What does she ask lennie to do what happens

     This chapter begins with Lennie in the barn holding his little puppy that he just accidentally killed. He's yelling at the puppy as though it's the puppy's fault that it's so small, and it died. When he hears someone coming, he partially covers it with hay. Curley's wife comes up to Lennie, and he tries to explain to her that he isn't supposed to talk to her. She points out that no one will know because all of the other men are outside having a horseshoe tournament. Then she notices the pile of hay and asks Lennie what happened to the puppy. He explains that the puppy pretended it was going to bit him, so Lennie pretended he was going to smack it, then he did, and it died. Curley's wife consoles him and tells him it was just a mutt, and he can get another one. Lennie is not so much upset about this particular dog as he is about the fact that he thinks George won't let him take care of the rabbits due to his poor care of the puppy.      They each continue to make confessions. Curley's wife explains how she was once told she could be in the movies, but she thought her mom hid the letter that was supposed to arrive from the agent. She then ran out and married Curley just to escape her mother even though she doesn't really like Curley. Lennie admits that he likes to pet soft things, so Curley's wife suggests feeling her hair. Soon Lennie is pounding his big hands down her head, and she's worried he's going to mess her hair up, so she tells him to stop.      Lennie becomes alarmed by her tone of voice and covers her mouth to get her to be quiet. Being held tight to Lennie panics Curley's wife even more, so she struggles to get loose. Her struggling and continued screaming scares Lennie even more, so he shakes her. With one of his shakes he turns her head and accidentally breaks her neck. He drops her to the ground and tries to figure out what to do. Ultimately, he grabs the dead puppy to throw it away and runs toward the brush where George told him to hide if he ever got into trouble again.      Candy comes in and notices the dead woman on the ground. After inspecting her more carefully, he runs to get George. They both know who did it. George tells Candy to run out and tell the other men, and he'll run in with them as if he doesn't know what happened so that the guys won't think he had anything to do with it. Candy does so, and George reenters last. More angry than upset, Curley also quickly realizes who did it and wants revenge. He tells Carlson to grab his gun because they're all going after Lennie to shoot him. They want George to come with them so that they can keep an eye on him. Slim tries to convince Curley to stay with his dead wife, but he won't listen, so Candy stays behind, mourning not only the dead woman but also the death of their dream.      George purposely misleads the group by sending them in the opposite direction of where he suspects Lennie has gone. Carlson tells the group that his gun is missing, so they assume that Lennie stole it, which is another reason why Curley decides they need to shoot him once they find him.      This chapter signals the death of the dream that had grown from a far-fetched prospect to a likely possibility back down to nothing. Candy seems more hurt than George about not buying the farm because he was going to gain more than just a more comfortable lifestyle. He was going to gain lifelong friends. George is not as focused on the farm because he needs to decide what to do with Lennie. He knows jail isn't a good option for him nor would a mental institution be a civilized place to put him, but he doesn't want Curley to shoot him either. He also can't let him run away on his own because he knows Lennie would never survive.

From Lennie stroking his dead puppy in the barn to Curley leading a mob of men to find and kill Lennie.

Summary

It is Sunday afternoon and Lennie is alone in the barn, sitting in the hay and stroking the dead body of his puppy. He talks to himself, asking the animal why it died: “You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard.” Worrying that George will be angry and will not let him raise the rabbits on their farm, he starts to bury it in the hay. He decides to tell George that he found it dead but then realizes that George will see through this lie. Frustrated, he curses the dog for dying and hurls it across the room. Soon, though, Lennie retrieves the puppy, strokes it again, and reasons that perhaps George won’t care, since the puppy meant nothing to George.

As he talks to himself, Curley’s wife enters and sits beside him. Lennie hastily hides the puppy and tells her that George ordered him not to speak to her. She reassures him that it is safe for him to talk to her, pointing out that the other men are occupied with a horseshoe tournament outside and will not interrupt them. She discovers the puppy and consoles him about its death, declaring that “the whole country is fulla mutts.” She then complains about her loneliness and the cold treatment she gets from the ranch-hands. She tells Lennie about her dreams of living a different life. She reveals that her mother denied her the opportunity to join a traveling show when she was fifteen and then, years later, a talent scout spotted her and promised to take her to Hollywood to become a movie star. When nothing came of it, she decided to marry Curley, whom she dislikes.

Lennie continues to talk about his rabbits, and she asks him why he likes animals so much. Lennie replies that he likes to touch soft things with his fingers. She admits that she likes the same thing, and offers to let him stroke her hair. She warns him not to “muss it,” but he quickly becomes excited and holds on too tight, frightening her. When she cries out, Lennie panics and clamps his strong hands over her mouth to silence her. The more she struggles, the tighter his grip becomes, and he shakes her until her body goes limp. Lennie has broken her neck.

The barn goes still as Lennie realizes what he has done. He tries to bury Curley’s wife in the hay, worrying chiefly that George will be angry with him. Taking the puppy’s body with him, he flees toward the meeting place that George designates at the book’s opening—the clearing in the woods. Candy comes looking for Lennie and finds the body. He calls George, who realizes immediately what has happened. George expresses the hope that maybe Lennie will just be locked up and still be treated well, but Candy tells him that Curley is sure to have Lennie lynched. Candy asks George if the two of them can still buy the farm, but sees from George’s face that the idea is now impossible. George says quietly that he thinks he knew all along that it would never happen, but because Lennie liked the idea so much, he had started to believe it himself.

George worries that the other men will think that he had something to do with the death of Curley’s wife, so he instructs Candy how to inform them. George will pretend that he has not seen the body and act surprised when Candy delivers the news. George exits, and Candy curses Curley’s wife for destroying their dream of a farm. After a few moments, his eyes full of tears, he goes to alert the rest of the ranch. A crowd soon gathers. George comes in last, with his coat buttoned up. Curley demands that they find Lennie and kill him. Carlson reports that his gun is missing, and assumes that Lennie must have taken it. Curley orders them to fetch Crooks’s shotgun, and the mob sets off after Lennie.

Analysis

The scene in the barn begins ominously, with Lennie holding his puppy, now dead, and stroking it in the same way he stroked the dead mouse at the beginning of the work. All sense of optimism for the farm or the freedom the men would have on it dissolves now that Lennie’s unwittingly dangerous nature has reasserted itself. When Curley’s wife appears and insists on talking with Lennie, the reader senses that something tragic is about to ensue.

Read more about the story’s objective and factual style.

Perhaps the most significant development in this chapter is Steinbeck’s depiction of Curley’s wife. Before this episode, the reader might dismiss her as easily as George does. She shows herself to be a flirt, a conscious temptress, and a manipulator. However, in the final moments before her death, Steinbeck presents his sole female character sympathetically. Her loneliness becomes the focus of this scene, as she admits that she too has an idea of paradise that circumstances have denied her. Her dream of being a movie star is not unlike George’s fantasy of the farm; both are desperately held views of the way life should be, which have long persisted despite their conflict with reality.

Read more about loneliness and companionship as a motif.

Curley’s wife seems to sense, like Crooks (who notes earlier that Lennie is a good man to talk to), that because Lennie doesn’t understand things, a person can say almost anything to him. She confesses her unhappiness in her marriage, her lonely life, and her broken dreams in “a passion of communication.” Unfortunately, she fails to see the danger in Lennie, and her attempt to console him for the loss of his puppy by letting him stroke her hair leads to her tragic death. One might take issue with Steinbeck’s description of her corpse, for only in her death does he grant her any semblance of virtue. Once she lies lifeless on the hay, Steinbeck writes that all the marks of an unhappy life have disappeared from her face, leaving her looking “pretty and simple . . . sweet and young.” The story has spent considerable time maligning women, and much has been made of their troublesome and seductive natures. It is disturbing, then, that Steinbeck seems to subtly imply that the only way for a woman to overcome that nature and restore her lost innocence is through death.

Read important quotes about Lennie’s puppy.

Lennie’s flight from the barn shifts the focus of the narrative to George. As George realizes what Lennie has done, the painful mission that he must undertake becomes clear to him. Here, as in the earlier scene with Candy’s dog, Slim becomes the voice of reason, pointing out that the best option for Lennie now is for him to be killed. George understands that he has a choice: either he can watch his friend be murdered by Curley’s lynch mob or he can do the deed himself. With this realization, the idea of the farm and the good life it represents disappears. Candy clings to that idealized hope, asking George if they can still buy the farm, but George’s response is among the most insightful and realistic responses in the novella. There is no room for dreaming in such a difficult and inhospitable world.

Read more about how Curley embodies the role of antagonist.