Lennie is built like an ox, but has the mind of a child. George is a slight, shrewd and fast-talking man of the road. Drifting from ranch to ranch in 1930s California, struggling to make a living as migrant workers, they depend on each other in their loneliness and alienation, their complex bond strengthened by dreams and plans for a better life on a farm of their own.
Steinbeck’s towering classic tragedy set against the backdrop of the Great Depression is a poignant portrait of the flipside of the American Dream and a friendship tested to its limits.