and George have an argument over a mouse that Lennie has petted a little too hard and long. Lennie wants to keep the dead mouse in his pocket, but George throws it away.
• Then theyargue about other stuff: Lennie wants ketchup with his supper of beans; George says there isn’t any. Lennie threatens to go live by himself in a cave; George says what a great life he could have if Lennie did go off and live in a cave. But this hurts Lennie's feelings.
• George makes it up to Lennie by repeating their favorite story – the one in which they have their own ranch and Lennie gets to tend(and pet!) rabbits. As long and as hard as he wants.
• George also reminds Lennie to come back to this spot by the river if anything bad happens, which suggests, of course, that something bad most definitely will.
Of Mice and Men Chapter 2 Summary
• George and Lennie arrive at the new ranch. They go into the bunkhouse where they will stay and meet an old guy named Candy. His name seemsespecially inappropriate since he is missing a hand, has bristly white whiskers, and an ancient dog that stinks.
• Candy gives George the lowdown on the ranch.
• The boss shows up and questions George and Lennie about their work history. George does all the talking, which makes the boss suspicious. He can’t understand why George is looking out for Lennie (we aren’t entirely sure either). George liesand says he and Lennie are cousins, and that they left their last job because it was done. (He leaves out that the job ended when Lennie was accused of rape, though Lennie was not guilty of this – he was just petting.)
• The boss leaves and Candy comes back in with his dog. He talks to George about how the dog used to be a great sheepherder before he got old and stinky.
• The boss’s son comesin. He’s a small-but-cocky tough-guy type and immediately sizes up George and Lennie as potential people he could beat up. He tries to engage Lennie in an argument, but George interferes.
• The boss’s son implies that George and Lennie are gay for hanging out together which, for him, is meant to be an insult. He leaves after firing this parting shot.
• Candy explains that the boss’s son (namedCurley because he has curly hair) used to be a lightweight fighter and now picks fights with every big guy he meets.
• Candy claims that Curley has gotten even worse since he married a "tart," who has "the eye" for every guy on the ranch. Curley has taken to wearing a glove full of Vaseline to "keep his hand soft for his wife."
• Candy leaves.
• George gives Lennie yet another lecture. He...