Chapter 6 Notes

Questions

Where:  Salines River, California (By the Brush)
When:  1930s
1)  Why does George go and kill Lennie when he could have made Curley or one of the other guys do it?  Why George?
2)  Why did Slim bring up the concept of getting a drink right after his friend killed someone, and that too Lennie? 
3)  Why didn't George stay with Lennie?  Why didn't he bury Lennie ?
4)  Do you think that Curley would have killed Lennie?  I don't think he had the nerve to.  After he saw Lennie on the ground, he started talking very softly.  After that, we didn't hear one word about him. 
5)  I wonder if Lennie had even one little thought in the back of his head that maybe his Aunt Clara and the rabbit were right?  Did he ever think that maybe George was not his true friend but was to scared to say anything?
6)  Do you think that the robin eating the snake having power over it was like George killing Lennie?

Summary

Lennie goes to the brush as George tells him to do if he got into trouble of any sort.  By the lake, Lennie imagines his Aunt Clara there.  His Aunt Clara tells him that it is all his fault.  She tells him that George does so much for him and that all he does is make trouble.  Then, Lennie imagines a rabbit in front of him.  The rabbit told Lennie that George is going to leave him.  By that time, George comes and talks to Lennie about the house they were going to live in.  The author foreshadows that something is going to happen when Lennie said that he did another bad thing and George replied it doesn't matter anymore.  This tells us that George is done with Lennie and that whatever he does would not matter from then on.  George makes Lennie look out across the river.  He goes behind him, puts the gun towards his head an pulls the trigger.  Lennie dropped to the ground and the other guys come out of the brush.  Curley seemed to be sympathetic and Slim went up to George and said that a guy has to sometimes.  They go off to get a drink as if nothing happened. 

Prediction

I predict that both George and Candy will be lonely and doleful.  George will just be like the other men on the ranch who travel alone and earn money and just spend it off.  I think he will get so influenced by the other men, that his dreams will get shattered.  He has no one to share them with.  Just like they said in the beginning, men never travel with others, they travel by themselves after a few months.  Now that Lennie is gone, George has no one.  Also, Candy asked George at the barn when they saw Curley's wife dead that they wouldn't be able to get a house now.  Candy knows now that none of his dreams would ever get fulfilled.  He knows that they were shattered and that he would just die at the ranch.  Candy would never feel joy again in his life and neither would George.  George would have a guilt feeling all his life that he killed his friend.