Of Mice and Men as Booker’s Seven Basic Plots Analysis: Tragedy Plot

Plot Type :

Anticipation Stage

Lennie and George want to work on the ranch in the hopes of making enough money to buy their own farm, where they can be independent and in charge of their own destiny (and rabbits).

With the certainty of payment, it seems the pair will get what they’ve hoped for all along. While this is definitely the anticipation stage, it has a bit of a twist, hinted at by the way George tells Lennie (and the reader) of their dream. The story of the little farm, with the rabbits and vegetable patch and so on, is less like a plan and more like a fairy tale. The dream-like (read: unreal) quality of their dream doesn’t bode well for the hope that it will ever come true.

Dream Stage

Lennie and George learn that Candy would like to live on the farm, too; he can even offer three hundred dollars toward its purchase. Everyone is very excited at the possibility of the dream actually coming true.

With the entrance of Candy’s money into the story, it seems like the dream could come true after all. Candy has three hundred dollars to contribute, and George even knows the couple he’d buy the land from. Things seem to be on the up and up.

Frustration Stage

Lennie gets into a fight with Curley.

As Lennie smiles to himself about the possibility of the ranch, Curley is on the prowl for his wife and a fight. He thinks Lennie is laughing at him (or maybe wants to think that) and begins to punch the big guy. Lennie is stunned and does nothing until George urges him to fight back. Lennie promptly reduces Curley to a crying little man with a mangled hand. Slim makes sure Lennie and George are protected from getting in trouble, but it’s clear that working on the ranch will be a lot more complicated from now on.

Nightmare Stage

Lennie accidentally kills his own puppy, and then accidentally kills Curley’s wife.

If Curley was waiting for Lennie to slip-up, he need wait no longer. Though Lennie doesn’t at all mean to kill Curley’s wife, this act pretty much decides his fate. Any promise of safety or happiness he had on the dream farm is over. Now we’re certain Lennie will have to pay for what he’s done, one way or another.

Destruction or Death Wish Stage

George is forced to kill Lennie.

George realizes that if Lennie is to go with any dignity or comfort, it’s up to George to take his friend out himself. Although this means the literal destruction of Lennie, in killing his friend, George gives Lennie the happiest ending he could have.

You might think the only destruction is of Lennie’s actual life, but there are some less literal (and perhaps more significant) matters destroyed by Lennie’s death. With Lennie gone, George has to face the corrosive loneliness of the open road. George describes to Candy the life he’ll have without Lennie: it’s a future made of whorehouses and pool halls – places where lonely men stay lonely. Worse than just losing a friend by accident, George’s act seems to kill any last hope that the loneliness of the open road could ever be beaten. Without Lennie, George has nothing that makes him different from the other sad wanderers. He’s lost his best friend, and along with losing Lennie, George has also lost his dreams.