Chapter Five

Lennie gets too rough, and Curley's wife pulls away and begins to struggle, which sends Lennie into a panic. He grabs a hold of her hair and muffles her screams. When she continues to struggle, Lennie grows angry. He shakes her violently, telling her to keep quiet so that George doesn't hear her. Before he knows it, he has broken her neck. She lies dead on the hay. Lennie observes that he has "done a bad thing" (100) and covers her body with hay. He then disappears from the barn with the dead puppy in hand. 

"Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is."

Lennie’s big fingers fell to stroking her hair.

"Don’t you muss it up," she said.

Lennie said, "Oh! That’s nice," and he stroked harder. "Oh, that’s nice."

"Look out, now, you’ll muss it." And then she cried angrily, "You stop it now, you’ll mess it all up." She jerked her head sideways, and Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on. "Let go," she cried. "You let go!"

Lennie was in a panic. His face was contorted. She screamed then, and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose. "Please don’t," he begged. "Oh! Please don’t do that. George’ll be mad."