George Milton And Lennie Small Summary

This book focuses on two main characters: George Milton and Lennie Smalls.
The story starts out with both of them out in the wilderness of Soledad after their bus dropped them off a few miles away from their destination. George reveals that they left their original town in Weed after his companion, Lennie, lost both their jobs. During
George’s conversation with Lennie, it is revealed that Lennie was bad at remembering things and had a tendency to pet objects when George finds out that he kept a dead rat in his pocket that he often liked to pet. They then meet Candy, the farm’s swamper who had greeted them in the ranch bunkhouse. George questions Candy about the boss and how he’s like. He responds by saying that he is a generous man,

The boss promptly follows up by questioning why they came to him and what happened to their previous occupation. George spoke for Lennie the whole time, but Lennie forgot about keeping quiet, causing George to be visibly nervous. The boss becomes suspicious about his behavior and wonders why George has the need to take care of Lennie so much, thinking that he is taking advantage of him for his personal gain. George replies by telling him that Lennie was his cousin and that he was kicked in the head by a horse when he was a child, which of course, was all a lie to cover up the bitter truth. The boss still remained suspicious and assigned them to a grain team working under Slim, who is also a worker on that ranch. Lennie gets a small pup, but as soon as George finds out he had been hiding it under his coat, he scolds at him and tells him that he should bring it back to its mother because he might kill it like every other pet he had owned. The next day, Lennie is alone in the barn, crying while stroking the dead body of his puppy. He worries that if George finds out, he might not be able to take care of the rabbits he will have in their farm in the future. Curley’s wife enters