Lennie's Arrival at the Pool

Lennie Small's arrival at the deep green pool of the Salinas River marks the beginning of the novel's final, devastating sequence. The late afternoon sun has already left the valley to climb the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, leaving the pool among the mottled sycamores in a pleasant shade. A water snake glides up the pool, only to be plucked out by a motionless heron; a gust of wind drives through the treetops, then dies as quickly as it came. Into this quiet, predatory clearing, Lennie appears out of the brush, moving as silently as a creeping bear. The heron pounds the air with its wings and flies off downriver; the little snake slides into the reeds. Lennie kneels to drink, barely touching his lips to the water, and when a bird skitters behind him, his head jerks up and he strains toward the sound until he sees it, then drinks again. He sits down on the bank with his side to the pool, embracing his knees and laying his chin on them, watching the trail's entrance. The light climbs out of the valley, and the mountain tops seem to blaze with increasing brightness.

Guilt and Hallucination

Alone at the pool, Lennie speaks softly to himself, repeating George's instructions: "I di'n't forget, you bet, God damn. Hide in the brush an' wait for George." He pulls his hat down low over his eyes and anticipates George's anger: "George gonna give me hell... George gonna wish he was alone an' not have me botherin' him." He considers running away to find a cave in the hills, even if it means never having ketchup, but his resolve crumbles. Then, from out of Lennie's head, there comes a little fat old woman wearing thick bull's-eye glasses and a huge gingham apron with pockets, starched and clean. She stands before him, hands on her hips, frowning disapprovingly. It is Aunt Clara, and she speaks in Lennie's own voice, accusing him of never minding George despite all the nice things George has done—giving him half or more than half of a piece of pie, all the ketchup if there was any. Lennie moans that he tried, but she presses on, saying George could have had a good time in a whore house or played snooker in a pool room if not for him. Lennie promises to go off into the hills and find a cave so he won't be any more trouble, but Aunt Clara scoffs: "You're always sayin' that, an' you know sonofabitching well you ain't never gonna do it." Lennie mutters that George won't let him tend rabbits now, and Aunt Clara vanishes.

The Giant Rabbit's Accusation

From out of Lennie's head there comes a gigantic rabbit, sitting on its haunches, waggling its ears and crinkling its nose. It too speaks in Lennie's voice, scornfully: "Tend rabbits... You crazy bastard. You ain't fit to lick the boots of no rabbit. You'd forget 'em and let 'em go hungry." Lennie protests loudly that he would not forget, but the rabbit insists that George is sick of him and will beat hell out of him with a stick and then go away and leave him. Lennie retorts belligerently that George has never raised his hand to him with a stick, that George is nice to him. But the rabbit repeats softly over and over, "He gonna leave you, ya crazy bastard. He gonna leave ya all alone." Lennie puts his hands over his ears and cries out, "Oh! George—George—George!"

George's Arrival and the Recitation of the Dream

George comes quietly out of the brush, and the rabbit scuttles back into Lennie's brain. George asks what the yelling is about, and Lennie, on his knees, demands reassurance: "You ain't gonna leave me, are ya, George?" George says no. Lennie confesses he has done another bad thing, but George says it doesn't make any difference and falls silent. From the distance come the shouts of men. Lennie asks George to give him hell, to recite the familiar speech about how easy life would be alone. George begins woodenly, his voice monotonous: "If I was alone I could live so easy... I could get a job an' not have no mess... An' when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks an' go to a... cat house..." But he stops, and when Lennie urges him to continue, George says no. Lennie offers to go away, but George insists he wants Lennie to stay. Then Lennie asks George to tell about the other guys and about them. George recites the familiar litany: "Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake an' then they blow it in. They ain't got nobody in the worl' that gives a hoot in hell about 'em—" Lennie cries happily, "But not us," and together they finish the ritual: "Because I got you an'—" "An' I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us."

The Final Recitation and the Shooting

The evening breeze blows over the clearing, and the shouts of men sound again, much closer. George takes off his hat and tells Lennie to do the same. Lennie asks George to tell how it's gonna be. George, listening to the distant sounds, becomes business-like: "Look acrost the river, Lennie, an' I'll tell you so you can almost see it." Lennie turns his head and looks off across the pool and up the darkening slopes of the Gabilans. George reaches into his side pocket and brings out Carlson's Luger; he snaps off the safety, and the hand and gun lie on the ground behind Lennie's back. He looks at the back of Lennie's head, at the place where the spine and skull are joined. A man's voice calls from up the river, and another answers. Lennie urges George to go on. George raises the gun, his hand shakes, and he drops it to the ground again. Lennie prompts him: "How's it gonna be. We gonna get a little place." George begins the dream: "We'll have a cow... An' we'll have maybe a pig an' chickens... an' down the flat we'll have a... little piece alfalfa—" "For the rabbits," Lennie shouts. "For the rabbits," George repeats. "And I get to tend the rabbits." "An' you get to tend the rabbits." Lennie giggles with happiness: "An' live on the fatta the lan'." George says yes. Lennie turns his head, but George tells him to look down across the river. George looks down at the gun. There are crashing footsteps in the brush now. George turns and looks toward them. Lennie asks when they will do it. "Gonna do it soon," George says. "Me an' you." "You... an' me. Ever'body gonna be nice to you. Ain't gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from 'em." Lennie says he thought George was mad at him. "No," says George. "No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's a thing I want ya to know." The voices come close now. George raises the gun and listens. Lennie begs, "Le's do it now. Le's get that place now." "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta." George raises the gun and steadies it, bringing the muzzle close to the back of Lennie's head. His hand shakes violently, but his face sets and his hand steadies. He pulls the trigger. The crash of the shot rolls up the hills and rolls down again. Lennie jars, then settles slowly forward to the sand, and lies without quivering.

Aftermath

George shivers and looks at the gun, then throws it from him, back up on the bank near a pile of old ashes. The brush fills with cries and running feet. Slim's voice shouts, "George. Where you at, George?" But George sits stiffly on the bank and looks at his right hand that had thrown the gun away. The group bursts into the clearing, Curley ahead. He sees Lennie lying on the sand. "Got him, by God." He goes over and looks down at Lennie, then back at George. "Right in the back of the head," he says softly. Slim comes directly to George and sits down beside him, very close. "Never you mind," says Slim. "A guy got to sometimes." Carlson asks how George did it. "I just done it," George says tiredly. Carlson asks if Lennie had his gun, and George says yes. "An' you got it away from him and you took it an' you killed him?" "Yeah. Tha's how." George's voice is almost a whisper; he looks steadily at his right hand. Slim twitches George's elbow and says, "Come on, George. Me an' you'll go in an' get a drink." George lets himself be helped to his feet. "Yeah, a drink." Slim says, "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me." He leads George into the entrance of the trail and up toward the highway. Curley and Carlson look after them, and Carlson says, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?"