Protagonist

George

George is the character with whom we most identify. He’s the guy that is most like us. Lennie is too simple-minded, Slim too wonderful, Curley too mean, Candy too washed-up to perform much action, and Crooks too isolated to be a key player in the drama. That leaves George. He is the guy we see first, and the guy we see last. The story is his. George is the protagonist.

Also, the protagonist is traditionally the character who undergoes a change or transition during the course of the story. George changes from being a person who believes in the dream farm to a person who has killed his best friend and no longer believes in the possibility of the ideal. Everyone else in the novella remains unchanged from beginning to end.