Study Notes
Of Mice and Men
by

John Steinbeck

I.  Characters

A.  Lennie—A large, lumbering, childlike migrant worker.

1.        Due to his mild mental disability, Lennie completely depends upon George, his friend and traveling companion, for guidance and protection.

a.        The two men share a vision of a farm that they will own together, a vision that Lennie believes in wholeheartedly.

b.        Gentle and kind, Lennie nevertheless does not understand his own strength.

i.     His love of petting soft things, such as small animals, dresses, and people's hair, leads to disaster.

B.  George—A small, wiry, quick-witted man who travels with, and cares for, Lennie.

1.        Although he frequently speaks of how much better his life would be without his caretaking responsibilities, George is obviously devoted to Lennie.

a.        George's behavior is motivated by the desire to protect Lennie and, eventually, deliver them both to the farm of their dreams.

i.     Though George is the source for the often-told story of life on their future farm, it is Lennie's childlike faith that enables George to actually believe his account of their future.

C.  Candy—An aging ranch handyman, Candy lost his hand in an accident and worries about his future on the ranch.

1.        Fearing that his age is making him useless, he seizes on George's description of the farm he and Lennie will have, offering his life's savings if he can join George and Lennie in owning the land.

a.        The fate of Candy's ancient dog, which Carlson shoots in the back of the head in an alleged act of mercy, foreshadows the manner of Lennie's death.

D.  Curley's wife—The only female character in the novel, Curley's wife is never given a name and is only referred to in reference to her husband.

1.        The men on the farm refer to her as a "tramp," a "tart," and a "looloo."

a.        Dressed in fancy, feathered red shoes, she represents the temptation of female sexuality in a male-dominated world.

i.     Steinbeck depicts Curley's wife not as a villain, but rather as a victim.

a)        Like the ranch-hands, she is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life.

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II.  Notes

A.  Themes: Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

1.        The Predatory Nature of Human Existence

a.        Of Mice and Men teaches a grim lesson about the nature of human existence.

i.     Nearly all of the characters, including George, Lennie, Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife, admit, at one time or another, to having a profound sense of loneliness and isolation.

ii.   Each desires the comfort of a friend, but will settle for the attentive ear of a stranger.

a)        Curley's wife admits to Candy, Crooks, and Lennie that she is unhappily married.

b)        Crooks tells Lennie that life is no good without a companion to turn to in times of confusion and need.

b.        The characters are rendered helpless by their isolation, and yet, even at their weakest, they seek to destroy those who are even weaker than they.

i.     Perhaps the most powerful example of this cruel tendency is when Crooks criticizes Lennie's dream of the farm and his dependence on George.

ii.   Having just admitted his own vulnerabilities—he is a black man with a crooked back who longs for companionship—Crooks zeroes in on Lennie's own weaknesses.

iii.      In scenes such as this one, Steinbeck records a profound human truth:

a)        oppression does not come only from the hands of the strong or the powerful.

iv.      Crooks seems at his strongest when he has nearly reduced Lennie to tears for fear that something bad has happened to George, just as Curley's wife feels most powerful when she threatens to have Crooks lynched.

c.        The novel suggests that the most visible kind of strength, that used to oppress others, is itself born of weakness.

2.        Fraternity and the Idealized Male Friendship

a.        One of the reasons that the tragic end of George and Lennie's friendship has such a profound impact is that one senses that the friends have, by the end of the novel, lost a dream larger than themselves.

i.     The farm on which George and Lennie plan to live—a place that no one ever reaches—has a magnetic quality, as Crooks points out.

ii.   After hearing a description of only a few sentences, Candy is completely drawn in by its magic.

iii.      Crooks has witnessed countless men fall under the same silly spell, and still he cannot help but ask Lennie if he can have a patch of garden to hoe there.

b.        The men in Of Mice and Men desire to come together in a way that would allow them to be like brothers to one another.

i.     That is, they want to live with one another's best interests in mind, to protect each other, and to know that there is someone in the world dedicated to protecting them.

ii.   Given the harsh, lonely conditions under which these men live, it should come as no surprise that they idealize friendships between men in such a way.

a)        Ultimately, however, the world is too harsh and predatory a place to sustain such relationships.

iii.      Lennie and George, who come closest to achieving this ideal of brotherhood, are forced to separate tragically.

iv.      With this, a rare friendship vanishes, but the rest of the world—represented by Curley and Carlson, who watch George stumble away with grief from his friend's dead body—fails to acknowledge or appreciate it.

3.        The Impossibility of the American Dream

a.        Most of the characters in Of Mice and Men admit, at one point or another, to dreaming of a different life.

i.     Before her death, Curley's wife confesses her desire to be a movie star.

ii.   Crooks, bitter as he is, allows himself the pleasant fantasy of hoeing a patch of garden on Lennie's farm one day.

iii.      Candy latches on desperately to George's vision of owning a couple of acres.

b.        Before the action of the novel begins, circumstances have robbed most of the characters of these wishes.

i.     Curley's wife, for instance, has resigned herself to an unfulfilling marriage.

a)        What makes all of these dreams typically American is that the dreamers wish for untarnished happiness, for the freedom to follow their own desires.

ii.   George and Lennie's dream of owning a farm, which would enable them to sustain themselves, and, most important, offer them protection from an inhospitable world, represents a prototypically American ideal.

a)        Their journey, which awakens George to the impossibility of this dream, sadly proves that the bitter Crooks is right: such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this world.

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c.        Motifs: Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.

4.        The Corrupting Power of Women

a.        The portrayal of women in Of Mice and Men is limited and unflattering.

i.     We learn early on that Lennie and George are on the run from the previous ranch where they worked, due to encountering trouble there with a woman.

a)        Misunderstanding Lennie's love of soft things, a woman accused him of rape for touching her dress.

b)        George berates Lennie for his behavior, but is convinced that women are always the cause of such trouble.

c)        Their enticing sexuality, he believes, tempts men to behave in ways they would otherwise not.

ii.   A visit to the "flophouse" (a cheap hotel, or brothel) is enough of women for George, and he has no desire for a female companion or wife.

iii.      Curley's wife, the only woman to appear in Of Mice and Men, seems initially to support George's view of marriage.

a)        Dissatisfied with her marriage to a brutish man and bored with life on the ranch, she is constantly looking for excitement or trouble.

1.         In one of her more revealing moments, she threatens to have the black stable-hand lynched if he complains about her to the boss.

2.         Her insistence on flirting with Lennie seals her unfortunate fate.

' Although Steinbeck does, finally, offer a sympathetic view of Curley's wife by allowing her to voice her unhappiness and her own dream for a better life, women have no place in the author's idealized vision of a world structured around the brotherly bonds of men.

5.        Loneliness and Companionship

a.        Many of the characters admit to suffering from profound loneliness.

i.     George sets the tone for these confessions early in the novel when he reminds Lennie that the life of a ranch-hand is among the loneliest of lives.

a)        Men like George who migrate from farm to farm rarely have anyone to look to for companionship and protection.

b)        As the story develops, Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife all confess their deep loneliness.

1.         The fact that they admit to complete strangers their fear of being cast off shows their desperation.

2.         In a world without friends to confide in, strangers will have to do.

3.         Each of these characters searches for a friend, someone to help them measure the world, as Crooks says.

4.         In the end, however, companionship of his kind seems unattainable.

5.         For George, the hope of such companionship dies with Lennie, and true to his original estimation, he will go through life alone.

6.        Strength and Weakness

a.        Steinbeck explores different types of strength and weakness throughout the novel.

i.     The first, and most obvious, is physical strength.

a)        As the novel opens, Steinbeck shows how Lennie possesses physical strength beyond his control, as when he cannot help killing the mice.

b)        Great physical strength is, like money, quite valuable to men in George and Lennie's circumstances.

c)        Curley, as a symbol of authority on the ranch and a champion boxer, makes this clear immediately by using his brutish strength and violent temper to intimidate the men and his wife.

ii.   Physical strength is not the only force that oppresses the men in the novel.

a)        It is the rigid, predatory human tendencies, not Curley, that defeat Lennie and George in the end.

b)        Lennie's physical size and strength prove powerless; in the face of these universal laws, he is utterly defenseless and therefore disposable.

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III.  Symbols/Metaphors: Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Metaphors use one thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: “Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven”

A.  George and Lennie's Farm

1.        The farm that George constantly describes to Lennie, those few acres of land on which they will grow their own food and tend their own livestock, is one of the most powerful symbols in the book.

a.        It seduces not only the other characters but also the reader, who, like the men, wants to believe in the possibility of the free, idyllic life it promises.

b.        Candy is immediately drawn in by the dream, and even the cynical Crooks hopes that Lennie and George will let him live there too.

c.        A paradise for men who want to be masters of their own lives, the farm represents the possibility of freedom, self-reliance, and protection from the cruelties of the world.

2.        Lennie's Puppy

a.        Lennie's puppy is one of several symbols that represent the victory of the strong over the weak.

i.     Lennie kills the puppy accidentally, as he has killed many mice before, by virtue of his failure to recognize his own strength.

ii.   Although no other character can match Lennie's physical strength, the huge Lennie will soon meet a fate similar to that of his small puppy.

iii.      Like an innocent animal, Lennie is unaware of the vicious, predatory powers that surround him.

3.        Candy's Dog

a.        In the world Of Mice and Men describes, Candy's dog represents the fate awaiting anyone who has outlived his or her purpose.

i.     Once a fine sheepdog, useful on the ranch, Candy's mutt is now debilitated by age.

a)        Candy's sentimental attachment to the animal—his plea that Carlson let the dog live for no other reason than that Candy raised it from a puppy—means nothing at all on the ranch.

b)        Although Carlson promises to kill the dog painlessly, his insistence that the old animal must die supports a cruel natural law that the strong will dispose of the weak.

c)        Candy internalizes this lesson, for he fears that he himself is nearing an age when he will no longer be useful at the ranch, and therefore no longer welcome.

1.         "A dragfooted sheepdog, gray of muzzle, and with pale, blind old eyes" (26), Candy's dog is a far cry from his sheepherding days.

2.         Carlson says to Candy, in regard to the dog: "Got no teeth, he's all stiff with rheumatism. He ain't no good to you, Candy. An' he ain't no good to himself. Why'n't you shoot him, Candy?" (49).

3.         And Candy is left with no other option, but to shoot his longtime companion.

' This sub-plot is an obvious metaphor for what George must do to Lennie, who proves to be no good to George and no good to himself.

' Steinbeck re-emphasizes the significance of Candy's dog when Candy says to George that he wishes someone would shoot him when he's no longer any good.

' And when Carlson's gun goes off, Lennie is the only other man not inside the bunk house, Steinbeck having placed him outside with the dog, away from the other men, his gun shot saved for the novel's end.

4.        The Cripples:

a.        Four of Steinbeck's characters are handicapped:

i.     Candy is missing a hand.

ii.   Crooks has a crooked spine.

iii.      Lennie is mentally slow.

iv.      Curley acquires a mangled hand in the course of the novel.

b.        They are physical manifestations of one of the novel's major themes:

i.     the schemes of men go awry.

a)        Here, to re-iterate the point, Steinbeck has the actual bodies of his characters go awry.

b)        It is as if nature herself is often doomed to errors in her scheme. And whether they be caused at birth, or by a horse, or by another man, the physical deformities occur regardless of the handicapped person's will or desire to be otherwise, just as George and Lennie's dream goes wrong despite how much they want it to be fulfilled.

5.        Solitaire:

a.        George is often in the habit of playing solitaire, a card game that requires only one person, while he is in the bunk house. He never asks Lennie to play cards with him because he knows that Lennie would be incapable of such a mental task. Solitaire, which means alone, is a metaphor for the loneliness of the characters in the novel, who have no one but themselves. It is also a metaphor for George's desire to be "solitaire," to be no longer burdened with Lennie's company, and his constant playing of the game foreshadows his eventual decision to become a solitary man.

6.        The Dead Mouse and the Dead Puppy:

a.        These two soft, furry creatures that Lennie accidentally kills are both metaphors and foreshadowing devices. As metaphors, they serve as a physical representation of what will happen to George and Lennie's dream: they (Lennie in particular) will destroy it. Lennie never intends to kill the thing he loves, the soft things he wants more than anything, but they die on him nonetheless. The dead mouse is also an allusion to the novel's title, a reminder that dreams will go wrong, even the desire to pet a mouse. And because bad things come in threes, Lennie's two accidental killings of animals foreshadow the final killing of Curley's wife, an accident that seals his fate and ruins the dream for him, George, and Candy.

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IV.  Online Links

A.  Steinbeck

V.  Summary & Analysis

A.  Part I: From the opening of the novel to George instructing Lennie in preparation for their arrival at the ranch (nightfall)

1.        Summary

a.        The novel opens with the description of a riverbed in rural California, a beautiful, wooded area at the base of "golden foothill slopes." A path runs to the river, used by boys going swimming and riffraff coming down from the highway. Two men walk along the path. The first, George, is small, wiry, and sharp-featured, while his companion, Lennie, is large and awkward. They are both dressed in denim, farmhand attire.

b.        As they reach a clearing, Lennie stops to drink from the river, and George warns him not to drink too much or he will get sick, as he did the night before. As their conversation continues, it becomes clear that the larger man has a mild mental disability, and that his companion looks out for his safety. George begins to complain about the bus driver that dropped them off a long way from their intended destination—a ranch on which they are due to begin work. Lennie interrupts him to ask where they are going. His companion impatiently reminds him of their movements over the past few days, and then notices that Lennie is holding a dead mouse. George takes it away from him. Lennie insists that he is not responsible for killing the mouse that he just wanted to pet it, but George loses his temper and throws it across the stream. George warns Lennie that they are going to work on a ranch, and that he must behave himself when they meet the boss. George does not want any trouble of the kind they encountered in Weed, the last place they worked. George decides that they will stay in the clearing for the night, and as they prepare their bean supper, Lennie crosses the stream and recovers the mouse, only to have George find him out immediately and take the mouse away again. Apparently, Lennie's Aunt Clara used to give him mice to pet, but he tends to "break" small creatures unintentionally when he shows his affection for them, killing them because he doesn't know his own strength. As the two men sit down to eat, Lennie asks for ketchup. This request launches George into a long speech about Lennie's ungratefulness. George complains that he could get along much better if he didn't have to care for Lennie. He uses the incident that got them chased out of Weed as a case in point. Lennie, a lover of soft things, stroked the fabric of a girl's dress, and would not let go. The locals assumed he assaulted her, and ran them out of town.

i.     With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.

c.        After this tirade, George feels sorry for losing his temper and apologizes by telling Lennie's favorite story, the plan for their future happiness. The life of a ranch-hand, according to George, is one of the loneliest in the world, and most men working on ranches have no one to look out for them. But he and Lennie have each other, and someday, as soon as they manage to save enough money, they will buy a farm together and, as Lennie puts it, "live off the fatta the lan'." They will grow their own food, raise livestock, and keep rabbits, which Lennie will tend. This familiar story cheers both of them up. As night falls, George tells Lennie that if he encounters any trouble while working at the ranch, he is to return to this clearing, hide in the bushes, and wait for George to come.

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2.        Analysis

a.        The clearing into which Lennie and George wander evokes Eden in its serenity and beauty.

i.     Steinbeck wisely opens the novel with this idyllic scene, for it creates a background for the idealized friendship between the men and introduces the romanticized dream of farm life that they share.

a)        The opening pages establish a sense of purity and perfection that the world, which will prove to be cruel and predatory, cannot sustain.

ii.   Steinbeck also solidly establishes the relationship between George and Lennie within the first few pages of dialogue.

a)        Their speech is that of uneducated laborers, but is emotionally rich and often lyrical.

b.        Because George and Lennie are not particularly dynamic characters (neither of them changes significantly during the course of the narrative), the impression the reader gets from these early pages persists throughout the novel.

i.     Lennie's and George's behavior is relatively static.

a)        Lennie's sweet innocence, the undying devotion he shows George, and his habit of petting soft things are his major defining traits from the opening pages to the final scene.

b)        Just as constant are George's blustery rants about how much easier life would be without the burden of caring for Lennie and unconvincing speeches that always end by revealing his love for and desire to protect his friend.

c.        Some critics of the novel consider George, and especially Lennie, somewhat flat representations of purity, goodness, and fraternal devotion, rather than convincing portraits of complex, conflicted human beings.

i.     They charge Steinbeck with being excessively sentimental in his portrayal of his protagonists, his romanticization of male friendship, and in the deterministic plot that seems designed to destroy this friendship.

d.        Others, however, contend that any exaggeration in Of Mice and Men, like in so many of Steinbeck's other works, is meant to comment on the plight of the downtrodden, to make the reader sympathize with people who society and storytellers often deem unworthy because of their class, physical or mental capabilities, or the color of their skin.

e.        Whether or not these issues constitute a flaw in the novel, it is true that Steinbeck places George, Lennie, and their relationship on a rather high pedestal.

i.     Nowhere is this more clear than in the story George constantly tells about the farm they one day plan to own.

a)        This piece of land represents a world in which the two men can live together just as they are, without dangers and without apologies.

b)        No longer will they be run out of towns like Weed or be subject to the demeaning and backbreaking will of others.

c)        As the novel progresses and their situation worsens, George and Lennie's desire to attain the farm they dream about grows more desperate.

d)        Their vision becomes so powerful that it will eventually attract other men, who will beg to be a part of it.

e)        George's story of the farm, as well as George and Lennie's mutual devotion, lays the groundwork for one of the novel's dominant themes:

1.         the idealized sense of friendship among men.

' True to the nature of tragedy, Steinbeck makes the vision of the farm so beautiful and the fraternal bond between George and Lennie so strong in order to place his protagonists at a considerable height from which to fall.

ii.   From the very beginning, Steinbeck heavily foreshadows the doom that awaits the men.

a)        The clearing into which the two travelers stumble may resemble Eden, but it is, in fact, a world with dangers lurking at every turn.

1.         The rabbits that sit like "gray, sculptured stones" hurry for cover at the sound of footsteps, hinting at the predatory world that will finally destroy Lennie and George's dream.

2.         The dead mouse in Lennie's pocket serves as a potent symbol of the end that awaits weak, unsuspecting creatures.

' After all, despite Lennie's great physical size and strength, his childlike mental capabilities render him as helpless as a mouse.

b)        Steinbeck's repeated comparisons between Lennie and animals (bears, horses, terriers) reinforce the impending sense of doom.

1.         Animals in the novel, from field mice to Candy's dog to Lennie's puppy, all die untimely deaths.

'  The novel's tragic course of action seems even more inevitable when one considers Lennie's troublesome behavior that got George and Lennie chased out of Weed, and George's anticipatory insistence that they designate a meeting place should any problems arise.

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3.        Important Quotations Explained

a.        Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in  the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.... With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. (p13)

i.     Toward the end of Section 1, before George and Lennie reach the ranch, they camp for the night in a beautiful clearing and George assures Lennie of their special relationship.

a)        In this passage, George explains their friendship, which forms the heart of the novel.

b)        In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck idealizes male friendships, suggesting that they are the most dignified and satisfying way to overcome the loneliness that pervades the world.

c)        As a self-declared "watchdog" of society, Steinbeck set out to expose and chronicle the circumstances that cause human suffering.

d)        Here, George relates that loneliness is responsible for much of that suffering, a theory supported by many of the secondary characters.

e)        Later in the narrative, Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife all give moving speeches about their loneliness and disappointments in life. Human beings, the novel suggests, are at their best when they have someone else to look to for guidance and protection.

f)          George reminds Lennie that they are extremely lucky to have each other since most men do not enjoy this comfort, especially men like George and Lennie, who exist on the margins of society.

g)        Their bond is made to seem especially rare and precious since the majority of the world does not understand or appreciate it.

h)        At the end, when Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, Candy does not register the tragedy of Lennie's impending death.

1.         Instead, he asks if he and George can still purchase the farm without Lennie.

b.        In this environment, in which human life is utterly disposable, only Slim recognizes that the loss of such a beautiful and powerful friendship should be mourned.

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B.  Part II: From Lennie and George's arrival at the ranch to an unpleasant encounter with Curley

1.        Summary

a.        The next day, Lennie and George make their way to the ranch bunkhouse, where they are greeted by Candy, an aging "swamper," or handyman, who has lost his right hand. The bunkhouse is an unadorned building where the men sleep on "burl_ap ticking" and keep their few possessions in apple boxes that have been nailed to the walls. George is dismayed to find a can of lice powder i_n his bunk, but Candy assures him that he's in no danger of being infested, since the man who slept there before George was remarkably clean. George asks about the boss, and Candy reports that although the boss was angry that George and Lennie did not arrive the previous night _as he had expected them to, he can be a "pretty nice fella." Candy relates how the boss gave the men a gallon of whiskey for Christmas, which immediately impresses George.

b.        The boss appears and questions the pair about their late arrival. George blames it on the bus driver, who, he claims, lied to them about their proximity to the ranch. When the boss asks about their skills and previous employment, George speaks for Lennie to prevent him from revealing his lack of intelligence. When Lennie momentarily forgets George's instructions and speaks, George becomes visibly nervous. Their behavior strikes the boss as suspicious, and he asks why George feels the need to take such good care of his companion. He wonders if George is taking advantage of a man who lacks the faculties to take care of him-
self. George replies that Lennie is his cousin and was kicked in the head by a horse when he was young, so George has to look out for him. The boss remains suspicious and warns George not to try to pull anything
over on him. Nonetheless, they are assigned to one of the grain teams, working under a man named Slim.

c.        Once the boss leaves the bunkhouse, George berates Lennie for having spoken up. Candy overhears George telling Lennie that he is glad they are not actually related. George warns Candy that he doesn't appreciate other people sticking their noses in his business, but Candy assures him that he minds his own business and has no interest in their affairs. An ancient, half-blind sheepdog accompanies Candy, an animal that the old man has raised since it was a puppy. Soon enough, Curley, the boss's son, a small young man who wears a Vaseline-filled work glove on his left hand and high-heeled boots to distinguish himself from the laborers, joins them. Curley, an aggressive and malicious ex-boxer, immediately senses that he might have some fun at Lennie's expense, and begins to demand that "the big guy talk." After Curley leaves, Candy explains that Curley loves beating up big guys, "kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy." Curley's temper has only gotten worse since his recent marriage to a "tart" who enjoys flirting with the ranch-hands. Candy leaves to prepare wash basins for the men who will soon return from the fields, and George tells Lennie to steer clear of Curley, because fighting the "bastard" will likely cost them their jobs. Lennie agrees, assuring George that he doesn't want any trouble. George reminds him again of the meeting place they agreed on should anything go wrong. At that moment, Curley's wife, a pretty, heavily made-up woman with a nasal voice, appears. She claims to be looking for her husband and flirts with the two men and Slim, the skilled mule driver, who passes by outside. Slim tells her that Curley has gone into the house, and she hurries off. Lennie speaks admiringly of how "purty" the woman is, and George angrily orders him to stay away from "that bitch." Lennie, suddenly frightened, complains that he wants to leave the ranch, but George reminds him that they need to make some money before they can buy their own land and live their dream.

d.        Slim enters the bunkhouse. His talents make him one of the most important and respected men on the ranch. There is a "gravity in his manner," and everyone stops talking and listens when he speaks. He converses with Lennie and George, and is quietly impressed by their friendship, appreciating the fact that they look out for one another. The men are joined by Carlson, another ranch-hand. Carlson asks about Slim's dog, which has just given birth to nine puppies. Slim reports that he drowned four of the puppies immediately because their mother would have been unable to feed them. Carlson suggests that they convince Candy to shoot his old, worthless mutt and raise one of the pups instead. The triangle rings for dinner, and the men filter out of the bunkhouse, with Lennie suddenly excited by the prospect of having a puppy. As George and Lennie prepare to leave, Curley appears again, looking for his wife, and hurries off angrily when they tell him where she went. George expresses his dislike for Curley, and comments that he is afraid he will "tangle" with Curley himself.

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2.        Analysis

a.        Once George and Lennie arrive at the bunkhouse, the difficulties of the lives they lead become starkly apparent.

i.     There are few comforts in their quarters; the men sleep on rough burlap mattresses and do not own anything that cannot fit into an apple box.

a)        George's fear that lice and roaches infest his bunk furthers the image of the struggles of such a life.

ii.   This section also immediately and painfully establishes the cruel, predatory nature of the world.