Of Mice and Men (Characters)

Characters

Candy

Candy is the old, disabled ranch hand who is helpless to stop the shooting of his dog and who knows that he too will be banished when he is no longer useful. He is sweetly hopeful of joining Lennie and George on their dream farm, offering to contribute his savings of $350 to buy the farm.

Carlson

Carlson is a skilled worker, a mechanic at the ranch who assumes an arrogance forbidden the others. He is the one who orders Candy's dog to be put to death. Carlson has no feelings about the animal and no concept that anyone else might care about the old creature. He is insensitive, brutal, violent, and fanatical; his only contributions to the group are destructive. His callousness is especially evident at the end of the novel. Upon seeing Slim and George sadly walk off for a drink after George has shot Lennie, Carlson says, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?"

Crooks

Crooks, the despairing old Negro stable worker, lives alone in the harness room, ostracized from the ranch hands. On the one occasion when he briefly talks to Lennie and Candy, the bunkhouse worker who wants to be part of the dream farm Lennie and George are planning to buy, Crooks tells them they will never attain their dream. Crooks is excluded from the rest of the ranch hands, except at Christmas when the boss brings in a gallon of whiskey for the entire crew.

Curley

Curley, the son of the owner of the ranch where George and Lennie work, is willing to fight at the drop of a hat, yet he is really a coward. Lennie stands up to Curley and crushes his hand in his iron grip. Later, Curley organizes the posse to find Lennie after he has killed Curley's wife.

Curley's Wife

Curley's wife (as the boss's son's flirtatious wife, she is not identified by any other name) wanders around the ranch searching for some human contact. She is stereotyped by the men as a "tart." Indeed, she plays the vamp, which enrages her jealous husband. George tells Lennie to avoid her, calling her "poison" and "jailbait." But she is pathetically lonely and had once had dreams of being a movie star. Both she and Crooks crave company and "someone to talk to." On Sunday afternoon, while the others are playing horseshoes, Curley's wife gets Lennie to feel her soft hair. When he begins to muss it, she panics, and he accidentally breaks her neck. When George discovers what has happened, he realizes that their dream is over.

George Milton

George Milton, a migrant laborer, is like a mouse: "small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose." George has brains and ambition. He is the most complex of the characters in Of Mice and Men because he has not accepted his present lot in life. He has a dream to save money, buy a small farm, and be his own boss. George is loyal in his friendship with Lennie, and he is also remarkably pure of heart. When George is driven to shoot Lennie after Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, he destroys his own dream, too. Its fulfillment is doomed by insensitive materialists. Along with the destruction of his dream, George loses the chance to become a better man.

Above all, George is a survivor, proving himself to be shrewdly adaptable to migratory life. Still, he has weaknesses; he yells at Lennie from time to time and needs to feel better about his own ordinariness. But George is essentially a good man. Throughout the novel, he is loyal and committed to Lennie. In fact, George takes complete responsibility for Lennie, even to the point of killing him, because he ultimately feels responsible for Lennie's actions. George had promised Lennie's aunt that he would look out for Lennie, and although George complains about having to take care of him, their friendship gives George someone with whom he can share his dream. By the end of the story, George has achieved some control over his instincts, yet, despite his obvious commitment to Lennie, the mouselike George is helpless to overcome the injustices of an imperfect world.

Slim

Slim, the mule driver, is a superior workman with "God-like eyes" who is kind and perceptive. He alone understands and tries to comfort George at the end of the novel after George has killed Lennie. Emphasis is placed on Slim's skill and craftsmanship; he does his job exceedingly well. Slim is a doer, not a dreamer. "His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought." Slim is the really heroic man in the novel.

Lennie Small

Lennie Small, an itinerant ranch hand like his friend, George Milton, is a tall, powerful man who is mentally handicapped. He and George share a dream of someday buying their own farm, and Lennie is excited about the prospect of taking care of the rabbits they plan to keep. For a while, it appears as if the dream might come true. Lennie is a good worker and has the strength to do much of the farm work. Yet, handicapped by his lack of adult intelligence, Lennie is doomed in the world of the migrant worker. Though an innocent and not violent by nature, he has the potential for violence; his incredible strength leads him to accidentally kill the mice and puppies whose fur he likes to stroke. Lennie is repeatedly associated with animals and described as childlike. In the opening scene, for example, he appears dragging his feet "the way a bear drags his paws," and in the book's final chapter, he enters the clearing in the brush "as silently as a creeping bear." Lennie dies because he is incapable of living within society and is in fact a menace. His contact with living creatures, from mice to puppies to Curley's wife, results in destruction. Although his weakness dooms the dream of the farm, it is his innocence that keeps it alive throughout the novel until his death. His brute strength threatens society, yet it is Lennie's extraordinary mixture of human dreams and animal passions that are important. Without Lennie, George is friendless and alone. While their partnership lasts, George and Lennie share a brotherly, mutual concern and loyal companionship. There is joy, security, and comfort in their relationship. As Steinbeck once wrote, "Lennie was not to represent insanity at all but the inarticulate and powerful yearning of all men."

Media Adaptations

• Of Mice and Men was adapted by Steinbeck as a play, which opened on Broadway on November 23, 1937, and was directed by playwright George S. Kaufman. The play won the prestigious New York Critics' Circle Award for 1937 and ran for 207 performances.
• The novel was also adapted as a film in 1939 and was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Score by Aaron Copland, and Best Sound. The film starred Burgess Meredith as George and Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie, and was released by Universal; it was directed by Lewis Mileston. As of 1997, unavailable on video.
• The novel was adapted as a film for television by ABC in 1968; it was directed by Ted Kotcheff, produced by David Susskind, and starred George Segal and Nicol Williamson.
• Another made-for-television movie version was broadcast in 1981, starring Robert Blake and Randy Quaid, and directed by Reza Badiyi. This version is available from Prism Entertainment Home Video.
• A more recent film adaptation of the novel was made in 1992. Director Gary Sinise received permission from Elaine Steinbeck, the writer's widow, to film the novel. The movie starred Gary Sinise as George and John Malkovich as Lennie; the screenplay was written by Horton Foote; it is available from MGM/UA Home Entertainment.