Section 6 Summary

The final section opens in the same riverbed where the story began. It’s a beautiful, serene afternoon. Lennie creeps in from the undergrowth and kneels by the water to drink. He is quite proud of himself for being able to remember the clearing as per George’s earlier direction. Suddenly, he sees a vision of Aunt Clara, berating him, speaking in Lennie’s own voice, for not listening to George, creating trouble for himself as well as George. Then the vision of a gigantic rabbit appears, also speaking in Lennie’s voice, telling him that George will beat him and then desert him. George enters, appearing uncharacteristically quiet and listless. He does not admonish Lennie. Even when Lennie asks him to, he does that without his usual anger and passion and sounds unconvincing. Lennie makes his usual offer to run away and live in a cave, but George asks him to stay, which reassures him.

Lennie requests George to tell the story of their farm. George starts talking, acknowledging the bond the two men have and how this is rare among men. George hears the other men approaching in the woods. He tells Lennie to take off his hat and look across the river as he describes the farm. He tells Lennie about the rabbits and how nobody would ever be mean to him again. Lennie happily urges that they should go right now, to which George agrees. He raises Carlson’s gun, which he has removed from his jacket, and shoots Lennie in the back of the head. Lennie’s immense body hits the ground and then becomes still. George tosses the gun away and sits down on the riverbank.

The sound of the shot guides the rest of the men to the clearing. Carlson starts asking George about what happened, and George leads them to believe that he had wrestled the gun from Lennie and had shot him with it. Only Slim seems to understand what has actually happened. He assures George, telling him, “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.” He leads George away from the clearing, who has gone numb with grief, as Carlson and Curley watch curiously about what these two men are talking about.

Section 6 Analysis

This section brings the reader back to the first setting of the novel—the clearing in the woods. The riverbed is beautiful and serene as the day is coming to an end. However, Steinbeck carefully inserts predatory moves, the seemingly casual instances of violence—a large heron bends down and snatches unsuspecting snake from the river water. While the scene uses a lot of the descriptions from the book’s opening pages, it is clear to the reader about what lies ahead for Lennie when he appears.

George and Lennie’s final conversation is a reenactment of their first conversation—Lennie offering to leave, George reassuring him that he doesn’t need to, the discussion about their shared dream. However, this conversation and the tracing of all that they had once dreamt of, is George’s final surrender of his dreams. Lennie was the only aspect that distinguished him from the other migrant workers and allowed him to think of a future; however, the future now stands dashed. The passion has left him as he finally confronts the reality—that his dream stands no ground in a world that is so characterized by violence and injustice.

George never confronts Lennie, keeping his innocence intact till the last. However, the visions that Lennie experiences are his acts of self-chastisement; he is aware that he has caused trouble and would be seeking George’s forgiveness again. When George pulls the trigger on his friend, this act of mercy runs parallel with the death of Candy’s dog. This time though George doesn’t allow himself the option of some stranger killing his friend and does the act himself to save him. When the other men arrive and see Lennie dead, they see only what is apparent—that this man killed a woman and now he deserves his death. No one understands how he contributed to George’s life; how his constant innocence and dreaming gave George hope. Only Slim, the wisest and most mature amongst them, understands what the truth is and attempts to reassure George that he has done the right thing.