The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 1 Abstract
California, more precisely Salinas, gave birth to one of the greatest writers that the United States has ever seen: his
name is John Steinbeck. He heavily contributed to American literature via his timeless and enduring works most
notably ‘Of Mice and Men’. This novella revolves around two bosom friends George and Lennie who dream of
living off the fatta the land. It is of paramount importance to show how John Steinbeck describes the human and
animal bond in this novella. Firstly, we will identify the bond between Lennie and animals. In fact, this guy likes
petting small soft animals like mice, rabbits, etc. and he accidently kills them. Secondly, we will shed light on
Candy’s relationship with his dog. This old man loves his dog very much because he had him for long and he
dutifully served him during his ranch life. Despite the fact that the dog becomes old and toothless, Candy incessantly
looks after him. Last but not the least, we will focus on the bond between Carlson and Candy’s dog. In this context,
Carlson tries to convince Candy that his dog becomes useless and thus his existence is meaningless. He insists that
he has to shoot the dog in the back of his head to get him out of his misery. Candy eventually surrenders to
Carlson’s demand. Much later on, he confides to George that he shouldn’t have allowed a stranger to kill his dog.
Key Words: The animal and man bond, John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men.
Introduction
California, more precisely Salinas, gave birth to one of the greatest writers that the United States has ever seen:
his name is John Steinbeck. He heavily contributed to American literature via his timeless and enduring works most
notably ‘Of Mice and Men’. It is considered the most successful result of Steinbeck’s formal innovation, the ‘playnovelette’. It was written throughout 1935 and 1936 when the United States bogged down in the Great Depression.
It revolves around two bosom friends George and Lennie who dream of ‘living off the fatta the land’. It is of
paramount importance to show how John Steinbeck describes the animal and human bond in this novella.
Presumably, each character views such a bond through his own perception.
1 – Lennie and Small Creatures
Lennie is described as ‘a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders’1. This
huge, mentally feeble, child-like man enjoys both emulating George and petting soft and furry little animals such as
mice, rabbits, and puppies but he accidently kills them because he doesn’t know his own strength.2
In the first chapter, as George lays into Lennie about his work card, he discovers Lennie is hiding something.
George demands to see it and learns it is a dead mouse. Lennie insists, ‘I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it
dead’3. The exchange reveals that Lennie had in the past actually killed small animals while they were in his
possession, foreshadowing death later in the book. Lennie tells George he only wanted to hold it, to have something
to pet, and George tells him he can’t.4
After a while George sends Lennie for firewood, and when Lennie returns, George discovers he has the dead
mouse again, having retrieved it from where George threw it. As George yells at Lennie, the big man starts to cry,
and at first, George rebukes him: ‘Blubberin’ like a baby! Jesus Christ!’.5 Before long, though, he puts a hand on
Lennie to calm him, explains he took away the mouse because it was dead. He promises Lennie he can get another
one, keep it for a little while. As he does, Lennie remembers a lady who used to give him mice, and George knew
and for whom, now that she is dead, he feels compelled to protect Lennie. George explains to Lennie that Aunt Clara
stopped giving Lennie mice because he always killed them.6
The dead mouse in Lennie’s pocket serves as a potent symbol of the end that awaits weak, unsuspecting creatures.
After all, despite Lennie’s great physical size and strength, his childlike mental capabilities render him as helpless as
a mouse.7
1 The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 2 George admits his meanness, says he will get Lennie a pup, first chance he gets, since pups won’t be so easy to
kill. But Lennie presses his advantage and gets George to tell the story, perhaps the most famous repeated passage of
the book.8
‘An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” Lennie shouted. “An’ have rabbits. Go on,
George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the
rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove…’9
George tells a little more after this, about vegetables and a little cook stove and the sound of rain on the roof, but
the core of what Lennie remembers is the rabbits, the ‘fatta the lan’,’ and how George and Lennie look out for each
other.10
As they settle in to sleep, George makes the outrageous promise that one day Lennie will have millions of different
colored rabbits11. ‘Red and blue and green rabbits, Lennie. Millions of’ em’12.
George and Slim sit beneath a light in the otherwise dark bunkhouse, talking, and it is clear George has just asked
Slim to let Lennie have one of the pups, and the skinner has agreed to it.13
At that point, Lennie enters the bunkhouse, furtively, and George knows he has a pup with him. We see that
Lennie still does not understand that he cannot take soft and pretty things whenever he wants, and that he doesn’t
realize the pups still need their mother. George berates Lennie, and Lennie leaves to return the pup to the barn. By
showing that Lennie still does not understand the consequences of his actions, Steinbeck establishes a frame of mind
in Lennie necessary for the book’s tragic end.14
In the same chapter, George talks about a place he has seen that might be the perfect spot. As his voice warms, his
solitaire hand stops, and the persuasive power of the recitation is at work again. It is the longest simple recitation of
the dream in the novel—lulling both George and Lennie into a near-trance. It is the apogee of their faith in the
abstract. It also occurs roughly at the middle of the novel, and is stopped only when Lennie, carried away by a vision
of the cats getting into his rabbit pen, bursts out with how he will smash the cats and ‘break their God damn
necks.’15 While the violent outburst quickly subsides to grumbling, it is a flash of anger and violence in Lennie that
brings the story of the dream and thus, symbolically, the dream itself to a halt.16
In Chapter five, it is Sunday afternoon and Lennie is alone in the barn, sitting in the hay and stroking the dead
body of his puppy. He talks to himself, asking the animal why it died: ‘You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce
you hard.’ Worrying that George will be angry and will not let him raise the rabbits on their farm, he starts to bury it
in the hay. He decides to tell George that he found it dead but then realizes that George will see through this lie.
Frustrated, he curses the dog for dying and hurls it across the room. Soon, though, Lennie retrieves the puppy,
strokes it again, and reasons that perhaps George won’t care, since the puppy meant nothing to George.17
As he talks to himself, Curley’s wife enters and sits beside him. He hastily hides the puppy and tells her that
George ordered him not to speak to her. She reassures him that it is safe for him to talk to her, pointing out that the
other men are occupied with a horseshoe tournament outside and will not interrupt them. She discovers the puppy
and consoles him about its death18, declaring that ‘the whole country is fulla mutts.’19 This implies that Curley’s
wife has no emotional attachment towards animals. That is, she does not bother at all about the killing of animals.
Lennie’s puppy represents the victory of the strong over the weak. Lennie kills the puppy accidentally, as he has
killed many mice before, by virtue of his failure to recognize his own strength.20
2 – Candy and his Dog
Candy’s relationship with his dog is based on reciprocal love and devotion. Candy is an old swamper, too aged
and feeble to do much else21. He loves his dog very much because he had him for long and he dutifully served him
during his ranch life. Candy tells George, ‘Yeah. I had’im ever since he was a pup. God, he was a good sheepdog
when he was younger.’22 Despite the fact that the dog becomes old, lame, half-blind and toothless, Candy
incessantly takes good care of him.
2 The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 3 In the second chapter, Carlson asks Slim whether or not the skinner’s dog had yet given birth to her pups. Slim
says she has, and informs Carlson and the bunkhouse that he has already drowned four of them because23 ‘she
couldn’t feed that many…I kept the biggest.’24
The line is the first instance where death is posited as a solution for too much dependence. Also, it makes clear
that there is little room or tolerance for the weak, especially when resources are limited25. Slim’s assertion that he
keeps the biggest, this implies that he was practicing a kind of Social Darwinism, assisting natural selection.26 But
immediately afterward, Carlson reveals he has been thinking about the sad shape of Candy’s dog, how it “stinks like
hell,” how it “can’t hardly walk,” and how it “got no teeth, damn near blind, can’t eat.” Carlson feels Candy
deserves a new dog, that a lame dog is worthless. This implies that all lame and dependent creatures should be
disposed of and replaced.27
As Lennie leaves, Candy enters, his old dog in tow. Both show their infirmity, the dog struggling to follow and
Candy complaining of a “gut ache”. Carlson follows Candy in, and the only four men then in the bunkhouse are
George, Slim, Carlson, and Candy. Carlson begins to complain about the stink of Candy’s dog and as he does so,
asks Candy why he doesn’t shoot the dog. Candy is made uncomfortable by the suggestion, interpreting Carlson’s
impatience with the dog to be close to what might be the farm’s impatience with him. Carlson persists, missing in
his insensitivity how much the old man is bothered by the talk28, saying ‘He ain’t good to himself…This ol’ dog jus’
suffers hisself all the time.’29 Then, thinking he is helping the man, Carlson offers to shoot the dog himself. ‘Then it
won’t be you that does it,’ he says30.
Candy feels the pressure to act, and sits up. He protests, saying he has known the dog its entire life. His and the
dog’s circumstances parallel those of George and Lennie. The man watches out for the dog, admires his ability to
work, and sees it as gentle and in need of protection, despite the nuisance the animal clearly is. In short, Candy sees
a value in his dog that Carlson does not.31
Adding to Candy’s discomfort, Carlson then suggests that Candy could have one of Slim’s pups, as if replacement
were possible simply because Candy would have a new dog. His eyes trained on the dog, Slim says Candy could
have the dog. Steinbeck does not clearly state what Slim is thinking regarding the old dog, but he has to ‘shake
himself free for speech’32 to tell Candy that Carlson may be right about showing mercy to the dog by killing it. Slim
might have been, a moment before, a sympathetic face for Candy, but as the sawmper looks around the bunkhouse,
he cannot find someone to help him resist what is beginning to look inevitable.33
A laborer walks into the bunkhouse then, interrupting the momentum of the deliberations and buying Candy a
moment. He shows Slim a letter in a magazine, written by a former ranch hand. As the talk of the magazine letter
goes on34,‘Carlson had refused to be drawn in.’35 Carlson’s focus is on being helpful, on doing what he thinks is
right, blind to Candy’s reaction and discomfort. Candy’s agreement is only in speech; his physical presence and
behavior indicate that he is very much opposed to Carlson’s shooting his dog. His last-ditch effort is to point out that
Carlson has no gun. But Carlson counters: he has a Luger. Candy asks if maybe they could wait. Carlson pushes
forward. Candy looks to Slim for some hope and finds none. When Candy finally acquiesces, he lies back on his
bed, in a posture of resignation, and Carlson then gently leads the dog out of the bunkhouse.36
As he does so, though, Slim tells him ‘You know what to do.’37 Slim wants to make sure that if it must be done,
that it be done right—that Carlson respect the corpse, and that he bury it. Slim tells him to take a shovel, and Carlson
grasps the skinner’s meaning. As Carlson leaves, George closes the door behind him while Slim tries to strike up
conversation, trying to put noise in the room, to distract Candy. He mentions how his mule needs to have his roof retarred, and as the room falls silent again, this time George talks about Lennie, probably enjoying a pup. When Slim
tells Candy again that he can have any pup he wants, this time the old man doesn’t answer. Seeing what Slim is
trying to do, George suggests a little euchure, a card game. Despite the game, the noise level does not remain
sufficient in the bunkhouse to cover the noise of Carlson’s gunshot. When the shot comes, every head turns toward
Candy, and the old man then turns in his back, curls in on himself and stares at the wall.38
The discomfort in the room is palpable, as is Candy’s loss. Only Whit, the ranch hand playing cards with a
distracted George, seems oblivious. Slim is silent, looking at Candy the whole time, and George is himself distracted
by the complicated fate of Candy’s dog.
3 The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 4 Carlson sets to cleaning the Luger as Candy keeps his back to the room. Candy turns once at a noise, to regard the
gun and nothing else, and then he turns back.40
The method by which Carlson kills Candy’s dog, with a painless shot to the back of the head, sadly mirrors the
way George will choose to murder his dearest friend. Candy pathetically says that he could never kill his dog, since
he has “had him since he was a pup.” Most significant is Candy’s quiet comment to George that he wishes he had
shot his old dog himself and not allowed a stranger to do it, a distinct foreshadowing of the decision George will
41
make to kill Lennie himself rather than let him be killed by Curley’s lynch mob.
The death of Candy’s dog testifies to the pitiless process by which the strong attack and eliminate the weak.
Candy’s dog—although no longer useful at corralling sheep—is of great importance to the old swamper. Candy’s
emotional attachment to the dog is clear. Regardless, allowing the animal to live out its days is not an option in this
cruel environment. Carlson insists that the animal’s infirmity makes it unworthy of such devotion. The most comfort
he can offer is to assure Candy that he will kill the dog mercifully and quickly. When Slim, the story’s most trusted
source of wisdom, agrees, he only confirms that their world is one that offers the weak and disempowered little hope
42
of protection.
Candy’s dog represents the fate awaiting anyone who has outlived his or her purpose. Once a fine sheepdog,
useful on the ranch, Candy’s mutt is now debilitated by age. Candy’s sentimental attachment to the animal—his plea
that Carlson let the dog live for no other reason than that Candy raised it from a puppy—means nothing at all on the
ranch. Although Carlson promises to kill the dog painlessly, his insistence that the old animal must die supports a
cruel natural law that the strong will dispose of the weak. Candy internalizes this lesson, for he fears that he himself
43
is nearing an age when he will no longer be useful at the ranch, and therefore no longer welcome.
The connections between the dog’s infirmities and Carlson’s declaration that the old man was useless are not lost
on a man whose own utility around the ranch is limited and whose own age is making more and more problems.
Candy does not want a similar fate to befall him, and he sees that George and Lennie are, indeed, for all their claims
different from other men.44
As George finally agrees to let Candy join in on the stake and swears him to secrecy, the old man says one last
thing to George as voices approach45. He says, ‘I ought to of shot that myself, George I shouldn’t have let no
stranger shoot my dog.’46
No one who reads Of Mice and Men can possibly miss the parallels between the shooting of Candy’s dog and
Lennie’s execution by George. Steinbeck first makes sure that Carlson describes exactly how he will shoot the old
dog and then shows George shooting Lennie in exactly the same way with the same gun. The unmistakable message
is that dog and man are both annoyances and impediments to the smooth working of the ranch. One stinks and one
kills too many things. But why shoot Lennie, with precisely the same weapon in precisely the same way? One
reading would have us believe that Lennie’s death is inevitable or that George is saving Lennie from a fate worse
47
than death.
3 – The Symbolic Significance of Carlson’s Gun
Steinbeck feels it necessary to repeat the name of Carlson’s gun so many times. When Carlson offers to shoot the
old dog, Candy says hopefully, ‘You ain’t got no gun.’48 Carlson replies, ‘The hell I ain’t. Got a Luger.’49 Later,
after they find Curley’s wife body, Carlson says,‘ I’ll get my Luger.’50 Then on the same page, Steinbeck writes,
‘Carlson came running in. The bastard’s stole my Luger, he shouted51. Fourteen lines later, Curley says, ‘He got
Carlson’s Luger.’52 Six pages later, when George shoots Lennie, we read, ‘He reached in his side pocket and
brought out Carlson’s Luger.’53
Why does Steinbeck want to keep the reader’s eye on not just a gun but specifically a Luger pistol? The Luger has
an interesting history. It was one of the most famous firearms of the twentieth century. Surely, it was well known for
its association with the German military in both World War I and World War II. The Luger was named for its
designer, George Luger, in Karlsruhe, Germany at the end of the nineteenth century.54
4 The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 5 Steinbeck wants to associate Carlson and the gun that kills both dog and man with eugenics and the rise of fascism
in Germany. If we follow this idea, it is interesting to note that the name Carl not only echoes the name of the town
in which the Luger was created, Karlsruhe.55
Conclusion
To conclude, each character views the animal and human bond through his own perspective. First, Lennie is
enamored of petting soft, furry animals but he accidently kills them. Second, Candy loves his dog because he had
him for long. Also, he is devoted to serve him even if his dog is now half-blind, toothless and lame. He confides in
George that he shouldn’t have allowed a stranger to kill his dog. This inspires George at the end of the novella to kill
his friend Lennie. Third, Slim drowned four puppies because his thought that his bitch couldn’t feed them and so he
kept only the biggest. This implies that he is a believer in Darwinism, most notably natural selection. Finally,
Carlson kills Candy’s dog in order to put him out of his misery. This suggests that he promotes euthanasia or
merciful killing . As well, Steinbeck relates Carlson’s Lurger to eugenics and the rise of fascism in Germany.
Notes
1
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and men (Great Britain: Penguin, 2000),
2
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
3
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
4
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men ( New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006), 19.
5
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
6
2007.
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 20.
7
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
17
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
18 Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
8
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 19.
9
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
10
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 22.
11
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 23.
12
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
13
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 31-2.
14
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 33.
15
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
16
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 38.
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
5 The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 6 19
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
20
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
21
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide,
22
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
23
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 31.
24
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 31.
25
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide,
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
26 Michael J. Meyer, The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (The USA: Lanham, Maryland,
227).
27
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 31.
28
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 34.
29
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
30
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
31
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 34.
32
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
33
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 34.
34
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 35.
35
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
36
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 35.
37
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
38
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 35-6.
39
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 36.
40
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 37.
41
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
42
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
43
Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
44
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 39.
45
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide, 39.
6 The Animal and Human bond in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Chaker Mohamed ben ALi 7 46
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
47
Meyer, The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, 227.
48
Meyer, The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, 228.
49
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
50
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
51
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
52
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
53
Steinbeck, Of Mice and men,
54
Meyer, The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, 229.
55
Meyer, The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, 230.
Bibliography
Bloom, Bloom’s Guide: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006.
Meyer, Michael J. The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The USA: Lanham, Maryland,
2009.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and men: Great Britain: Penguin, 2000.
SparkNotes
Editors.
“SparkNote
on
Of
Mice
and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ (accessed April 30, 2014).
7 Men.”
SparkNotes
LLC.
2007.