Lennie Small

Of Mice and Men (1992)

John Malkovich (1992)

George Milton (friend, caregiver)

### Personalities

Simple-minded, innocent, friendly, mentally disabled, caring, gentle, sweet, anxious, ignorant, cheerful, dreamy, kind, childish, passive, lively, rough, loyal, emotional, curious, obedient, dependent, furious (sometimes), afraid, reckless, sociable, obsessive, aggressive (sometimes), clumsy, diligent, shallow, insecure

### Allies

George Milton
Aunt Clara

Candy

### Likes

Mice, rabbits, puppies, ketchup, petting soft things, Curley’s Wife, George’s story about their farm, dreaming about the farm

### Dislikes

When he is threatened that George will abandon him, George getting angry at him,

### Goal

To work hard to afford their own land (failed)

To always obey George (succeeded and failed)

### Fate

Mercifully shot to death by George at the pool

### Famous quotes

“We could live offa the fatta the lan’.”

> "*Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard… Now maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits if he fin’s out you got killed.*"
> ― Chapter 5
>
>

Lennie Small is the main protagonist in John Steinbeck’s *Of Mice and Men*.

Lennie suffers from a mental disability and travels with his friend George Milton as his companion. He dreams about their future farm, where he can look after the rabbits. But due to his massive size and disability, he cannot control his own strength and will result in devastating consequences.

## Description

Lennie and his companion and caregiver, George, are seen as unique protagonists. Their personalities don’t change throughout the story, and their friendship makes them unusual. Many migrant workers during the Great Depression are often bitter and alone, but Lennie and George stick together as closely as possible to ensure each other that they won’t be afraid of anything. They also dream of owning their farm, where they can be free from harsh society, and they view the farm as a place of tranquillity and peace. Lennie loves hearing about the dream and always looks forward to tending the rabbits, as they symbolize his freedom as a disabled man and satisfy his love for anything soft.

Despite being simple-minded and harmless, Lennie is seen as a danger in society, and anything, from pretty young women to rabbits, is scared of his brute size and strength. He loves to touch anything soft, which is often mice and puppies. Because of his disability, he accidentally kills these small animals, but he cannot do anything to control himself. His dangerous love for soft things would foreshadow him accidentally killing Curley’s Wife and prompting George to make a difficult decision to save him from a cruel, violent death.

Lennie’s name is a short form of “Leonard,” a name of Germanic origin meaning “brave lion,” and his surname “Small” is an ironic juxtaposition of his physical size. Steinbeck may have used this name as irony to Lennie’s character. He is the opposite of the traits describing his name, making him a hapless victim in a dog-eat-dog world.

## Storyline

### Early Years

Lennie was born in Auburn, California, and his Aunt Clara raised him as a baby. George Milton, who was also born in Auburn, knew Aunt Clara, and after she died, Lennie and George began working together. George would mock Lennie for his mental disability and play cruel jokes on him.

One day, George made Lennie jump into the Sacramento River. Lennie couldn’t swim and almost drowned, so George and several men saved him. Lennie had been so friendly to George after he saved his life that George vowed never to be cruel to him again.

While working at a ranch in Weed, Lennie became interested in a young woman’s red dress. Since he loved anything soft, he touched the woman’s dress. She started to scream, and Lennie became so scared that he didn’t let go of her dress until George hits him with a fence post. The woman accused him of rape, and a lynch mob was formed. George and Lennie were forced to flee and hide in an irrigation ditch until nightfall.

### Arriving at the Ranch

In the late afternoon, George and Lennie walked the entire day in the Salinas Valley near Soledad. They walk down a path and arrive at a clearing surrounded by a river. When they get there, Lennie hurries to the river and drinks from it. George shakes him on the shoulder and orders him to stop drinking from the river, or he’ll become sick. Lennie dunks his entire head in and sits on the bank, his hat and coat dripping wet. He smiles and convinces George to drink from the river. George is initially suspicious but takes a sip and drenches his face to cool off, with Lennie playfully splashing his hand in the water. George then sits down and angrily grumbles about how the bus driver refused to drive them to the ranch entrance and kicks them out, forcing them to walk for four miles on a hot day.

Lennie asks where they’re going, and George scolds him for being forgetful. He says he tries hard not to be forgetful, but he can’t stop thinking about the rabbits. George asks if he remembers when they got their work tickets and bus passes. Lennie replies that he does but thinks he has lost his work ticket. George irritably tells him he has brought both of theirs. Lennie puts his hand into his pocket, and George demands what he’s hiding. Lennie denies hiding anything, but George insists he hand over what he has in his pocket. He keeps his closed fist away and says he has a mouse but insists he didn’t kill it and just found it dead. He wants to keep it, but George orders him to hand it over. After he opens his closed fist, George takes the dead mouse and throws it across the pool and into a bush.

George asks why Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse, and Lennie replies that he wants to pet it while they walk. George says he won’t be petting any dead mice while walking with him and asks if he remembers where they’re going. Lennie forgets again, and George gets annoyed and says they are heading to a ranch a quarter of a mile away. He warns Lennie not to say anything when he tells the boss they won’t get a job. Lennie promises he won’t speak and repeats it. George also warns him not to get into trouble like at Weed, and Lennie happily remarks that they were chased out of the ranch before they were caught. George rants that he wishes to have a girlfriend and live an easy life rather than always keeping him out of trouble.

As the sun sets, Lennie asks George if they can have some dinner at the ranch. George insists they spend one more night of freedom by the pool before they have to do strenuous work tomorrow. Lennie asks if they have anything to eat for dinner, and George replies that he has some canned beans inside his bindle. He asks Lennie to gather some dead sticks to prepare a fire for their meal. Lennie likes to have ketchup with his beans. George says they don’t have ketchup and orders him to find some dead sticks. Lennie goes into the brush and returns with a small willow stick in one hand. George immediately knows that Lennie has found the dead mouse and demands he hand it over. Again. Lennie denies he has a dead mouse and considers if he should run away. George threatens he’ll hit him if he doesn’t obey him. Lennie reaches into the pocket for the mouse, laments that he didn’t steal it and found it beside the road. He hands it to George, and he throws it away. Lennie starts to cry, and George consoles him that he didn’t take it away to be mean but wasn’t fresh and already dead. He promises Lennie that he will let him keep another fresh mouse when he finds one.

Lennie sits down and remembers an old woman who used to give him mice to pet, but she isn’t there. George scoffs that it was his Aunt Clara, and she stopped giving him mice because he kept killing them all. Lennie laments that the mice were small and would pet them until he accidentally pinched their heads and killed them. He even wishes they could get the rabbits soon so he can pet them. George tells him he can’t be trusted with live mice and wouldn’t even play with a toy that Aunt Clara gave him. George then orders him to get some firewood.

It is now dark as George lights the fire and brings out some canned beans. Lennie says he likes them with ketchup, and George angrily yells that they don’t have any. He again wishes that if he lived alone, he could work and spend his money at a brothel or some whiskey. Lennie stares at George’s angry face through the fire as George rants that he has to take care of him instead. He yells at Lennie for not keeping a job and always getting them into trouble. Lennie says he just wants to feel the woman’s soft red dress from Weed, and George scolds him for not letting go of the dress, and then they have to hide in a ditch before escaping the area. George even wishes he could lock Lennie in a cage filled with mice. Then George calms down, looking at the fire with shame.

Lennie crawls beside George and calls to him, but George ignores him. Lennie tells him he was only joking and won’t eat some ketchup if they don’t have any with them, and he would even allow George to have some instead of him. George quietly laments that he never gets to have some peace whenever Lennie is with him. Lennie says he can leave him and stay in a cave in the mountains. George says he didn’t mean to get angry and urges him to stay with him, as anyone could mistake him for a wild animal and shoot him. He also assures him that he’ll give him a puppy to pet and hopes he won’t kill it like he did with mice.

Lennie then begs George to tell him the story about the rabbits. George is initially reluctant, and Lennie keeps begging until he gives in and tells him their story about why they are different from other men. He explains that many ranchers like them are lonely, as they don’t have family or friends and no place to live. Whenever they earn their income at a ranch, they spend it all on alcohol and gambling, and then they will have to look for work at another ranch. In addition, they have nothing to look forward to. Lennie then urges him to talk about the part about themselves. George explains further that he and Lennie are unlike the other ranchers, as they have a future. They are also smart enough not to waste their money on gambling and alcohol. Lennie interrupts that they always look after each other when they are together. George then says that one day, they will have their own farm with animals and dozens of acres of land. Lennie interrupts again that they will soon “live off the fatta the land” and have rabbits. He urges George to talk about the rabbits, what crops they’ll grow, and surrounding the stove during rain and winter.

George explains they will have a large vegetable garden, rabbit hutches and chickens. When it rains or snows, they will stand around the warm stove inside their house and listen to the rain pounding on the roof. George opens the canned beans, and they eat around the fire. During their meal, George reminds Lennie what he is supposed to do at the ranch. Lennie repeats they he won’t speak. George next asks him if he remembers the pool they are staying at. Lennie replies that he does, and George tells him that if he does get into trouble at the ranch, he must return here and hide in the brush until he comes for him. He also warns Lennie that he won’t tend the rabbits if he gets into trouble again. Lennie promises he will be good, and George tells him to lay his bindle by the fire, and he won’t add more sticks, as they will let it die out.

Lennie and George crawl into their bedding to go to sleep. Lennie calls to George that he wants to have lots of coloured rabbits and furry ones like the ones he saw at the fair in Sacramento. George assures they will have different coloured rabbits and quiets him before they fall asleep.

The next morning, Lennie and George arrive at the ranch and enter the ranch’s bunkhouse. They meet an old man sweeping the bunkhouse, who tells them that the boss was expecting them last night and is furious that they failed to turn up for work. He points his arm to two bunkbeds near the stove and tells them they will sleep there. But he is missing a hand when he raises his right arm to point. George notices in his bunk a box shelf that contains cleaning supplies. The old man explains that a blacksmith named Whitey used to sleep there, and he was a clean freak. He later quitted as he complained about the food.

After George and Lennie get settled with their bunks, the old man says the boss will be here in a minute and recalls that the boss was so angry that he beats up the black stableman, who suffers from a crooked back. However, the boss is actually friendly and once gifted the ranchers some galleons of whisky for Christmas. Lennie finishes making his bed when the bunkhouse door opens, and the boss walks in. The old man informs him of George and Lennie’s arrival before he leaves.

The boss asks for the work tickets and why they hadn’t shown up yesterday. George explains that they had to walk 10 miles and couldn’t get any rides. The boss takes out his notebook, and Lennie nods at George, staring at him, assuring him he will obey him. The boss asks for their names, and George introduces himself and to Lennie, and they previously worked at Weed. The boss notices that Lennie isn’t talking, and George says he is strong and bulky to do physical labour. The boss demands Lennie what he can do, and Lennie fearfully looks to George for help, who says that Lennie may be strong but isn’t very bright. The boss gets suspicious and asks what relations George has with Lennie. George lies that Lennie is his cousin and got kicked in the head by a horse as a child, and they completed their work at Weed.

The boss hopes they aren’t lying and assigns them to pick out barley after dinner with Slim, the mule skinner. He glances at them one more time before he walks out. As soon as the boss is gone, George scolds Lennie for staying quiet, and they almost didn’t get the job. Lennie says he forgot again, and George says they will have to be careful now that the boss will closely monitor them. George becomes quiet, and Lennie asks if he really was kicked in the head by a horse and they are cousins. George replies that he lied, and the old man who swept the bunkhouse walks in, accompanied by his old, blind sheepdog. George accuses the old man of listening to his conversation with Lennie, and the old man insists he wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying. George notices how old the dog is, and the old man replies that he has had it since it was a puppy and used to be a good sheep herder.

A young man arrives wearing a Vaseline glove and is the boss’s son, Curley. He asks the old man where his father is and then glances furiously at George and Lennie. He is more infuriated when Lennie doesn’t speak, and George says that he and Lennie travel together, and he only talks when he wants to. Lennie mutters that they have just arrived, and Curley demands he must answer the next time he is spoken to before walking out. The old man explains that Curley used to be a lightweight boxer, but he hates people larger than him and picks fights with them, like Lennie. George assures that Curley won’t lay a finger on Lennie, but the old man says that Curley has gotten worse since he got married two weeks ago. Additionally, his new wife has a habit of flirting with the other ranchers.

George warns Lennie that he’s afraid that Curley will pick a fight with him. Lennie gets scared and doesn’t want to get into trouble with him, as he never did anything to him. George admits that he also hates Curley and worries they will lose their jobs if Curley fights Lennie. He warns Lennie to stay away from Curley and not speak to him. Lennie promises he won’t interact with Curley. They hear the ranchers gathering barley outside and someone calling for the black stableman. Lennie asks George if he’s mad at him. George replies he isn’t but is mad at Curley and hopes they will save some money while they are here. He also reminds Lennie about what he had told him the night before, that he must hide in the brush by the pool if he gets into trouble. Lennie repeats that he understands what he’s supposed to do.

Lennie and George look up and see a beautiful young woman standing in the doorway. She has curly hair and red lips and is wearing a cotton dress with red high heels. She is Curley’s Wife and asks the men where her husband is. George replies that he was in here a minute ago, and she notices they are the new ranchers. She decides she’ll have to look elsewhere while Lennie stares at her. She asks Slim outside where Curley is. Slim replies that he saw him go into their house, and she leaves.

George calls Curley’s Wife a “tramp,” but Lennie says she’s “purty” and becomes attracted to her. George shakes Lennie by his ear and fiercely warns him to stay away from Curley’s Wife, as he suspects something is off with her. Lennie insists he won’t harm her, but then he says he is scared and wants to leave. George replies that they can’t leave until they make some money, and even if he admits he doesn’t like it here, too, they don’t have a choice unless they can figure out another way to earn more money elsewhere. The jerk line skinner, Slim, arrives and meets George and Lennie. George tells him that Lennie is strong enough to work on the ranch despite his disability, and they travel together. Slim is surprised that many men don’t work or travel in pairs. One of the ranchers, Carlson, then meets Lennie and George. He asks Slim about his dog, and Slim replies that his dog just gave birth to 9 puppies, but he had to drown 4 of them as the dog couldn’t feed them all. Carlson convinces Slim to let the bunkhouse sweeper, Candy, shoot his old, smelly dog and then take one of the puppies in return. They hear ringing outside, and Slim announces they should eat lunch.

Everyone starts to leave the bunkhouse, and Lennie gets excited about getting a puppy and asks George if he can have a brown and white puppy. George says they should eat first and isn’t sure if there is a white and brown one. Lennie begs him to ask Slim immediately before he drowns more puppies, and George agrees. As they are about to walk out the door, they bump into Curley, who asks where his wife is. George replies that she was here an hour ago, looking for him, and doesn’t know where she is. As they leave, George admits to Lennie that he’s afraid of fighting Curley.

### Lennie and George’s Dream Farm/Candy Joins in

At the end of the work day, Lennie enters the bunkhouse, hides his puppy under his denim coat, and happily shows it off to George, sitting at the table playing cards with Slim. He lies on his bunk and turns against the wall until George tells Lennie he’s not supposed to bring the small puppy into the bunkhouse, and Lennie insists he doesn’t have it. George grabs Lennie, rolls him over, and takes the puppy from him, telling him he needs to return it to its mother or he will tell Slim not to let him keep it. Lennie says he just wants to pet it and promises to return it before leaving the bunkhouse.

While Lennie is in the barn, taking the newborn puppies away from their mother and playing with them, Carlson gets fed up with Candy’s old, smelly dog at the bunkhouse. Candy reluctantly allows him to take his dog out of the bunkhouse and shoot it with his Luger in the back of the head. Later, Lennie returns to the bunkhouse, where Carlson cleans his gun after killing Candy’s dog. Curley then bursts in and demands where his wife is. Carlson says she isn’t here, and then Curley asks where Slim is. George replies that Slim is putting some tar on a mule’s foot in the barn. Curley runs out, with Carlson and another rancher, Whit, following him, expecting to witness a fight.

Alone in the bunkhouse with George and Candy, lying in his bunk facing the wall, Lennie tells George that Slim won’t let him pet the puppies, so he comes in here instead. George asks Lennie if he has seen Curley’s Wife in the barn. Lennie replies he didn’t, and George says that if there is a fight, he warns Lennie to stay away. While they shuffle over solitaire cards, Lennie asks how long it will be until they finally get their farm and raise rabbits. George replies that he doesn’t know and that they need to earn an income first, although he mentions that there is some cheap land for sale. Lennie urges George to describe it.

George says the land is ten acres, including a windmill, a chicken coop, fruit trees, and where they can grow and harvest alfalfa. George then describes how they will raise some livestock, such as cows, chickens and sheep, grow a vegetable garden, and he will build a rabbit hutch so Lennie can raise the rabbits, and they will live in their own house. Lennie and George keep chattering about the dream farm and become lost in thought until they jump when Candy speaks to them.

## References

1. ↑ *Of Mice and Men,* Chapter 3
2. ↑ Chapter 1
3. ↑ Chapter 2
4. ↑ Chapter 3