While Of Mice and Men has numerous
scenes filled with imagery and other figurative devices, Chapter 5 is always moving to
me. As the chapter opens, we see the stillness of the barn interrupted only by Lennies
stroking his dead puppy. Since the book began, the reader has heard George warn Lennie
not to mess up- again, and so we've been waiting for something bad to happen. In
Chapter 5 we see the bad.
Lennie's moment of solitude is
interrupted by Curley's wife. Alone again, she wants someone to talk to, and though
George has warned him to stay away ("Lennie glared at her. “George says I ain’t to have
nothing to do with you—talk to you or nothing.”) he finds she won't leave him alone.
The reader holds their breath as she asks Lennie if he
likes soft things and continues to compare her hair to velvet. She tells him, "mine is
soft and fine. ‘Course I brush it a lot. That makes it fine. Here—feel right here.” She
took Lennie’s hand and put it on her head. “Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it
is.” The dialect allows the reader to hear her broken English while wanting to yell to
her NO!. Instead, gentle Lennie begins to pet her until she becomes uncomfortable and
only wanting to silence her, he unwittingly breaks her neck.
The following image compares the dead puppy to Curley's
dead wife. Both lay covered, motionless in the hay until Lennie picks up the puppy to
throw away and head to the safe spot.
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