Of Mice and Men
Scene #6 · Chapter 5
Alone in the barn, Lennie discovers that he has accidentally killed his puppy while petting it too roughly. He alternates between anger at the puppy for dying and fear that George will now forbid him from tending rabbits on their farm. Lennie tries to hide the puppy under hay, then uncovers it again, talking to it and trying to convince himself that killing a puppy isn't as bad as the mice he's killed before. He grows increasingly agitated about what George will say.
The puppy's death escalates the pattern of Lennie killing soft things he loves, moving from mice to a larger animal and foreshadowing the human death to come. Lennie's inability to understand the permanence of death or learn from past mistakes shows his mental limitations will inevitably lead to tragedy. His obsessive worry about the rabbits reveals how the dream has become his only framework for understanding consequences.
Now maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits, if he fin’s out you got killed.
Chapter 5 · Lennie Small
Only Lennie was in the barn, and Lennie sat in the hay beside a packing case under a manger in the end of the barn that had not been filled with hay. Lennie sat in the hay and looked at a little dead puppy that lay in front of him.
Chapter 5 · Narrator
And Lennie said softly to the puppy, "Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard."
Chapter 5 · Lennie Small
"God damn you," he cried. "Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice." He picked up the pup and hurled it from him.
Chapter 5 · Lennie Small