Chapter 3 Summary

Lennie's puppy!

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•    Chapter 3 starts out with Slim and George in the bunk house, while the other men are outside playing horseshoes.  And Lennie is in the barn playing with his new puppy.  Slim asks George all sorts of questions, mostly about Lennie.  He asks why he sticks with a crazy man like Lennie.  George defends Lennie by saying that he isn't as smart as the other men, he is sure isn't crazy.  George goes on to say that him and Lennie were born in the same town and gew up together.  When Lennie's caretaker--Aunt Clara--died, Lennie just followed George and they got used to one another.  

•  George tells Slim how he used to take advantage of Lennie by playing tricks on him.  But once George did something nice for Lennie, Lennie would always forgive George.  Next, George explains why him and Lennie had to leave Weed.  Lennie had grabbed some woman's red dress just because he thought it was really pretty.  He wanted to touch it so bad, and then when the woman screamed, he couldn't think of anything else to do but hold on tighter, which frightened the woman more.  She overreacted and got people to try and kill George and Lennie.  So George and Lennie went running as fast as they could, and had to end up hiding in an irrigation ditch to escape the dogs that were hunting them down.

•      George catches Lennie bringing the puppy back into the bunk house.  So Lennie throws a little fit because he couldn't have the dog with him.  George made him take the puppy back to the barn.  Slim told George that Lennie was just like a little kid.  Even so, Slim and George both agreed that Lennie was one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. 

•      All of the men come into the house and Carlson starts to complain to Candy about how smelly his dog is.  Candy replies by saying that he's used to him and he had raised the dog ever since he was a little puppy.  Carlson tells Candy that the dog is useless and is just hurting himself by living.  Then he offers to shoot the dog.  Candy didn't want this to be the way it ended, but none of the men seemed to object, so he gave in.  Slim then offers Candy one of his puppies to raise, but Candy just stared off into the distance, zoning everyone out.  Gunshots were heard in the distance a little while later.... 

•      The workers ask George what he thinks about Curley's wife and George just says that she just causes trouble.  All of the men talk about how annoying it is that her and Curley are always chasing after each other and are never really together.

• Some of the men tell George about this little bar that they always go to.  It is called Susy's and supposidly it has the most comfortable chairs to sit on.  George says that it sounds like fun, but he doesn't have any extra money to play with.

•      All of the sudden, Curley comes into the bunk house to ask if any of the men have seen his wife.  When Curley notices that Slim isn't with the rest of the men, he automatically jumps to the conclusion that Slim is in the barn with his wife.  When he leaves to go find Slim, the rest of the men besides George and Lennie leave too to go watch a possible fight.  George and Lennie start to talk about their dream home with a stove, enough beds for friends to sleep over, chickens, crops, cows and pigs, rabbits of course, and the ability to tell people to leave whenever they want them too.  Suddenly, Candy asks if there really is such a place.  George gets defensive, but once Candy tells George and Lennie about all the money he as saved up, they all realized that the dream really could come true.  George tells Candy and Lennie to keep their mouths shut about their this fantasy and that in one month, they would be abl to leave the ranch to start lives of their own.

•      Slim and the rest of men storm into the bunk house.  Slim is yelling at Curley about always accusing him of being with his wife.  The rest of the men start poking fun at Curley also.  Curley is outraged when he sees Lennie, who still smiling about his dream house, sitting in the corner.  Curley starts to take his anger out on Lennie and then starts punching him as hard as he could.  Lennie starts to shout to George for help but George just tells Lennie to fight back.  Lennie hesitates but finally grabs Curley's hand and holds it as hard as he can.  Lennie is so strong that he effortlessly crushed Curley's hand into pieces.

•      The men tell Curley that if he tries to get George and Lennie fired, he'll be in for it.  So if anyone asks what happened to his hand, he is supposed to say it got caught in machinery. 

•      After the fight Lennie starts to cry, not because he is hurt, but because he is worried that George wont let him tend the rabbits anymore when they move to their dream house.  He is afraid that George was mad about how he reacted to Curley.  But George reasures him that he did the right thing and is still going to be able to take care of the rabbits at the dream house.