His entire mood changed when he went to the Hooverville camp. Even though he killed a man, he wasn't necessarily a violent person. However, when he went to the Hooverville camp, the injustice of the officers to the so called “Okies” irritated him deeply. One example includes the confrontation with the officer. The conflict began when Knowles, another “Okie”, demanded to know how much the workers would be getting paid, and a deputy fires wildly into a crowd as Knowles runs to avoid getting arrested. The deputy accidentally shot a woman in the hand which irritated Tom and caused him to take action. Then tripped the deputy and Casey knocked him unconscious and later on took the blame for the whole thing.

Another event that makes Tom a little uneasy is when Connie, Rose of Sharon's husband, runs off and abandons his wife and the baby. This event shows the inhumanity of man towards man. Although Tom doesn't seem to be bothered by many events, these to events in the last few chapters take a toll on him. He is nowhere near as bad as Ma Joad though. Ma Joad has basically given up and we don't really hear from the rest of the family. The family will continue to get smaller until there is no one left.

He could do the work of three men without even breaking a sweat, and he would not complain one time. He would do anything I said because he had complete faith in me. Lennie was so trustworthy that you could tell him to do anything like walk into the lake, and he would do it, no questions asked. He was a good man too.

You could tell Lennie all of your secrets and know that he would never repeat them to anyone. Lennie loved to feel smooth things; it always made a smile stretch across his face when he things that were smooth. He would try to keep mice as pets, but he always ended up killing them because he would pet them to hard. He was too dangerous and he needed me to help keep him stay out of trouble.

Lennie and I shared a dream of someday buying our own farm. We would have lived together and grown our own crops. He would always get excited so about being able to take care of rabbits that we had planned to get. I never really believed in the farm but he would always make me tell the story of us on it and his excitement from it started to get me excited in it. It seemed like we would be able to follow through with this dream, but just he couldn’t help himself.

People never could really befriend Lennie. I was his best friend. I was his only friend. He was an outcast among other people. He did not know what he was doing when he killed Curlys wife. It was an accident. Everyone has accidents. His was just had too big of one, and this one unfortunately cost him his life.

Lennie did not deserve to die. He couldn’t help most of the things he did, yet at the most important times, we seem to forget that even though I will never forget Lennie.

One character that struggles to be accepted is Cal. The cause of most of his struggles is his brother Aaron. Aaron is well liked by everyone at school and outside of school. He is seemingly perfect, and makes friends with everyone. He is accepted. Cal, on the other hand, is respected by his peers, but he has very few friends, and people always look at him as the darker of the two brothers. Cal lives his life wishing that he was good like his brother, and wishing that he could be accepted like his brother. However painful it is for Cal to experience this, it certainly strengthens him. After he has had enough with his brother, Cal finally tells Aron who their mother is. Aron runs off and joins the army, and later dies. This in turn causes Adam to have a stroke. Cal blames himself for everything, and in his sorrow, grief, and guilt, he thinks about committing suicide. Most other characters did commit suicide when faced with similar amounts of guilt and sorrow, but because Cal has always had to struggle for acceptance, he is strong enough to withstand the great waves that are crashing down on him.

Another character who struggled for acceptance is Will. Throughout his childhood, Will struggles to be accepted by the rest of his family. This is so because he has a knack for business and money, a trait that has never well respected by the other Hamiltons. While he is never accepted by any of his brothers or sisters, Will turns out to be the most profitable and stable among the children, and not just because he is a businessman. He makes the most money, but he is also much more emotionally stable when painful incidents occur. When Tom accidentally kills Bessie and consequently himself, Will does not lash out, act irrationally, or do anything outside his character, which others in the family have been known to do. He remains stable and is the most successful Hamilton.

Lee is a third character who struggles for acceptance. Because he is Chinese, people expect him to speak poor English and to talk very little in general. However, Lee is a very sophisticated man who speaks English well and also likes to go into deep discussions with others. Although he isn't very vocal about it, Lee struggles to be accepted as a real, intelligent person, and not just the Chinese stereotype that many Americans project onto him. Although he wants to be accepted, people will not accept him when he speaks in plain English, and so he must speak in a primitive, broken English. Even so, Lee goes on to become very influential in the lives of others, especially the Trasks, and is much more than a mere servant. Lee is an example of one who rises out of their struggles in greatness.
Cal, Will, and Lee are three characters who, in general, struggle more than others to be accepted when they are young. And yet they do not just crumble into a meaningless existence. They are strengthened, and end up being much more successful than characters who, by contrast, do not have to struggle with acceptance. Cal doesn't run off like his brother does when he realizes who his mother was. Will doesn't crash emotionally like some of his brothers and sisters do when hard times came. And Lee holds a meaningful and fulfilling life, unlike many in the world he lives in.

One such individual is the doctor. Going back to the beginning of the book when Kino's son coyotito got bitten by the scorpion he went to the doctor in order to seek help and treatment. Kino was denied and in response punched the doctor's gate and bruised his knuckles. Shortly after this event Kino discovers his treasure. The doctor gets word of this and confronts him. Being the sly person he is he tricked Kino into thinking that his son still had the poison and said he needed to "draw it out". What the doctor really was doing was giving coyotito some sort of virus so that he would get a fever. He treated it and then tried to steal Kino's pearl by asking him if he could keep it in his safe to guard it from thieves. Kino at that point highly suspected the doctor and said he would pay him when he had the money. From this point on Kino suffered a numerous amount of attacks and ultimately the death of his only child. Coyotito. In the end he throws "the pearl of the world" back into the ocean. Most people may think he was stupid but he felt that having the pearl brought calamity to him.

In the book, after Kino finds the pearl, he creates symbolical songs that the pearl sings which represents what he plans on doing with the money he gets from selling it. One of the symbolical songs that the song sings is the song of the family. He dreamed that when he became rich he would get new clothes for him and his wife Juana, hunting tools such as a harpoon and a rifle. The song symbolically changes its tone to a tone of triumph for Kino. He had future plans to send his son to school so that he could get a good education. In fact, he was so intent to getting his son in school that he said: "and these things will make us free because he will know- and through him we will know". Up to this point the song was positive but not surprisingly there is another song. This song is the song of evil which represents the enemies of Kino. They try to kill him and take the pearl but fail at it.

Like in all books, there are themes and characters. The same applies for the pearl. As we all know Kino is the main character of the story. Before he found the pearl he lived a normal life of poverty. At the start of the book his key quality doesn't show itself that much. What is this key quality that Kino possess? It is bravery. Despite the fact of the various circumstances he was in he still was willing to fight and even kill for his rights. He refused to allow himself to be taken advantage of by the pearl buyers. He knew that his treasure was worth much more then 2,000 peseos. Kino's enemies took away his home, his clean conscience, and even his son but besides all of that he still didn't give in. Another main character of the book is Kino's wife, Juanna. In my opinion Juanna was the most cautious. She knew from the start that Kino's pearl would bring great trouble upon him and the whole family. Throughout most of the story, she begs for him to throw it back into the ocean, but he does not listen.

Kino cared so much about the pearl that he was willing to hit his wife because she was going to throw it out into the ocean. Juanna seems like a humble person who puts more important things like family above material possessions. One other character in the book is Juan Thomas. Juan Thomas is the brother of Kino. Juan Thomas counsels Kino based on personal experience. He Knows firsthand just how cruel the pearl buyers can be when buying pearls. His Pearl was worth 1500 pesos but they only offered him 250. In ager he gave it to the priest, who in turn sold it to the doctor. He warns Kino but typically Kino ignores him and rejects the offer. This set him up for more problems in the future. Characters are important but so are themes. Themes help bring life to stories as it did for this one. One of the themes displayed in the book is "The Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Injurious Things". Initialy as mentioned before Kino started out with a mellow life. Suddenly when gets "the pearl of the world" the pace of things begin to change.

People unfortunantly like the doctor would like nothing more then to take Kino's treasure. This resulted in him bribing off the pearl buyers to cheat Kino. When that did not work he hired people to actually kill him. This shows what extent some humans would go as a result of their covetous attitude. Another theme in the book is "When Money Talks The world Keeps Silent". This theme does a good job at manifesting itself in the book. The doctor, who was obviously a very wealthy person often used his money to get his way. When Juan Thomas donated his pearl to the priest, the doctor found out about it. He went to the church and cunningly brought the pearl for only 10 pesos. Remember that the priest was a person in high position but yet he was willing to sell a donation to god for money. This is clear evidence that this theme exist within the book.

In my opinion I think that the adequacy of the topic was very good. The author developed his themes in a way so not only we could get thrilled but also to learn a lesson. That lesson is that material possessions are not everything. There are more important thing in life then that. You could clearly pick out the character traits as well as pick out the "good guys" from the bad. This book although starting out a little slow made up for it through its chunky plot and unexpected ending.

I had a great experience while reading the book. I almost was able to put myself inside of it and visualize all the events, particularly Kino's house going on fire. I must admit though that the beginning of chapter 1 bored me to some extent but it didn't detract much from the book.

George:

• Has hopes for the future
• Annoyed with Lenny for causing him so many jobs and troubles
• Is not large
• Takes care of Lenny
• Plays solitaire

Lenny:

• Has hopes for the future
• Dependent on George to guide him
• Sometimes picks up on things
• While mentally slow his reactions and thoughts are also slow although his actual movement can be fast
• Physically cannot converse well with others except for George because of his mental retardation
• He is set apart for being mentally retarded, huge, and strong
• He is defenseless mentally but has very good defense physically
• He is lonely from being set apart and rejected
• Likes to pet furry or soft things [to deal with loneliness]
• Loves mice, puppies, and rabbits
• Is amazing at bucking barley
• Simplistic

Slim:

• He is the skinner on the ranch
• Initially suspected of having an affair with Curley's wife
• Very serious in his image
• Slim is a very smart and wise person, he is very knowledgeable and can solve many problems and issues and so people seek him out for help
• He is a nice person in general
• He owns lots of puppies that Lenny wants, and gives one to Lenny

Curley's Wife:

• Loneliest character on the ranch
• Only woman on the ranch
• She is neglected by her husband (Curley)
• Curley treats her like an object (possession, this is also shown because she is referred to as HIS wife and doesn't have her own name to be called by in the book)
• She is taken by Curley as for granted
• Curley goes out with the rest of the guys to whore houses even though he is married to her
• Curley wants her to always be in their house
• Curley is very jealous even while he does go to whore houses with the rest
• Curley wants her isolated so no other man can talk to her and this makes her seem like a tramp when she does talk to other men even though she is just lonely
• Tries seducing the men to get attention
• Curley thinks he can impress her with soft hand, so he wears a glove with Vaseline in it instead of paying attention to her
• Rightfully, Curley's wife hates him and doesn't mind him to getting hurt
• She thinks she has influence because she is the wife of the bosses son and thinks she can get Crooks in trouble
• Had the chance to become a movie star
• Lenny accidentally kills her

Curley:

• He is the Boss's son
• Is intimidated by Lenny's presence and so hates him
• Thinks he is tough
• He is very aggressive and wants to fight a lot
• He is small
• He is mean
• He is married and treats his wife horribly so she is lonely and is called a tramp
• He is cocky and often loses his temper

Crooks:

• The stable buck at the ranch
• He is the only black man on the ranch
• He is subject to racism
• He has a bad back and rubs something on to it to make it better
• He is lonely because others do not work with him because of racism and because his back restricts him to doing only small tasks
• He reads to deal with his loneliness but to no avail
• He can be considered somewhat of an intellectual because the two books he owns and reads is a dictionary and a book on law
• He has no hopes for the future
• He lives alone, and has become untrusting, paranoid, and suspicious of potential friends
• He is sad and grumpy
• He scared Lenny about George being gone because that is how he always feels
• He "sees" things [that aren't their]
• He feels he will go crazy lest he finds a good companion of any type soon
• Is defensive
• Considers helping Lenny and George but changes his mind when Curley's wife degrades him

Candy:

• Old crippled man
• Lost his hand at the ranch
• He is the swamper at the ranch
• Owns an old dog he likes that is sickly
• Lets Carlson shoot the dog
• Somewhat disabled from taking big steps himself
• Offers George and Lenny half the money needed to buy the ranch in return for coming with them
• Got 250 dollars for losing his arm

Carlson:

• Big fat man who works at the ranch
• Owns a German Luger pistol (which George steals from him to kill Lenny after he strangled Curley's wife)
• Hates Candy's dog and with Candy's barely willing consent shoots it

Andy Cushman:

• In jail because of a whore

Whit:

• He is young
• He works on the ranch
• He showed Carlson a magazine with a letter from William Tenner (an old worker on the farm)

The Boss:

• He is Curley's dad
• He owns and controls the happenings at the ranch
• He is suspicious of George and Lenny traveling together when they first arrive
• Lenny spoke to him even though he promised George not to

Al Wilts:

• Sheriff in the town where Lenny and George work (Soledad)
• Curley wants to find him to figure out who killed his wife

Aunt Clara:

• Deceased aunt of Lenny
• Appears to him in a vision and scolds him, this suggest she did no treat him nicely as a child

Plot:

• Lenny and George had to escape their town because they were being looked for because Lenny, because it was soft and he liked soft things, grabbed a hold of a woman's skirt and would not let go
• Lenny and George find a new job on a ranch and begin to work there to save up money for their own future ranch and business that they plan to buy from two old people, one of which needs an operation
• Crooks scares Lenny about George not coming back and at first Lenny believes him and becomes anxious
• Lenny crushes Curley's hand
• Lenny kills Curley's wife

Thought:

Racism:

• "Ya see the stable buck's a nigger" (p. 21).

Loneliness:

• Many of the characters in Of Mice and Men are lonely, it is one of the biggest ongoing themes of the book
• "Guys like us... are the loneliest guys in the world" (p. 13).
• Lenny pets mice for comfort in being lonely (seeks companion ship in furry animals)
• • The men like to talk about their plans for an ideal future and if they have hope it brings them pleasure and helps them cope with loyalty, if they don't have hope, it gives them some

Friendship:

• Lenny on many occasions imitates George, this is because he is dependent on him and looks up to him for guidance - "Lenny imitated him" (p. 7).
• At one point George says Lenny is his cousin to answer why he hangs around with him. He also quickly brings up what a good worker he is when they notice he is mentally retarded. This shows that, George stands up for Lenny sometimes saving his hide by doing so because in a strange manner he cares about Lenny, not only as a source of companionship
• George protects Lenny

With an event like Virginia Tech, people that were not involved were only thinking of the bereaved in their spare time. After a thing like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, America is still getting itself back together. Some Americans are still mad at the so-called “Muslims” that attacked us so suddenly and viciously. Some people were actually rejoicing at our pain.

Americans as a whole enjoy the times with friends and family but put a computer in front of one and that is a serious distraction from the good times. One thing I notice is that Americans take too many things for granted. Americans take for granted the fact that they live in a country where people in other countries only dream of being.

Most Americans are fat. We hear about it in the news almost constantly, right along with how we should stop it. No one is really taking action. When a single person does something for their health, they quit more often than not because they are too fat and have problems with stamina and will along the way. Once, I heard a story of a woman in New York who sued “Taco Bell” and “McDonalds” because their food made her obese: an example of how stupid Americans can be.

We go from barbarism to self-indulgence with no intervening culture, but I believe that the culture that causes the shift is always there. Steinbeck did not realize that there is always a counter-culture pushing cultural progress along. In most of our history, there was always something pushing development, only that push did not happen between barbarism and self-indulgence. Sometimes, wars were pushing our development. World War Two, for example, pulled our economy out of the Great Depression and sent the economy into a war-time economy. We needed to develop things, and the war pushed the barbarism that was the 1930's to the greatest times we had since the 1920's.

Steinbeck says that Americans are a people contradictory of themselves. I say he is more right than wrong.

Obviously any novel on the depression contains a great deal of despair within it, because without despair there can be no hope. In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, (Hong Kong: The Readers Digest, 1992) and Harriette Arnow's The Dollmaker, (New York: Perennial, 2003) there are numerous examples of despair brought about by disappointing new circumstances and environments portrayed and experienced through the novels' characters and events.

In The Grapes of Wrath the Joad family suffer one disappointment and set back after another during their search for a better life in California. Grampa and Granma die during the family's epic voyage to the west in an old jalopy, Uncle John battles alcoholism, Noah and Connie walk out on the family in despair of ever finding something better together as a family unit, and Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn baby. One book reviewer at the time described the novel "as pitiful ... a novel ever to be written about America." (Jack p.160)

Similar despair is evident in The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow. When the family move to Detroit during World War II, in search of a better life, they instead find only despair and heartache. Gertie Nevels can not adjust to their new, cramped surroundings, Clovis gets tied in with the unions and is badly beaten, Reuben runs away back home realising that the grass is not greener in Detroit (in fact there's no grass at all) and the biggest blow comes with the death of young Cassie on the railway tracks by the family's small house. The reader also sees the despair experienced by those families surrounding the Nevels as well, including the drunken aggression of Mr. Daley, the abandonment of Victor by his wife, Max, and the tears that flow at various times during the book from Mrs. Anderson, Mrs Bommarita, and Sophronie and so on.

It seems that many people don't know what they have until it is gone, and all this despair serves a purpose, as many of the characters eventually realise that they were better off as they were, before they began to dream and try to move towards a better life for themselves. Some may say that the exception to this would be the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath, as they had already lost their farm to the depression and their circumstances when the novel began were generally out of their control. However, their decision to move to California was their own choice and it is not until they reach the west coast state that they realise they were better off back in Oklahoma. Their plight is summed up brilliantly by a stranger they meet bathing in the Colorado River who when asked if he's going to California, states that he's returning home to Pampa because "at leas' we can starve to death with folks we know. Won't have a bunch of fellas that hates us to starve with." (Steinbeck p.197)

In the case of the Nevels family in The Dollmaker, the house they were living in, back in Kentucky, was much larger and nicer than the one they moved into in Detroit. Gertie Nevels even had enough money saved up after fifteen years to buy a house and land (the Tipton place) outright, instead they move to Detroit and keep renting. In Kentucky they had fresh vegetables and other food easily at hand, and Gertie could make a little money here and there selling eggs and such things, but in Detroit fresh produce was harder to come by and subsequently many of the family meals lacked the same warmth and freshness that they had back in the country. Also when Cassie lays dying in her mother's arms, in an attempt to cheer her up and keep her smiling Gertie tells her that they'll, "be goen home pretty soon - real soon. It's spring - an you can climb trees agin an run ...." (Arnow p.409) Gertie chooses the image of their old life in Kentucky because that was where the family were at their happiest, not Detroit, and this is the image that she wants Cassie to hold onto. "Faced with bleak conditions, Gertie feels alienated, stifled, and, at critical moments, acquiescent." (Walsh p.185)

However, the main message that these novels try to get across to their readers, is that despite all the hardship and despair that people experienced during the depression, there was always a great hope that things would get better for the people of America. What goes up must come down, and visa versa and people knew that they were going through one of the hardest times in their lives during the depression, and that things could only improve from there on.

In The Grapes of Wrath we see Tom Joad for the final time, hiding from the law in a thicket, and being secreted food by his ma. Tom is probably in the deepest pit of despair he could imagine. He has violated his parole by leaving his home county and has killed a man, and is being hunted by the local law enforcers. Yet Tom still has hope that things will change for the better, and his hope is not just for himself but it extends to the rest of the American people that he has seen suffering along the way. "I been thinkin ... how our folks took care a theirselves, an ... I been a-wonderin' why we can't do that all over ... All work together for our own thing - all farm our own lan." (Steinbeck p.402) So the last glimpse of Tom we get is that of someone full of optimism and hope that he can still make a positive difference in the world that he lives. In fact the Joad's journey can be seen as "the ultimate optimistic, ennobling process." (Levant p.99)

At the end of The Dollmaker Harriette Arnow leaves the reader with a sense of hope that things will improve for the Nevels family. When Gertie takes the carved block of cherry-wood to be cut up she is not destroying it out of desperation at never being able to finish it or find its face, but instead it is "a gesture of investment - the cherry-wood block in exchange for a promising source of income." (Parker p.214) Gertie obviously has enough hope in her current situation that she is going to need that income for the future of her and her family.

Even Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004), although set mainly during the great depression has a positive message of hope found within its pages. Where people can dream there is always hope, and Louis Adamic, writing for the New Yorker summed up Woody Guthrie's Bound for Glory as being about "not the deeds of princes but the dreams of people." (Jackson p.8)

The film versions of all three books, The Grapes of Wrath, The Dollmaker and Bound for Glory also focus heavily on this idea of hope coming out of the depression. Near the end of The Grapes of Wrath (2004) Tom Joad leaves the family from the dance-floor of the government run camp, but there is hope in his eyes and "Tom's speech and mission look forward." (Gossage p.122) In The Dollmaker (1983) the final scene shows the Nevels family buying a new truck with the proceeds from Gertie's whittling, and returning as a family to Kentucky. As the credits roll on Bound for Glory (2000) Woodie Guthrie's character can be seen sitting on the roof of train, once again moving forward, and all to the upbeat strains of Woodie's This Land is Your Land.

So these three successful novels and films based on events that occurred around the time of the great depression in America, were all created around a similar formula. They were based around a character or set of characters that at the start are settled or doing well for themselves. The characters are then shown to suffer in a new environment and with new circumstances forced upon them by the depression. However, despite all that the characters have suffered and endured on their search for a better life and an escape from the great depression, they still maintain hope, and as explained, this hope is evident in the pages of the novels and in the scenes of the films.

The story takes place in a remote part of Central California. The area is a fertile valley with a huge amount of farmland. The time setting is in the 1930’s. The time and setting add to the sense of the novel.

One of the main characters, George, is a farm hand who has some common sense. He is middle aged and is a hard worker. Lennie Small is George’s best friend. He rather is a large man, which is not very bright. Lennie has the mind of a small child and can be a great hard worker. He likes to feel things which will later get him into trouble later in the story. Lennie and George have moved across the country from ranch to ranch getting jobs. Usually Lennie does something to get them in trouble. George befriended Lennie when Lennie was a small boy. When Lennie’s Aunt Clara died, George decided to take care of Lennie. These two friends set out to earn some money to reach the ultimate goal of theirs, which is to buy their own shack and farm some land. One thing that Lennie wants to do at this farm is to have some rabbits to watch and tend.

When George and Lennie reach the ranch, that the story takes place, they meet some different individuals. The leader of the ranch hands, a man named Slim, is friendly towards the two and shows his leadership later in the novel. Slim is a very thin man, who has a sense of humor. The son of the owner of the ranch, Curly, is a small man who is always looking for a fight. He used to be a boxer so he a good fighter. Curly does not like big guy so gives Lennie a time.

He will regret he ever did. Curly’s wife is very attractive and is always looking for Curly. Curly is always looking for her as well. The person who runs the stable is a middle aged African American named Crooks. He got his name when he was kicked in the back by a horse. Now he is hunched over when he walks. Another worker is a man named Carlson, who is rather large and can be very assertive. Candy is an older man, who is in charge of the cabins, where the workers stay. Candy has an old dog that smells a great deal. This dog means the world to Candy, which later changes. All of these characters influence the plot and change the outcome of the novel.

After George and Lennie reach the ranch, the story takes off. Lennie teaches Curly a lesson and accidentally tells Candy of their plans to have a farm but it doesn’t matter, because when all the men except for Lennie go to town, the unthinkable happens. Sometimes friends have to make tough descions to help the others they love.

I really enjoyed Of Mice and Men. Even though the story took of very slow, it was exciting the rest of the way. The plot is somewhat complex and easy to follow with few characters. The language the characters use reflects the time period and people invoved. Overall I would encouge people to read Of Mice and Men. It is a great, short read, that is full of questions.

George then knew that the two would have to leave Weed and find work elsewhere. The two needed to hide in an irrigation ditch until it was safe to come out and go to Soledad for their new job.

George and Lennie get to the new ranch that they are working at when one night they are talking about their dream to get a ranch for themselves. Candy overhears the two talking about it and asks if he can be a part of their dream. Candy says that he can pitch in three hundred fifty dollars if he can live with them.

George then believes that he can get the place in one month after the three receive their monthly pay. This is important to the story because it shows that people that work on ranches actually do have a chance at living their own life and to be free.

One day Lennie kills his puppy accidentally. Lennie is just worried about if he gets to tend the rabbits when George, Candy, and him get their own house. Soon after that, Curley's wife comes into the barn. She starts talking to Lennie and they get on the subject of how they like to touch nice things.

Curley's wife said how soft her hair was and lets Lennie touch her hair. When she starts to tell him to let go he won't listen. Then she starts to yell and Lennie tries to stop her because she doesn't want George to hear her. After a minute Lennie has broken her neck and she is dead. Lennie then runs away.

Soon after Lennie leaves, George and Candy come into the room. They find Curley's wife dead. George and Candy then tell the other men what they have found. Curley pulls out a gun and claims that he is going to make Lennie suffer as much as he can.

When the group of men is trying to find Lennie, George separates himself and finds Lennie. He starts talking to Lennie about the nice house that they are going to get and Lennie gets very happy. While they are talking George pulls out a gun and puts it on the back of Lennie's head. He shoots Lennie so he doesn't feel a thing, while he is thinking happy thoughts, to save from the slow death Curley would have made him go through.