of Mice and Men

The final chapter opens as Lennie waits in the bushes near the Salinas River, just as George told him to do in Chapter One. He nervously talks to himself, airing his worry that George won't let him tend the rabbits because of the bad things he did back at the ranch. Lennie then hallucinates. He imagines the figure of his Aunt Clara - a plump, aproned woman with thick glasses - who scolds him for getting George into so much trouble. Lennie cries, begging Aunt Clara for forgiveness, and says that he will go off in the hills, where he can't bother George. Lennie then imagines a gigantic rabbit that mocks him for ever believing that he could tend the rabbits. The imaginary rabbit says that George will beat him with a stick when he arrives.