Of mice and men is a novel about two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, who go to
work on a ranch in California together. Lennie is a massive man with incredible strength
but has a child's mind. George is a fairly sized man who is not incredibly brilliant but has
good common sense. The two men travel from town to town and job to job to just get
by and survive. But they dream of saving up enough money to someday get a place of
their own where they "won't have to answer to no one" and "live off the fatta the land"
Lennie dreams of having rabbits of his own that he can take care of all by himself. The
ranch they go to work at is in Soledad, California. When they arrive, they go to their
bunk house, where they meet Candy. Candy is an old, weathered man who has been
working on the ranch for years. He befriends George and Lennie and they confide to him
their dreams of having their own place. Candy tells them that he has saved up a
descent sum of money and asks if he can tag along in the adventure if he pays his
share. Another man on the ranch, Slim, gives Lennie a puppy to play with but Lennie,
feebleminded and sweet attempts to love even the gentlest of creatures, but, as he
only has a childlike understanding of his enormous strength, the results are often
tragic. Curly is the boss's son, and sensing Lennie's simple mind, he attempts to
intimidate and antagonize him not anticipating his strength. He hits Lennie because he
thinks Lennie is teasing him. Lennie tries to resist fighting as long as he can but after
suffering many blows to the face from Curly, he grabs Curly's hand and squeezes it so
hard it breaks every bone in it. Curly's wife is a beautiful woman who is always lonely
and attempts to receive "love" through the attention of other men. In Curly's seductive
wife, Lennie sees a beautiful and innocent creature, like the small animals he attempts
to love. Though sh...