Chapter 5 Summary

 

     So...You've reached Chapter 5.  Congratulations on making it this far.  This is where the excitement begins.

 

     In a nutshell, Chapter 5 witnesses the beginning of the end of George and Lennie's utopian dream.

 

     In more than a nutshell:

 

     Let's go through the main points of the chapter.  If you're really lazy, just browse through the bolded sections to get a sense of what this chapter is about.  Then scroll to the bottom to find a link to some rare video footage of the actual incidents.  Here we go...

 

• Lennie is sitting in the barn, stroking the puppy Slim gave him.  The only problem is...the puppy is dead.  We find out that Lennie once again let his impulses take control of him.

 

•  This is where we get the BEST quote in the entire book:  "I didn't bounce you hard."  He's talking about a puppy, people!  If you're having trouble with this scene, picture a bouncing puppy flying through the air.

 

• George's threat about the rabbits comes back to Lennie, and he changes from feeling sorry for the puppy to being angry at it.  "Why do you got to get killed?"  Lennie then throws the puppy across the barn- another great visual.  For all you SPCA people out there, keep in mind that the dog is already dead.

 

• Curley's wife walks in at this point, and starts talking to Lennie.  Even though Curley's wife continually acts like a prostitute, we begin to see that she may very well just be lonely.  She says, "Why can't I talk to you?  I never get to talk to nobody.  I get awful lonely.  You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley.  Else he gets mad.  How'd you like not to talk to anybody?"

 

• Curley's wife still seems flirtacious, but there might be more to it.  Lennie, however, only sees the side that George told him to see, and refuses to talk to her.

 

• Curley's wife, however, is evidently desperate for company.  She reveals her life story- how her acting and dancing was perfect, how she was picked to be in the movies, how her mother kept her from acting, how her dream suddenly died, and how she met and married Curley in the same night- and how she actually doesn't like him.

 

• Lennie shows his inability to concentrate on more than one thing at a time by suddenly saying, "Maybe if I took this pup out and throwed him away George wouldn't never know.  An' then I could tend the rabits without no trouble," right after Curley's wife has spend minutes explaining her predicament.

 

• Curley's wife asks impatiently, "What makes you so nuts about rabbits?"  Lennie describes how he just likes to "pet nice things."  Curley's wife agrees with him, liking his simpleton personality.  She tells Lennie to feel her hair because it's so soft.  Oh, baby.  Big mistake.

 

• Lennie, with something new to concentrate on, pets harder and harder.  Curley's wife doesn't want her hair messed up, and so she jerks her head away.  Lennie hangs on, though, and Curley's wife starts yelling.

 

• Faced with such a sensory overload, Lennie freezes up.  The threat of the rabibits comes back to him, and he immediately stifles the screaming- by placing his other hand over Curley's wife's mouth and nose.  He begs her to keep quiet, or else George will hear, and Lennie will lose his dream.

 

• Curley's wife struggles, screaming, but Lennie's strength combined with the fear of discovery render the woman's efforts futile.  When his hand moves slightly, Curley's wife manages a yell.  This pushes Lennie over the edge- he gets very angry, switching from pleading to threatening her.

 

• What happens next sets off the chain reaction that eventually destroys Lennie, George, Candy, and Crooks' dreams:  Lennie cries out, "Don't you go yellin'," and he shakes Curley's wife, making her body flop "like a fish."  She doesn't move any more, because Lennie has broken her neck.  She is dead.

 

• Lennie doesn't realize what he's done.  He still talks to her, telling her that "I don't want ta hurt you, but George'll be mad if you yell."  Then reality strikes, and he whispers, "I done a bad thing.  I done another bad thing."  He flees the barn, taking the dead puppy with him.

 

• Candy is the first on the scene- he is still enamored with the dream that he, George, and Lennie created, and is looking for Lennie to tell him good news.  He finds Curley's wife, and runs to get George.  George tells Candy to wait for him to run back to the bunkhouse before telling everybody else, so that he isn't accused of being involved.

 

• Curley and the others rush in, with George taking up the rear.  Curley is in a rage- but we wonder, is it because he is angry about his wife's death, or is he simply angry because he wants to pay Lennie back for injuring his hand?

 

• There is a mob mentality- everyone wants to go to hunt down Lennie and kill him.  This is probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened at the ranch.  We find out that Lennie has stolen Carlson's Luger, and so- in everyone but George's mind- Lennie is "armed and dangerous."  Even Slim says that Lennie needs to be hunted down, but that comes from his practicality and his common sense, not from a feeling of vengeance.

 

• George tries to stop the men from chasing after Lennie, but his pleas fall upon deaf ears.  Curley's rage stops any chance at mediation.

 

• It almost seems as though George isn't trying very hard to stop the men from going after Lennie?  Is he apathetic towards everything, now that he knows that any chance of achieving his dream has died along with the puppy and Curley's wife?  Or is he secretly glad of a chance to get rid of the big lug who has been following him around forever?  Hmmm...

 

• The chapter ends with Candy lying down in the yellow hay next to the corpse of Curley's wife and covering his eyes with his arm.  Very poignant indeed.

 

Multimedia:

 

To see a video illustrating the events of Chapter 5, click on this Chapter Five Video link.

 

Disclaimer!  Animals were harmed during the making of this movie.  Any resemblance to puppies living or dead (but mostly dead) is purely on purpose.

 

This is a video showing the exact nature of Lennie's conversation with the dead puppy.  (Kind of freaky, when you think about it.)  Needless to say, it's a rather one-sided dialogue.  Also included in this clip is the scene with Curley's wife.  Lennie's inability to interact socially and listen to anybody but George leads him to kill not a unimportant mouse or puppy, but a living, breathing human being.  No matter what his mental state, Lennie's actions are a tragedy.  I like the quote from the book that describes Curley's wife:  "Curley's wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay.  And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face."  She had so many dreams, and they were all dashed- but she still seemed to have hope and a passion for life.  That is, before Lennie's instincts took over.