Similarities to the first chapter: it’s set in the same location and repeats many of the ideas from the first chapter, including the ‘heron’ which ‘swallowed the little snake’. This could represent evil being destroyed, prefiguring Lennie’s death. At the start of Chapter Six the ‘sun had left the valley’ and half way through the weather becomes extremely grim: pathetic fallacy to match the mood.
First, Lennie arrives and is talking to himself:
“George gonna give me hell.”
“If George don’t want me…. I’ll go away. I’ll go away.”
Giant Talking Rabbit:
Lennie’ Aunt Clara tells him off: then a ‘gigantic rabbit’ “You crazy bastard. You ain’t fit to lick the boots of no rabbit… An then what would George think?” “You ain’t worth a greased jack pin to ram you into hell.” “He’s gonna beat hell outta you with a stick, that’s what he’s gonna do.”
Lennie argues back: “he ain’t never raised his han’ to me.” “He gonna leave ya” repeated four times. ‘The rabbit scuttled back into Lennie’s head.’
George Arrives:
Lennie uses euphemistic language “I done another bad thing.”
George “You can’t remember nothing that happens, but you remember ever’ word I say.”
Lennie says “ain’t you gonna say it?” George says ‘woodenly’ in a ‘monotonous’ voice: “If I was alone I could live so easy” “no mess” They go through the motions – Lennie says (again) that he will “find a cave”.
Lennie said ‘craftily’: “tell me like you done before.”
G “Guys like us got no fambly…”
Lennie starts to talk ‘happily’ and in ‘triumph’ “We got each other”
George talks ‘shakily’
Pathetic fallacy: shadows are ‘bluer’ ‘darkening slopes’: there are ‘crashing’ noises in the brush…
G tries to retell the story: “We gonna…’
Lennie “Go on.” “Go on.” lots of repetition in short, sharp bursts “I get to tend the rabbits” ‘giggled with happiness’. There’s a very uncomfortable juxtapositon with different moods here. ‘Lennie obeyed him. George looked down the gun.’
“Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em.” “I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now.”
Lennie begged, ‘Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.’
G “Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”
The Shot
‘The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again.’
‘George shivered and looked at the gun.’ then he throws it ‘back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes.’
Slim: “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.”
Carlson: “Now what hte hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys.”