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“I never seen a guy really do it,” he said. “I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes.”
In Of Mice and Men, the real world that George, Lennie, and the rest of the ranch men inhabit is often juxtaposed with the heaven-like image of the farm with rabbits that they will one day possess. Steinbeck references Christian imagery by using the farm to represent paradise and the ranch to represent the fallen world of man. As Crooks explains in this passage, most men are unable to make it to “paradise” due to their fallen or sinful nature – they have dreams of owning land, but they’re unable to conquer their own sinful urges, and end up squandering their money. They never save enough money to buy property and escape their current situation, and thus never reach “heaven.”
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.
Lennie has a joy and innocence about him that is similar to that of a child. His happiness keeps both him and George dedicated to finally reaching the paradise of the farm. When George discovers that Lennie has killed Curley’s wife and realizes that he must now kill Lennie to save him from lynching, he knows that he will never recover from the loss. Much like man loses his innocence and falls from grace in the biblical book of Genesis, George foresees that Lennie’s death will mark the end of his quest to reach “heaven” (or the farm). He will spend the rest of his life as a fallen man, wasting his money and lacking true companionship.
You… an’ me. Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em.
When George recites these words to Lennie right before shooting him, he is simultaneously comforting Lennie with empty promises while also building a hopeful image of the heaven – a perfect place with no pain or meanness – that Lennie might soon enter. That reference to heaven may be literal, in that George believes that Lennie will be welcomed into eternity after death, but it may also be symbolic: in death, Lennie will be liberated from the terrible world in which he currently lives, a world where his disability makes him a constant target for misunderstandings, manipulation, and violence. In the harsh, fallen world of Of Mice and Men, it is only through death that men may potentially find paradise.
