Summary
Lennie is alone inside the barn, stroking a dead puppy. Worried that George will find out and won't let him tend the rabbits, Lennie buries the dead pup in the hay and says that he will claim to have found it dead. But then he uncovers the pup and strokes it again, realizing that George will know he killed it because George always knows and Lennie won't get to tend the rabbits. Lennie becomes so angry that he hurls the dead puppy across the barn. Shortly after having thrown the puppy, Lennie picks it up again, stroking it and deciding that maybe George won't care.
Curley's wife enters the barn and asks Lennie what he has. Lennie repeats George's instructions that he is not to talk to her. She stays, however, and again asks him what he is covering up. When Lennie shows her the dead puppy, she tells him it was just a mutt and no one will care, but Lennie explains that George won't let him tend the rabbits because he did a bad thing again.
Curley's wife tells Lennie of her life and her missed opportunity to travel with the show that came through her hometown. Lennie responds absently with concern about his dream farm and the rabbits he will have. Following his comment, Curley's wife chatters on, explaining more about her lost chance to become an actress and how she met Curley. As she talks, she moves closer, confiding in him about the life she might have had. Lennie, however, is still trying to figure out how to get rid of the dead pup so that George won't know.
When Lennie explains that he likes to pet soft things, Curley's wife reveals that she too likes to feel silk and velvet, and she invites him to feel her hair, which is very soft. He does, but his big, clumsy fingers start to mess it up, and she angrily tells him to let go. As she tries to get her hair away from Lennie, he becomes scared and holds on more tightly. When she begins to scream, Lennie covers her mouth with his hand. A struggle ensues — Lennie panicking and Curley's wife's eyes "wild with terror" — until her body flops "like a fish" and then she is still.
When Lennie realizes that she is dead, he panics and paws the hay to partially cover her. Hearing the horseshoe game outside, he understands that someone will come in sooner or later and discover the bad thing he has done. Immediately he remembers to hide in the brush until George comes. Picking up the dead pup, he leaves to go to the hiding place.
Candy finds Curley's wife and runs out to find George, who, upon seeing the body, knows what happened. George considers what will happen to Lennie: They could lock Lennie up, but he'd starve, and people would be mean to him. Candy says they need to let Lennie get away because Curley will lynch him, but George realizes how hopeless escape would be. He tells Candy to give him a minute to go to the bunkhouse before telling the other men; then George will come along as though he had not already seen Curley's wife.
Candy asserts that he and George can still have their farm, but George realizes that it will never happen. Now George has no dream, and he will end up working like the other ranch hands and spending his money in a poolroom or "some lousy cat house."
Carlson, Whit, Curley, and Crooks come back in the barn with Candy and, following them, George. Curley immediately blames Lennie, saying he will go for his shotgun and shoot Lennie in the guts. Carlson follows Curley out of the barn, going for his Luger. When Slim asks George where Lennie might be, George tells Slim Lennie would have gone south (knowing all along that the little pool is north of the ranch). When George claims that they might find Lennie first and bring him in and lock him up, Slim explains that Curley will want to kill him, and even if he doesn't, how would Lennie like being locked up and strapped down like an animal in a cage?
Carlson and Curley return, and Carlson claims that Lennie has stolen his Luger. Curley, carrying a shotgun, tells Carlson to take Crooks' shotgun, and the men leave, taking George with them to find Lennie.
Analysis
Chapter 5 is filled with characters whose thoughts can be described very precisely: Lennie's fear, Curley wife's musings and then her terror, George's stoic acceptance, Curley's meanness, and Candy's despondency. All occur because of the meeting in the barn between Lennie and Curley's wife, a meeting that seals forever the fates of all involved.
Lennie's fate is sealed when he realizes he has done a worse thing than kill a pup. His panic in killing Curley's wife is much like the panic he felt when Curley baited him and Lennie broke Curley's hand. Lennie differentiates at some level between the bad thing of killing the pup and the bad thing of killing Curley's wife, as evidenced by his leaving for the bushes near the river when he realizes she is dead. However, he doesn't fully comprehend the implications of her death, as evidenced by his taking the pup's body with him so that George wouldn't see it as well. Lennie's reasoning is that the body of Curley's wife is bad enough; the body of the pup would compound the wrong done. This action — and the thought process that preceded it — reemphasizes Lennie's child-like understanding of the events that have transpired.
Throughout the novel, Steinbeck describes Curley's wife in terms of her appearance and the reactions of the ranch hands toward her. She has been alternately a "tart," "jailbait," and various other derogatory terms, used often by George. But in this scene, the reader gets a different view of her as she talks about her own lost dreams. Her current situation is the result of a series of bad choices and unhappy circumstance. She lost her chance at being in the movies because of her age and her mother, and, perhaps in retaliation, she took up with Curley, leading to a loveless marriage with a man who abuses her and completes her feelings of worthlessness. She lives a solitary life on a ranch, with no companion, no one to talk to, and in continual fear that her husband will beat up any person in sight. Although her actions and flirtations have exacerbated the unhappiness of her situation, Steinbeck gives us a view of her past, and we discover that she, like everyone else in the novel — and perhaps even more so — is a victim of loneliness.
Steinbeck reinforces this kinder impression of Curley's wife in his description of her in death. Momentarily, the light from the setting sun becomes softer and shines across her body. She no longer looks like a tart who needs attention; instead she looks like a young, pretty, innocent girl, sleeping lightly.
George clearly accepts the end of his and Lennie's dream. The reader feels that he never really believed it could happen even though the plan of using Candy's money made it seem possible for awhile. George says on two different occasions to Candy, "I should of knew … I guess maybe way back in my head I did." Later when Candy suggests they could still have the farm together, George says, "… I think I knowed from the very first. I think I know'd we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would." Without Lennie, the dream is gone and perhaps never really existed except in the words that made Lennie's happiness complete.
George's words echo the prophesy of Crooks when he imagines what his life will be like without Lennie: "I'll work my month an' I'll take my fifty bucks an' I'll stay all night in some lousy cat house. Or I'll set in some poolroom till ever'body goes home. An' then I'll come back an' work another month an' I'll have fifty bucks more." Gone is the dream. Gone are the complaints about what he could do if he did not have Lennie around his neck. Now he will be alone like everyone else.
Glossary
four-taloned Jackson fork a hay fork with four prongs, for lifting large amounts of hay.
Salinas city in west central California, near Monterey.
"in the pitcher" "in the picture;" here, meaning in the movies.
ringer a horseshoe thrown so that it encircles the peg.
