After he discovers the body of Curley's wife, Candy calls
George into the barn. Echoing Candy's exclamation, "Oh, Jesus Christ!" George kneels
and places his hand over her heart. When he stands up, stiffly and lethargically, "his
face was as hard and tight as wood, and his eyes were hard." Hopelessly, then, George
says that he should have known that something would happen between Lennie and the
flirtatious Curley's wife. He and Candy confer about what to do; Candy
asks,
"You
an' me can get that little place, can't we, George? You an'me can go there an'live
nice, can't we, George? Can't
we?"
But, before George
answers, the perceptive Candy knows that with Lennie the dream
dies:
George
said softly--"--I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do
her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we
would."
Because Lennie is no
longer going to be around him, the dream will go with Lennie since George only gave it
some credibility as a result of the faith of Lennie. Like the child that knows no
better than to believe that his parent can accomplish feats above his/her ability,
Lennie gave George some of his idealism. With Lennie's loss, so, too, is George's
tenuous grasp on the "dream."
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