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Of Men And Mice

Soledad is a town in California. A few miles south of  Soledad, the Salinas river forms a deep pool. George and Lennie spent the night near the river. They were going to a ranch to work and save some money for their own ranch and the rabbits.

Lennie loves stroking soft things but he is too strong and many times he killed animals as stroking. He is an idiot, he always forgets things. He gets into trouble every time. George told him not to speak at the ranch and to come back to that river if he got into trouble.

The next day they arrived at the ranch, met Candy, Crooks, the boss and Curley. They also saw Curley's wife who tried to make Lennie fall in love with her. As meeting Curley, he tried to hit Lennie to show how strong he was but Lennie escaped.

At the ranch Lennie found a few baby puppies to stroke. At that time Curley's wife was again trying to attract Lennie. George always warned Lennie to keep away from her.

Candy has an old dog. Because of its smell, all the ranchers wanted to shoot it. Candy thought it would be the best to shoot it himself but they didn't let this. A man shot it in the back of the head.

After that everyone went out except George, Lennie and Candy. Candy was laying sadly as George and Lennie was talking about owning a ranch. Candy told that he had some money, if they accepted he would give the money to them and work with them. First George refused but then he thought that they couldn't afford to buy that ranch without that money. This would be the secret of them.

The ranchers came in. Curley was looking for his wife at the ranchers' bedroom and without a reason he hit Lennie. Lennie didn't hit him because of the desire of owning a ranch. He just held Curley's hand but he was so strong that Curley's hand was broken. Lots of the ranchers took Curley to the hospital. They would tell the boss that his hand were trapped in a machine. Curley accepted that because he didn't want the others to know that Lennie was stronger than him.

At that time Lennie, Crooks and Candy were chatting. Curley's wife, again, came towards them. Lennie was watching her fascinated. She understood that Curley's hand was broken by Lennie. When the ranchers' sound was heard, she ran away. Lennie was feeling more closer to Curley's wife then.

The next day as Lennie was stroking his puppy alone, Curley's wife came again and told Lennie to stroke her soft hair. Lennie, first, refused but couldn't resist. He was holding her hair so hard that she started to cry. Lennie got afraid but didn't know what to do, closed her mouth and then broke her neck by mistake. She was dead. Lennie started to escape to the river.

When the man saw Curley's wife's dead body, they started to look for Lennie. Curley's hard desire of killing Lennie made him run faster. George remembered the day Candy's dog was shot. He knew where Lennie was, went to the river and shot Lennie in the back of the head. He couldn't move for a long time. And a voice behind told that he did the best.

George understood that it was an impossible dream and went on working like every rancher who had nothing in the future to think about...