Of Mice And Men Chapter 6 Summary | Junior Cycle English

Of Mice and Men Chapter 6 Summary: Where we are

English Hub Plus

Junior Cycle English, sorted.

English Hub Plus has sample answers, quizzes and vocab tools across the whole Junior Cycle course. Try it free for 48 hours, then €4.99 a month.

Start your free trialEvery note on this site stays free.

Back at the green pool by the Salinas river, where the novel started. Lennie is hiding in the brush, doing exactly what George told him to do on the first evening. It is the shortest chapter in the book and the one every question about the ending needs.

What happens

Lennie arrives at the pool and waits, pleased with himself for remembering the instruction. A heron at the water’s edge takes a water snake. The scene is calm and ordinary while he waits.

Lennie then has two hallucinations. His Aunt Clara appears and scolds him in his own voice. She reminds him how good George has been, and how he never listens. Then a giant rabbit appears and tells him George is going to leave him and he will be alone.

George arrives quietly and the visions stop. He is not angry. Lennie expects to be shouted at. He keeps offering to go away and live in a cave, as he did in Chapter 1. George refuses to shout.

George tells him to look across the river and describes the farm one last time. The rabbits, the land, the two of them together. Lennie asks him to say the part about how they are different from other men, and they say it together.

The shouts of the search party come closer. George takes Carlson’s Luger from his side pocket. His hand shakes badly, then steadies. Lennie is still looking across the river at the farm. George puts the muzzle close to the back of his head and fires.

The men arrive. Curley and Carlson assume Lennie had the gun and that George wrestled it off him. George does not correct them. Slim understands immediately what actually happened, and says George had no choice.

Slim leads George away for a drink. Carlson watches them go and asks Curley what is eating those two guys. That is the last line of the novel.

One key quote

“And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger.”
The narrator, in the closing pages.

Everything about George is in that sentence. The hand that shakes is the friend. The hand that steadies is the man who has decided. Steinbeck puts both in one line and does not tell you what George feels, because he never does.

Note where Lennie is looking. He is facing across the river, listening to the story about the rabbits. George arranges the last minute of his life so that he dies happy and unafraid. That is the argument for calling it mercy.

Set it against Candy’s regret in Chapter 3. Candy wished he had shot his own dog rather than let a stranger do it. George heard him say it. This is George making sure he is not the stranger.

What this chapter is doing

Steinbeck closes the circle he opened. Same pool, same brush, same instruction. The novel ends in the one place that felt safe, which is why the ending is so hard to shake off.

He also stages the death exactly as he staged the dog’s. Both are quick, both are done with a Luger, both happen while other people wait nearby. Carlson shot the dog in the back of the head to make it painless, and George does the same. The parallel is not an accident and you should say so in an answer.

The final line is doing serious work. Carlson has no idea why George is upset. He cannot see it, and neither can Curley. Two men out of the whole ranch understand what has happened, and one of them is dead. George’s speech in Chapter 1 about lonely men who belong nowhere turns out to describe him.

Slim’s verdict matters more than anything the reader thinks. Steinbeck spent Chapter 2 telling us that Slim’s word is taken on any subject. When Slim says George had to do it, the novel is settling the question.

Themes that show up

Mercy. Slim gives the judgement that clears George, in almost the same words he used about Candy’s dog.
Friendship. George’s last act is to reassure Lennie that he is not angry, and to give him the story one more time.
Loneliness returns. George ends the novel as the kind of man he described in Chapter 1, with nobody and nowhere to go.
The dream as a story. The farm gets its final telling as a comfort for a dying man, which is what it always was.
Circular structure. The book ends where it began, deliberately.

Common questions that come up

Any question on the ending of your studied text needs three things. What George does, why Slim’s reaction matters, and the link back to Candy’s dog. Get those three in and you have a strong answer.

For a question on a difficult decision a character made, this is the obvious choice. Make the case properly. Set out what the alternatives were, Curley’s revenge or a locked cage, and then argue why George chose what he chose.

A question on the relationship between two characters should finish here, not start here. The friendship is proved by the fact that George does it himself rather than let anyone else do it.

If a question asks whether an ending was satisfying, you can argue either way as long as you use the text. The circular structure and Slim’s approval support one answer. Carlson’s closing question supports the other.

Common mistake

Students often write that George murders Lennie, or that he betrays him. Both readings ignore the novel’s own evidence. Steinbeck spends Chapter 3 building the argument that shooting is kinder than the alternative. He then gives the final judgement to Slim, whose opinion the ranch treats as law. You are allowed to disagree with that, but you must deal with it. An answer that simply calls it a betrayal has not noticed that the book already asked the question and answered it.

Quick recall

1. Where does the final chapter take place?

At the same green pool by the Salinas river where the novel opened. Lennie is hiding in the brush as George instructed him in Chapter 1.

2. What two hallucinations does Lennie have?

His Aunt Clara, who scolds him for never listening to George. Then a giant rabbit, which tells him George will leave him alone. Both speak in his own voice.

3. What does the rabbit tell Lennie?

That George will leave him and he will be alone. It is Lennie’s deepest fear, and within minutes it comes true permanently.

4. How does George behave when he arrives?

Calmly. He tells Lennie he is not angry and has never been angry, and that he wants him to know it. He refuses to shout, even though Lennie expects it.

5. What is Lennie doing at the moment he is shot?

Looking across the river while George describes the farm and the rabbits. He is happy and has no idea what is about to happen.

6. Whose gun does George use?

Carlson’s Luger, the same weapon used to shoot Candy’s dog in Chapter 3. Steinbeck deliberately uses the same gun for both deaths.

7. What do Curley and Carlson believe happened?

That Lennie had the gun and George took it off him in a struggle. George lets them believe it and does not correct them.

8. How does Slim react?

He understands at once. He tells George there was no other choice, and he says a man has to sometimes. He then takes George off for a drink.

9. What is the last line of the novel and why does it matter?

Carlson asks what is eating those two guys. It matters because almost nobody on the ranch can see what has just happened. That proves George’s point about lonely men.

10. How does the ending link back to Chapter 3?

Candy said he should have shot his own dog instead of letting a stranger do it. George was in the room. He makes sure he is the one who does it for Lennie.

← Chapter 5 summary | Of Mice and Men hub →