Character Traits and Identity

2. Character Traits and Identity • Worker on ranch. • Sharp features and definite lines. “The first man was 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.” page 1 • Travels with Lennie Small. • Cares for Lennie. “Let the big guy talk. Lennie twisted with embarrassment. George said s’pose he don’t want to talk?” Page.13 • He is able to help Lennie sometimes understand the consequences of his actions and that he did a “bad thing.” • He often becomes angry with Lennie because Lennie can’t control himself,but it fades when he realizes that Lennie is handicapped and his compassion for Lennie overwhelms him. “I wisht I could put you into a cage with about a million mice an’ let you have fun. His anger left him suddenly. He looked across the fire at Lennie’s anguished face, and then he looked ashamedly at the flames.” Page 6 George Milton

3. Because of Lennie George is able to feel responsible and to give advice to someone and take charge. George is the one who leads him. • “Hide in the brush till I come for you. Can you remember that?… But you ain’t going to get into no trouble,because if you do, I won’t let you tend the rabbits.” Page. 8 • Without Lennie, George would also be all alone. Solitaire one man game but since Lennie is there it’s like two people are playing. • He is practical and realistic. Being practical is a trait that helps and hinders George- has to kill Lennie since he knew that he killed Curley’s wife • But, realist that he is, George tells Candy over the lifeless body of Curley’s wife, "I think I knowed from the very first. I think I know'd we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would [be able to have the farm.]" In the end, George Milton is man alone once again. • Considers how his goals can be reached and thinks of the complications that can–rational and thoughtful. George gets them a job.

4. Dreams • George wants to earn enough money so that he can purchase land and buy a farm of his own. A place where he can feel safe and secure. Somewhere where George won’t have to worry about keeping tracing of Lennie’s mistakes • George is realistic about it though and doesn’t believe that he can pull it off alone. He keeps telling Lennie about the farm in order to keep his dreams alive. • “Look down there by the river,like you can almost see the place.” Page.51 • Unlike everyone else, Lennie and George have a dream that they are waiting to come true. • “With us it ain’t like that.We got a future. We got somebody to talk to to care about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room because we got no place to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody cares. But no us! An’ why? Because… I got you to look after me,and you got me to look after you,and that’s why.” Page.7

5. Character Traits and Identity Lennie Small • Strong. Get quote that Slim says • Big,and shapeless, the opposite of George. • “Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face,with large,pale eyes,with wide sloping shoulders; he walked heavily,dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his side,but hung loosely.” Page 1. • Many times is described in terms of animals • “The first man stopped short in the clearing, and the follower nearly ran over him. He dropped his blankets and flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool;drank with long gulps,snorting the water like a horse.” Page 1 • Travels with George. • His personality is childlike. • “I like beans with ketchup.” Page. 4

6. Not very smart. He is innocently and mentally handicapped. “Oh, sure George.I remember that now. His hands went quickly into his coat pockets. He said gently, George… I ain’t got mine. I musta lost it. He looked down at the ground in despair.”Page. 3 “You never had none. I got both of em’ here. Think I’d let you carry your own work card?” “Lennie grinned with relief.” I…I thought I put it in my side pocket.” • When the rest of the world is big and scary, Lennie is comforted by petting soft things. • “Lennie stroked the puppy back and forth. We gonna have a little place-an’ rabbits, he explained.” Page.42 • Even though everyone else disapproves of Lennie, Lennie doesn’t understand and sees nothing wrong. • “I wasn’t doin’ nothin’ bad with it, George. Jus’ strokin’ it.”Page.5 • Because of Lennie’s lack of thought and his massive strength, his becomes dangerous to everyone around him as well as himself. • “ Why do you got to get killed?You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bound you hard.” Page.41 • Looks up to George for guidance. • “Listen, Small!! Lennie raised his head. What can you do? In a panic, Lennie looked at George for help. He can do anything you tell him, said George” Page.11

7. Dreams • George tells Lennie that their farm is a place where they can live together, have animals, grow their own crops and, in general, feel safe. Even though Lennie has little memory, he remembers this dream and even reminds George about it, which shows how important it is to him. • Lennie embraces this dream with childlike enthusiasm. All he wants is a chance to care for the rabbits and stroke their soft fur. • Lennie’s enthusiasm momentarily excites George who never really believed in the farm. • Lennie’s innocence keeps the dream alive, but his human imperfections make the dream impossible to realize.

8. Candy Character Traits and Identity • Old man • Ranch hand • Tells George and Lennie about the ranch. • He wanted to kill his dog himself because he felt like it was a part of him that he should have personally bid goodbye to. He felt bad that he left his companion (the dog) to die alone by the hands of a stranger. • Physically handicapped • The ranch owners keep him as long as he is useful. He represents the discrimination against the old and the handicapped. They are thrown out an used up just like his dog. • Has a handicapped dog who smelled. He had raised since it was little. • “ Yeah. I had ‘im since he was a pup. He was a good sheep dog when he was younger.” Page.13 • Tells George that he’ll help him gather the money and buy the land for their farm if he’s allowed to live and help there.

9. Candy’s dog depends on Candy and Lennie depends on George to take care of him. Candy, like George is different than everyone because he has a constant loyal companion who is loyal to him. When Candy tells George that he should have shot his dog himself, George decides to take responsibility for Lennie’s death and kill him personally. “I ought to of shot that dog myself, George.I shouldn’t of let a stranger shoot my dog.” Page.30 George/ Lennie Candy/Dog

10. Dreams • He doesn’t have much energy left and wanted to be a part of the group once more. He wanted to accomplish one last thing in life, he wanted to work and live on the farm with George and Lennie. • When he offers his stake, George begins to believe that their dream of running and living on a farm just might come true. He believes that he can still have a safe haven, a place where no one will get rid of him when he’s too old. The dream is so strong in his mind that he pleads with George to buy the farm with him, even after Lennie’s death.

11. BOSS Character traits and identity • He is the owner of the ranch • Gets pretty mad sometimes, but is pretty nice. • Treats his workers to drinks every New Year’s

12. Theme No one is invincible Lennie thinks that he won’t kill something bigger than a mouse, but he does. The things he killed just got bigger and bigger. The mouse, the puppy, Curley’s Wife and then he himself ends up being killed.

13. Character traits and identity Whit • Ranch hand • Plays cards with George

15. Character traits and identity Smitty Blacksmith on ranch He quit He was a very clean and tidy person

16. Lennie's Death George felt responcible for Lennie. Father/Son relationship. Lennie was a part of him, he was his whole life. The more you give to a person, the more you love them. George didn’t want death to be painful for Lennie. He wanted to keep Lennie’s dream alive until the very last possible moment.

17. Character traits and Identity CARLSON Ranch hand Killed Candy’s dog

19. Identity and character traits Curley • Mean • Short • Likes to fight with others,especially with people that are bigger than him.He does this to show everyone how strong he is. • According to Candy he’s an amateur boxer. • He marries a girl whom Steinback always refers to as Curley’s wife. This indicates that Curley treated her like a possession and isolated her from everyone else. • He is always looking for her and she always pops up whenever the workers are alone, so he never finds her and is always asking everyone if they have seen her. • The only one that he listens to is Slim.

20. When Curley picks the fight with Lennie, he does not realize the danger he is in. Lennie ends up unintentionally breaking his hand. • Curley whimpers like a baby and cries helplessly with the pain. This shows that Curey is really just a big coward. • When Lennie kills Curley's wife, Curley sees this as his opportunity for revenge. In his meanness, he tells Carlson to aim for Lennie's gut so that Lennie will suffer. • This, in turn, causes George to make the decision to kill Lennie mercifully.

21. Identity and character traits • Represented as either Curley’s Wife or as his possession • She is the only female character. • George warns Lennie about her knowing that he may have interest. • She is all alone on the ranch and no one will talk to her for fear that her husband will have them fired or will beat them up. • In the scene in Crooks’ room, she reminds Crooks of his place and threatens to have him lynched if he doesn't show her the proper respect as the wife of the boss' son and a white woman. All of these appearances cause the reader to dislike her and see her as the downfall of the men in the story. Curley's Wife

22. Dream Her dream was to be a famous, rich movie star and own a lot of pretty clothes. “Nother time I met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural.” Page.42 Because she flaunted her beauty she ended up destroying her dream as well as everyone else’s. • In the barn scene, however, Steinbeck softens the reader's reaction to Curley's wife by exploring her dreams. Her beauty is such that perhaps that dream might have come true. • Steinbeck reiterates this impression by portraying her innocence in death: • Curley's wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face

23. Identity and character traits SLIM Described in dignified way Everyone listens to him. He has the final word. Quote Candy’s dog He is sympathetic,but realistic. Curley’s hand Not judgemental Quote when George tells him about Weed. George senses in Slim a person of intelligence and empathy who will not be mean to Lennie, make fun of him, or take advantage of him. Slim is the only one on the ranch who appreciates the difficulty of George's position. He understands the constant oversight George must exercise in watching Lennie and keeping him out of trouble. It is Slim, in the end, who suggests that George did the right thing in killing Lennie mercifully.”You hadda, George. Come on with me.”Page.52 Slim is present at every crucial juncture in the story: the death of Candy's dog, the smashing of Curley's hand, finding the body of Curley’s Wife, at the pool after George has shot Lennie. In each case, there is violence or the threat of it. Each time Slim helps make the assessment to do what is merciful or what is right.

24. Candy's dog

25. Crooks Identity and character traits • Black • Stable boy. Takes care of the horses. • Disabled. Called Crooks because of his crooked back. • Lives alone and isn’t allowed near the white workers. • Decended from the only Black farm in the area. • Steinbeck uses crooks to show the effects of discrimination. • Racial discrimination Steinbeck describes in his story. It reaches its height in the novel when Curley’s Wife puts Crooks "in his place" by telling him that a word from her will have him lynched. Interestingly, only Lennie, the flawed human, does not see the color of Crooks' skin. • Crooks is not without his faults, however. He scares Lennie and makes up the story of George leaving him. Prejudice isn't simply a characteristic of the white ranch hands or the daughter-in-law of the boss; it is a human characteristic, and Crooks needs to feel superior to someone also.

26. Dream • . In several places in the story, Steinbeck shows Crook's dignity and pride when he draws himself up and will not "accept charity" from anyone. Crooks also displays this "terrible dignity" when Curley's wife begins to tear away at his hope for the dream farm. • Candy realizes he has never been in Crooks' room, and George’s reaction to Crooks being involved in their dream is enough to cause Crooks to withdraw his request to be part of the dream. • “’Member what I said about hoein’ and doin’ odd jobs? Well, jus’ forget it,” said Crooks.I didn’t mean it. Jus’ foolin’. I wouldn’ want to go no place like that.” Page.40 • Crooks also wants to become part of the dream farm, which is an indication of Crooks' loneliness and insecurity. • He, like Candy, realizes that once he is no longer useful he will be "thrown out." The dream farm of Lennie's seems to be the place. Crooks promises to work for nothing as long as he can live his life out there without the fear of being put out. • Like all the others, he wants a place where he can be independent and have some security. But there is no security for anyone in a prejudiced world, least of all a black stable hand with a crooked back.