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Summary and Analysis of Chapter Six
Chapter Six:Lennie appears from the brush near the Salinas River and comes to the pool's edge. He kneels down and drinks, barely touching his lips to the water. Lennie talks to himself, saying that he didn't forget George's order to return there. He says that he can find a cave in the mountain and live there. Lennie imagines a little fat woman with thick glasses, wearing an apron. This imaginary vision of Aunt Clara frowns disapprovingly at Lennie, and scolds him for getting George into so much trouble. Lennie cries, begging Aunt Clara for forgiveness. Lennie says that he will go off in the hills, where he can't bother George. Lennie then imagines a gigantic rabbit that scolds him for his idea that he could tend rabbits. The imaginary rabbit says that when George finds him, he will beat Lennie with a stick. As Lennie sobs, George comes out from the brush. Lennie admits that he did a bad thing. George says woodenly that if he were alone he could live so easily. George begins his speech about how they differ from other men, for they have each other. George tells Lennie to take off his hat, then continues to tell Lennie how it will be for them. As George speaks, he gets out Carlson's gun and shoots Lennie in the back of the head. Hearing the gunshot, Curley and the other men find George. Slim tells him "never you mind. A guy got to sometimes." George tells Carlson that Lennie took his gun, and when he took it back from him, he killed him with it. Slim reassures George that he had to do it, while Carlson and Curley look on in disbelief, wondering why he is so upset. Analysis:The final chapter brings the novel to a conclusion at the same point where it began, the clearing near the Salinas River. In this one instance Lennie did follow George's orders, remembering where he should go in case an emergency occurred. The novel thus comes full circle, with Lennie once again repeating a pattern of harmful behavior that causes the two characters to need to escape. Yet in this instance both George and Lennie realize that continuing to move from ranch to ranch is now impossible. Lennie suggests removing himself from society completely, living in a mountain cave, while George finds another solution. In this chapter Lennie's behavior moves from simplistic innocence to complete lunacy. He experiences wild hallucinations that draw out his fear that George will harm or abandon Lennie. These visions reveal once again the simplicity of Lennie's thought. He is in this instance literally haunted by his rabbits. The image of Aunt Clara is more problematic. She is a domineering mother figure that lends well to Freudian analysis of the text, and perhaps explains the docile tendencies in Lennie despite his massive strength. Lennie had been cowed by the little old lady, who despite her death years before still holds great sway over the dimwitted man. Both the rabbit and Aunt Clara reinforce the idea that Lennie fears that he is a burden to George and that he would be better off living alone and isolated. This chapter also marks a change in George, who has finally lost his dreams of finding a farm with Lennie. He confirms Lennie's idea that he would live so much easier if he were alone, but George says this in a stilted and wooden manner, indicating that he does not believe his own words. He rather seems to be preparing himself for the action he know he must commit. When he shoots Lennie, it is an obvious mercy killing. George prepares Lennie for his death by giving the soothing speech about the little farm and the rabbits, and shoots him in the back of the head, which neatly parallels the earlier sacrificial death of Candy's dog. This is a pure mercy killing: George knows that Curley will murder Lennie as soon as he finds him, and would prefer to do so himself. This returns back to an earlier moral code established when Candy allows Carlson to shoot his dog and says that Candy should have done the job himself. George views Lennie's death as imminent and inevitable, and thus finds it appropriate that he kill Lennie, putting him out of his misery before Curley commits a more brutal murder. When the other men find George, he manipulates the situation further, telling them that he murdered Lennie out of self-defense when he wrested the gun that Lennie supposedly stole from him. He thus absolves himself of any blame for the mercy killing. Yet what remains for George is the sense of guilt that comes with the crime. Slim senses George's feeling of remorse over the situation. However, the book ends with Carlson wondering why George is upset, once again demonstrating that the other men cannot comprehend the bond of friendship between George and Lennie.
ClassicNote on Of Mice and Men
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