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Aunt Clara is Lennie’s aunt, although, due to taking him in as a child and raising him, she played a maternal role in Lennie’s life. She is not an active or present character in the novel, instead making occasional appearances in the faded memories of Lennie and George. When the novel begins, Aunt Clara is already dead, and George has taken over the responsibility of caring for Lennie. Due to Lennie’s disability, he often can’t remember the specifics of his relation to Aunt Clara, or even her name, but he does have many fond memories of her. Aunt Clara was kind to Lennie, and indulged his love of soft things by giving him squares of velvet and mice to pet. George mentions feeling a sense of duty to care for Lennie partly because he knows that Aunt Clara wouldn’t have wanted Lennie to be abandoned after her death.
For both George and Lennie, Aunt Clara symbolizes a softer, kinder time – a time that is entirely in the past, and no longer accessible to them. Aunt Clara’s death forces Lennie to join the harsh world of men and work, a world that he is mentally unequipped to survive in. Aunt Clara’s caring, motherly tendencies directly juxtapose the hard, masculine tendencies of the ranch. In contrast to Aunt Clara, the people of the ranch are harsh and unforgiving, and far less willing to be patient with Lennie. Consequently, most of Lennie and George’s rare moments of softness and happiness revolve around either past memories of Aunt Clara or fantasies of their unrealized future.
