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Run out of town
George and Lennie are run out of town after Lennie refuses to let go of a woman's dress. -
Waiting for the Storm to Pass
After being run out of Weed, George and Lennie hide in a drainage ditch waiting for everyone to forget about them. They hide there all night but finally the coast is clear for them to leave. -
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Of Mice and Men
This is a important events timeline for Of Mice and Men -
Finding a new job
After Lennie's latest falter, George finds them a new job near the town of Soledad. Jobs are especially hard to come by in this period of time known as "The Great Depression". -
Stranded
After accepting the job offer they get onto a bus. The bus driver drops them off 10 miles away from the ranch. They don't realize this until they have been walking for hours with no ranch in sight. This is the start of the book. We realize here that Lennie has Schizophrenia. He keeps stroking a dead rat and asks George to tell him about their "future ranch". -
Finally at the ranch
Lennie and George finally reach the ranch. They were expected the night before so "the boss" is very upset at them. All of the other field hands are already out in the fields, so they go to see where they will be staying. They also find out about Slim's puppies. The reader should be worried considering Lennie's previous history with soft textures. -
Death of a Friend
In this chapter, Carlson shoots Candy's old dog. Candy has had him since he was a puppie. He has grown so attached to him that for a while he refuses to put him down. The dog is beatdown, smelly, and serves no purpose on the ranch. Candy eventually lets Carlson take him. -
Foreshadowing
Here we see 2 instances of foreshadowing. The first is the amount of emphasis put onto the fact the Carlson has a pistol. The second occurs after the dog is dead. We hear Candy say that he regrets that he wasn't the one to kill the dog. -
Livin' off the land
This is one of the many cases where we realize that Lennie has Schizophrenia. He keeps asking George about their future ranch where they will live off the land. While they are talking about it Candy walks in. He wants in and offers some money towards their plan. -
FIGHT
After laughing at Curley, Lennie and Curley get into a fist fight. Curley starts to pummel Lennie because Lennie doesn't want to get George in trouble. George, who is spectating the fight, tells Lennie to not be afraid and to defend himself. Lennie grabs the hand of Curley as he is throwing a punch and squeezes it so hard that the bone shatters. Slim threatens Curley by saying that if he tells anyone that he will come after him. -
The First Visit
Curley's wife walks into the barn where Lennie is with one of the puppies that he killed. She talks about how she could have been on Broadway but chose Curley over it. She is wearing a very nice silk dress. -
Lennie Screws up Again
Lennie talks to Curley's wife about how he likes petting soft things. We can tell this is true from the DEAD mouse in the beginning of the book, and the DEAD dog that he killed not too long ago. Curley's wife lets Lennie pet her hair. He likes the feeling but she is starting to get creeped out. She tells him to stop but he won't. She starts to struggle and he snaps her neck. -
Everyone knows
Everybody soon figures out that Lennie killed Curley's wife. Curley, instead of greiving, gathers everybody to hunt Lennie down and kill him. George says that he knows where he went so he joins the search party. We go back to the foreshadowing timeline event. We realize that Carlson has a gun and we know that Candy felt bad for not killing his dog himself. -
Finally Going to that Little Ranch in the Middle of Nowhere
After going back to the woods where they got stranded by the bus, George sees Lennie sitting by the river. George has Carlson's pistol with him. Lennie hears the rest of the search party coming and wants to hear George talk about the ranch. George starts telling him and Lennie says, "George, let's go there now Geroge!" After some hesitation, George raises the pistol to the back of Lennie's neck and says, "Yes Lennie, let's go." George pulls the trigger and Lennie is now dead.
