Short summary of great novels

[Asalbanoo]

There is an old fisherman, Santiago, in Cuba who has gone eighty-four days without a catch. He is "thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck,...and his hands had deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert" (10). Santiago's lack of success, though, does not destroy his spirit, as his "cheerful and undefeated" eyes show (10). He has a single friend, a boy named Manolin, who helped him during the first forty days of his dryspell. After forty days, though, Manolin's parents decide the old man is unlucky and order their son to join another boat. Despite this, though, the boy helps the old man to bring in his empty boat every day.

Santiago tells Manolin that tomorrow he will go out far in the Gulf to fish. The two gather Santiago's things from his boat and go to the old man's house. His house is very simple with a bed, table, and chair on a dirt floor. The two friends speak for a while, then Manolin leaves briefly to get food. Santiago falls asleep.

When Manolin returns, he wakes Santiago. The two eat the food the boy has brought. During the course of the meal, the boy realizes the squalor in which the old man lives and reminds himself to bring the old man a shirt, shoes, a jacket, and a blanket for the coming winter. Manolin and Santiago talk baseball for a while, and the boy then leaves to be woken in the morning by the old man. Santiago sleeps.

Santiago dreams of Africa, where he traveled as a shipmate in his youth. "He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he head the surf roar and saw the native boats come riding through it....He dreamed of places now and lions on the beach" (24). The old man wakes and retrieves the boy from his house. The two take the old man's supplies from his shack to his boat and enjoy coffee at an early morning place that serves fisherman. The boy leaves to fetch the sardines for the old man. When he returns, he wishes the old man luck, and Santiago goes out to sea.

Santiago leaves shore early in the morning, before sunrise. "He knew he was going far out and he left the smell of the land behind and rowed out into the clean early morning smell of the ocean" (28). Soon, Santiago rows over the Œgreat well,' a sudden drop of seven hundred fathoms were shrimp, bait fish, and squid congregate. Moving along, Santiago spots flying fish and birds, expressing great sympathy for the latter. As he queries, "Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel...." (29).

Santiago keeps pressing out, past the great well where he has been recently unsuccessful. Santiago sees a man-of-war bird overhead and notices that the bird has spied something in the water. The old man follows rows near the bird, and drops his own lines into the area, hoping to capture the fish the bird has seen. There is a large school of dolphin traveling fast, too fast for either the bird or Santiago to capture. Santiago moves on, hoping to catch a stray or perhaps even discover a marlin tracking the school. He catches a small tuna after not too long and then feels a bite on one of his deeper lines.

The first bite is hard, and the stick to which the line is connected drops sharply. The next tug is more tentative, but Santiago knows exactly what it is. "One hundred fathoms down a marlin was eating the sardines that covered the point and the shank of the hook where the hand-forged hook projected from the head of the small tuna" (41). Encouraged by a bite at so deep a depth so far out in the Gulf, Santiago reasons that the fish much be very large.

The marlin nibbles around the hook for some time, refusing to take the bait fully. Santiago speaks aloud, as if to cajole the fish into accepting the bait. He says, "Come on....Make another turn. Just smell them. Aren't they lovely? Eat them good now and then there is the tuna. Hard and cold and lovely. Don't be shy fish. Eat them" (42). After many false bites, the marlin finally takes the tuna and pulls out a great length of line.

Santiago waits a bit for the marlin to swallow the hook and then pulls hard on the line to bring the marlin up to the surface. The fish is strong, though, and does not come up. Instead, he swims away, dragging the old man and his skiff along behind. Santiago wishes he had Manolin with him to help.

As the sun goes down, the marlin continues on in the same direction, and Santiago loses sight of land altogether. Expressing his resolve, Santiago says, "Fish,...I'll stay with you until I am dead" (52). He expresses ambivalence over whether he wants the fish to jump, wanting to end the struggle as quickly as possible but worrying that the hook might slip out of the fish's mouth. Echoing his former resolve though with less certainty, Santiago says, "Fish,...I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends" (54).

A small bird land on the boat, and while Santiago is speaking to the bird, the marlin lurches forward and pulls the old man down, cutting his hand. Lowering his hand to water to clean it, Santiago notices that the marlin has slowed down. He decides to eat a tuna he has caught in order to give him strength for his ordeal. As he is cutting the fish, though, his left hand cramps. "What kind of hand is that," Santiago says, "Cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good" (58). The old man eats the tuna, hoping it will renew his strength and help release his hand.

Just then, the marlin comes out of the water quickly and descends into the water again. Santiago is amazed by its size, two feet longer than the skiff. He realizes that the marlin could destroy the boat if he wanted to and says, "...[T]hank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and more able" (63). Santiago says prayers to assuage his worried heart, and settles into the chase once again.

As the sun sets, Santiago thinks back to triumphs of his past in order to give himself more confidence in the present. He remembers a great arm-wrestling match he had at a tavern in Casablanca. It had lasted a full day and a night, but Santiago, El Campeon (The Champion) as he was known then, eventually won. "He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing" (70). He tried to wrestle with his left hand but it was a traitor then as it had been now.

Recalling his exhaustion, Santiago decides that he must sleep some if he is to kill the marlin. He cuts up the dolphin he has caught to prevent spoiling, and eats some of it before contriving a way to sleep. Santiago wraps the line around himself and leans against the bow to anchor himself, leaving his left hand on the rope to wake him if the marlin lurches. Soon, the old man is asleep, dreaming of a school of porpoises, his village house, and finally of the lions of his youth on the African beach.

Santiago is awoken by the line rushing furiously through his right hand. The marlin leaps out of the water and it is all the old man can do to hold onto the line, now cutting his hand badly and dragging him down to the bottom of the skiff. Santiago finds his balance, though, and realizes that the marlin has filled the air sacks on his back and cannot go deep to die. The marlin will circle and then the endgame will begin.

At sunrise, the marlin begins a large circle. Santiago holds the line strongly, pulling it in slowly as the marlin goes round. At the third turn, Santiago sees the fish and is amazed by its size. He readies the harpoon and pulls the line in more. The marlin tries desperately to pull away. Santiago, no longer able to speak for lack of water, thinks, "You are killing me, fish....But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills you" (92). This marlin continues to circle, coming closer and pulling out. At last it is next to the skiff, and Santiago drove his harpoon into the marlin's chest.

"Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty" (94). It crashed into the sea, blinding Santiago with a shower of sea spray. With the glimpse of vision he had, Santiago saw the slain beast laying on its back, crimson blood disseminating into the azure water. Seeing his prize, Santiago says, "I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work" (95).

Having killed the Marlin, Santiago lashes its body alongside his skiff. He pulls a line through the marlin's gills and out its mouth, keeping its head near the bow. "I want to see him, he thought, and to touch and to feel him. He is my fortune, he thought" (95). Having secured the marlin to the skiff, Santiago draws the sail and lets the trade wind push him toward the southwest.

An hour after Santiago killed the marlin, a mako shark appears. It had followed the trail of blood the slain marlin left in its wake. As the shark approaches the boat, Santiago prepares his harpoon, hoping to kill the shark before it tears apart the marlin. "The shark's head was out of water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark's head" (102). The dead shark slowly sinks into the deep ocean water.

Two hours later, two shovel-nosed sharks arrive at the skiff. After losing his harpoon to the mako, Santiago fastens his knife to the end of the oar and now wields this against the sharks. He kills the first shark easily, but while he does this, the other shark is ripping at the marlin underneath the boat. Santiago lets go of the sheet to swing broadside and reveal the shark underneath. After some struggle, he kills this shark as well.

Santiago apologizes to the fish for the mutilation he has suffered. He admits, "I shouldn't have gone out so far, fish....Neither for you nor for me. I am sorry, fish" (110). Tired and losing hope, Santiago sits and waits for the next attacker, a single shovel-nosed shark. The old man succeeds in killing the fish but breaks his knife blade in the process.

More sharks appear at sunset and Santiago only has a club with which to beat them away. He does not kill the sharks, but damages them enough to prevent their return. Santiago then looks forward to nightfall as he will be able to see the lights of Havana, guiding him back to land. He regrets not having cleaved off the marlin's sword to use as a weapon when he had the knife and apologizes again to the fish. At around ten o'clock, he sees the light of Havana and steers toward it.

In the night, the sharks return. "[B]y midnight he fought and this time he knew the fight was useless. They came in a pack and he could only see the lines in the water their fins made and their phosphorescence as they threw themselves on the fish" (118). He clubs desperately at the fish, but the club was soon taken away by a shark. Santiago grabs the tiller and attacks the sharks until the tiller breaks. "That was the last shark of the pack that came. There was nothing more for them to eat" (119).

Santiago "sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind" (119). He concentrates purely on steering homewards and ignored the sharks that came to gnaw on the marlin's bones. When he arrives at the harbor, everyone was asleep. Santiago steps out of the boat, carrying the mast back to his shack. "He started to climb again and at the top he fell and lay for some time with the mast across his shoulder. He tried to get up. But it was too difficult and he sat there with the mast on his shoulder and looked at the road" (121). When he finally arose, he had to sit five times before reaching home. Arriving at his shack, Santiago collapsed on his bed and fell asleep.

Manolin arrives at the shack while Santiago is still asleep. The boy leaves quickly to get some coffee for Santiago, crying on his way to the Terrace. Manolin sees fisherman gathered around the skiff, measuring the marlin at eighteen feet long. When Manolin returns to the shack, Santiago is awake. The two speak for a while, and Manolin says, "Now we will fish together again," To which Santiago replies, "No. I am not lucky. I am not lucky anymore" (125). Manolin objects, "The hell with luck....I'll bring the luck with me" (125). Santiago acquiesces and Manolin leaves to fetch food and a shirt.

That afternoon there are tourists on the Terrace. A female tourist sees the skeleton of the marlin moving in the tide. Not recognizing the skeleton, she asks the waiter what it is. He responds in broken English "eshark," thinking she wants to know what happened. She comments to her partner that she didn't know sharks had such beautiful tails. Meanwhile, back in Santiago's shack, the old man "was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about lions" (127).

[Asalbanoo]

Milton's epic poem opens on the fiery lake of hell, where Satan and his army of fallen angels find themselves chained. Satan and his leutenant Beelzebub get up from the lake and yell to the others to rise and join them. Music plays and banners fly as the army of rebel angels comes to attention, tormented and defeated but faithful to their general. They create a great and terrible temple, perched on a volcano top, and Satan calls a council there to decide on their course of action.

The fallen angels give various suggestions. Finally, Beelzebub suggests that they take the battle to a new battlefield, a place called earth where, it is rumoured, God has created a new being called man. Man is not as powerful as the angels, but he is God's chosen favorite among his creations. Beelzebub suggests that they seek revenge against God by seducing man to their corrupted side. Satan volunteers to explore this new place himself and find out more about man so that he may corrupt him. His fallen army unanimously agrees by banging on their swords.

Satan takes off to the gates of hell, guarded by his daughter, Sin, and their horrible son, Death. Sin agrees to open the gates for her creator (and rapist), knowing that she will follow him and reign with him in whatever kingdom he conquers. Satan then travels through chaos, and finally arrives at earth, connected to heaven by a golden chain.

God witnesses all of this and points out Satan's journey to his Son. God tells his Son that, indeed, Satan will corrupt God's favorite creation, man. His Son offers to die a mortal death to bring man back into the grace and light of God. God agrees and tells how his Son will be born to a virgin. God then makes his Son the king of man, son of both man and God.

Meanwhile, Satan disguises himself as a handsome cherub in order to get by the angel Uriel who is guarding earth. Uriel is impressed that an angel would come all the way from heaven to witness God's creation, and points the Garden of Eden out to Satan. Satan makes his way into the Garden and is in awe at the beauty of Eden and of the handsome couple of Adam and Eve. For a moment, he deeply regrets his fall from grace. This feeling soon turns, however, to hatred.

Uriel, however, has realized that he has been fooled by Satan and tells the angel Gabriel as much. Gabriel finds Satan in the Garden and sends him away.

God, seeing how things are going, sends Raphael to warn Adam and Eve about Satan. Raphael goes down to the Garden and is invited for dinner by Adam and Eve. While there, he narrates how Satan came to fall and the subsequent battle that was held in heaven. Satan first sin was pride, when he took issue with the fact that he had to bow down to the Son. Satan was one of the top angels in heaven and did not understand why he should bow. Satan called a council and convinced many of the angels who were beneath him to join in fighting God.

A tremendous, cosmic three-day battle ensued between Satan's forces and God's forces. On the first day, Satan's forces were beaten back by the army led by the archangels Michael and Gabriel. On the second day, Satan seemed to gain ground by constructing artillery, literally cannons, and turning them against the good forces. On the third day, however, the Son faced Satan's army alone and they quickly retreat, falling through a hole in heaven's fabric and cascading down to hell.

This is the reason, Raphael explains, that God created man: to replace the empty space that the fallen angels have left in heaven. Raphael then tells of how God created man and all the universe in seven days. Adam himself remembers the moment he was created and, as well, how he came to ask God for a companion, Eve. Raphael leaves.

The next morning, Eve insists on working separately from Adam. Satan, in the form of serpent, finds her working alone and starts to flatter her. Eve asks where he learned to speak, and Satan shows her the Tree of Knowledge. Although Eve knows that this was the one tree God had forbidden that they eat from, she is told by Satan that this is only because God knows she will become a goddess herself. Eve eats the fruit and then decides to share it with Adam.

Adam, clearly, is upset that Eve disobeyed God, but he cannot imagine a life without her so he eats the apple as well. They both, then, satiate their new-born lust in the bushes and wake up ashamed, knowing now the difference from good and evil (and, therefore, being able to choose evil). They spend the afternoon blaming each other for their fall.

God sends the Son down to judge the two disobediant creatures. The Son condemns Eve, and all of womankind, to painful childbirths and submission to her husband. He condemns Adam to a life of a painful battle with nature and hard work at getting food from the ground. He condemns the serpent to always crawl on the ground on its belly, always at the heel of Eve's sons.

Satan, in the meantime, returns to hell victorious. On the way, he meets Sin and Death, who have built a bridge from hell to earth, to mankind, whom they will now reign over. When Satan arrives in hell, however, he finds his fallen compatriots not cheering as he had wished, but hissing. The reason behind the horrible hissing soon becomes clear: all of the fallen angels are being transformed into ugly monsters and terrible reptiles. Even Satan finds himself turning into a horrible snake.

Adam and Eve, after bitterly blaming each other, finally decide to turn to God and ask for forgiveness. God hears them and agrees with his Son that he will not lose mankind completely to Sin, Death and Satan. Instead, he will send his son as a man to earth to sacrifice himself and, in so doing, conquer the evil trinity.

Michael is sent by God to escort Adam and Eve out of the Garden. Before he does, however, he tells Adam what will become of mankind unitl the Son comes down to earth. The history of mankind (actually the history of the Jewish people as narrated in the Hebrew Bible) will be a series of falls from grace and acceptance back by God, from Noah and the Flood to the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people.

Adam is thankful that the Son will come down and right what he and Eve have done wrong. He holds Eve's hand as they are escorted out of the Garden.

[Asalbanoo]

One July day in St. Petersburg, a poor young man slips out of his apartment and goes out. He is Rodion Romanych Raskolnikov, a former student, and he is preoccupied with something. He arrives at the apartment of Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, where he is attempting a trial of the unknown deed obsessing him.

He has pawned something to this woman a month before, and now pawns an old watch for much less than he had hoped to get. As the woman gets her money, he watches and listens very carefully, storing up details in his memory. He leaves after vaguely mentioning that he may come back soon with another pledge.

Tormented, he wanders down the street, mentally at war with himself. He happens upon a tavern, where he stops to eat and drink something, and feels better after doing so. There, he meets Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a retired official and a drunkard. Marmeladov pours out his life story to Raskolnikov, telling about his consumptive wife Katerina Ivanovna, his three small children, and his oldest daughter Sofya (Sonya), who has had to prostitute herself to earn money for the family. Marmeladov himself had recently acquired a position, but almost immediately lost it through his alcoholism. He has been away from home for five days, having stolen his salary money and spent it all on drink.

Marmeladov asks Raskolnikov to take him home. Rodion does so, and witnesses how Katerina Ivanovna falls on her husband and drags him about by his hair. She kicks Raskolnikov out, assuming him to be a drinking partner of her husband's. As he leaves, he places a handful of change on their windowsill unnoticed. Outside, he regrets this action, but knows he cannot go back to get the money.

The next day, he awakens feeling unrested. Nastasya, the landlady's servant, comes in with some tea for him, as well as leftovers from the previous day's meal (since he is behind on his rent, the landlady has stopped sending his dinner up to him). She also tells him that he has received a letter. Agitated, he sends her to get it, and orders her out of the room so he can read it.

The letter is from his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and mostly concerns his sister Avdotya Romanovna, or Dunya. Dunya had been working as a governess in the house of the Svidrigailov family, but the husband's unfortunate attraction to her led the wife to kick Dunya out on the assumption that the girl had initiated the attraction. Marfa Petrovna, the wife, then proceeded to sully Dunya's reputation about town, until Svidrigailov himself came forward with evidence of Dunya's purity and innocence. At that point, Marfa Petrovna had completely reversed herself, and gone about restoring Dunya's honor with comic zeal. She had also arranged for a relation of hers, one Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, to meet Dunya, and this gentleman had become engaged to Dunya. Following Luzhin, Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya would be coming to Petersburg shortly, and are very much looking forward to seeing Rodion.

Rodya goes out to walk around and think. Though his mother puts a positive spin on everything, it is clear that Luzhin does not love Dunya and is not worthy of her, and that Dunya knows this but has resolved to marry him to materially benefit her family. Rodya, disgusted and angered, refuses to accept this self-sacrifice; but after resolving to stop the engagement, he immediately questions his own "right" to get involved.

Raskolnikov realizes that he had been automatically on his way to see Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin, his only friend from university. He decides he will see Razumikhin the day after "that," i.e. the unknown deed. He wanders about and ends up falling asleep by the side of the road. He dreams about watching a group of peasants beating an old nag viciously until the poor horse collapses and dies.

He awakens in a sweat, profoundly thankful that it was only a dream. He rethinks "that," and suddenly concludes that he could never do it. Feeling better, renewed, he heads for home. However, he takes a detour through the Haymarket. There, he overhears a conversation between Lizaveta Ivanovna, the pawnbroker's half-sister, and a couple of tradespeople. It turns out that Lizaveta will be out on business the following evening. Raskolnikov is suddenly possessed with the fact that Alyona Ivanovna will definitely be alone at a time he knows of‹that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

He goes home and falls into a long, strange, troubled sleep. He wakes up in the evening, and fears he may have missed his chance. He immediately bustles about, making his preparations: the deed that has been obsessing him is the murder and robbery of the pawnbroker. He plans to retain complete control over his reason and will, and thereby commit the perfect crime, and perhaps use the fruits of it (i.e. the stolen goods) to help others.

Raskolnikov makes his way to Alyona Ivanovna's. He enters on the pretext of having a new pledge for her. As she struggles with the deliberately difficult knots, he takes out his axe and hits her on the head with it until she dies.

Nerve-wracked, he fumbles about before finally unlocking a trunk full of goods. As he is stuffing his pockets, he hears a footstep. Frozen, he realizes in panic that someone has come in. Grabbing the axe, he rushes out into the room. There stands Lizaveta, staring at the body of her half-sister. Rodya rushes at her and kills her with the axe as well.

Hearing people outside, Raskolnikov hooks the door-latch and crouches behind it, listening. The visitors, suspecting something wrong, run to get help. Quietly Rodya slips out of the apartment and manages to leave the building and return home unnoticed, though he is practically collapsing.

After a fitful sleep punctuated by moments of frenzied activity, Rodya is awakened by Nastasya coming in with the caretaker, who hands him a summons to go to the police station. Panicked, he wonders why he has been summoned, and despite his clear illness, he gets up to go.

His nerves are frayed, but when he gets to the station he finds that he has been called to make a payment on a promissory note he had written long ago for his landlady. Relieved, he writes a statement of his promise to pay, directed by the clerk. However, the chief of police Nikodim Fomich and his assistant Ilya Petrovich are talking about the murders, and Raskolnikov faints.

He recovers to find them all looking at him strangely. Ilya Petrovich starts to ask him where he was the previous night. Nikodim Fomich reproaches Ilya Petrovich and Raskolnikov is dismissed.

Rodya returns home, where he makes sure his apartment has not been searched, and gathers up all the stolen goods from where he had hidden them. He goes out and ends up hiding them beneath a stone in a deserted courtyard.

He drops in on Razumikhin, who is utterly astonished to see him. However, Raskolnikov leaves almost as soon as he has arrived, throwing Razumikhin into indignant frustration.

Rodya returns home and goes to bed. The next morning he falls unconscious, at last succumbing to an illness that had been coming on for quite some time.

When he at last comes to, Razumikhin is there, having tended him through his illness, and Rodya receives 35 roubles from his mother, who has borrowed it on the security of her pension. Razumikhin, who has befriended practically everyone in Rodya's life by this point, has recovered Rodya's promissory note and takes some of the money to buy him new (actually second-hand) clothes.

Dr. Zossimov checks on Rodya, and while he is there he and Razumikhin start talking about the murders. Razumikhin has gotten to know Zamyotov, the clerk at the police station, and they are hoping to absolve the current suspect, Nikolai Dementiev, who had been working as a painter in the house at the time of the crime. Raskolnikov is tortured by all this.

Amidst the discussion, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, Dunya's fiancé, enters. He has come to call on Rodion, but the visit ends disastrously in a quarrel, with Rodya kicking him out.

Rodya orders everyone else to leave, and after he is alone he gets up and goes out. After wandering aimlessly, he enters the Crystal Palace tavern, where he encounters Zamyotov. He engages in a mind-game with the clerk, taunting him and leading him to believe that he was the murderer‹before pulling him up short and accusing him of believing it. He exits, leaving Zamyotov convinced that Rodya cannot possibly be the murderer.

On his way out, Rodya runs into Razumikhin, who is enraged at his irresponsible disappearance, especially as he is ill. They argue, but in the end Razumikhin invites him to a party he is having that evening. Rodya walks off. Razumikhin, frustrated, goes in to talk to Zamyotov.

Rodya wanders about, considers jumping into the river, then turns to go to the police station. On his way, however, he passes Alyona Ivanovna's house. Inexplicably impelled, he goes in to the apartment, where workmen are renovating the place. He scares them by asking about the blood and ringing the doorbell incessantly just to hear the sound. They all go downstairs, and there is much discussion about taking this madman to the police, which he agrees with. But in the end he is ordered off the premises.

In doubt as to whether he should go, he hesitates in the street. He spots a commotion and approaches it. It turns out that Marmeladov, drunk, has been run over by a carriage. Rodya takes charge and conveys Marmeladov to his apartment. They send for a doctor and a priest. Sonya is also sent for, and Marmeladov, after begging forgiveness, dies in her arms. Rodya gives Katerina Ivanovna all of his money, everything he has left from what his mother had sent him, for the funeral, and leaves.

He feels renewed. On his way home, he stops at Razumikhin's. Razumikhin, who has had a lot to drink, walks him home. They open the door to find Rodya's sister and mother there. Overcome, Rodya passes out. He recovers to demand that Dunya break off her engagement with Luzhin, and is generally rude and sullen. Razumikhin is indignant, and takes the ladies under his wing. He escorts them home and, having been immediately smitten with the beautiful Dunya, promises to return twice to report on Rodya's state. Despite the ladies' doubts about his abilities, he carries out his promises to the full.

The next day he is embarrassed as he recalls his drunken behavior, but when he goes to see the women they are not only kind but grateful. They ask him all sorts of questions about Rodya. They also show him a letter they had received from Luzhin that morning, requesting a meeting at 8:00 pm, and demanding that Rodya not be present. They go to see Rodya and find him with Zossimov. Rodya is strange and somehow distant, and the meeting is tense. Rodya tells Dunya that she must choose between him and Luzhin. She asks him and Razumikhin to be present at the meeting at 8:00.

Sonya, who has been mentioned disparagingly in Luzhin's letter, enters the room. She and Rodya are both somehow embarrassed, but he seats her next to his mother and sister, introducing them. His family leaves shortly thereafter. Rodya bids Sonya wait, takes Razumikhin aside to ask him about going to see Porfiry Petrovich (a relation of Razumikhin's and the investigator assigned to the murder case), and they all walk out together. Rodya promises to call on Sonya later, and asks her address. They part on the street. A stranger who has heard Sonya address Rodya by name follows her home, and is surprised to find that he lives next door to her.

Rodya enters Porfiry Petrovich's apartment in high humor, but is startled to see Zamyotov there as well. The conversation does not go very well; Rodya quickly loses his grip on his composure in the face of Porfiry's inscrutability. Porfiry, who is very interested in psychology, mentions an article Rodya had written entitled "On Crime," in which he explores the criminal psychology and introduces his own theory. This theory states that humanity is divided into the masses and the leaders, the "extraordinary" men who have great ideas and something new to say. Rodya argues that if such men find it necessary to commit crimes in the pursuit of their ideas, they have the right to do so in their own consciences.

Porfiry invites him to his office the next day. Rodya and Razumikhin leave to go meet with Dunya and her mother. As they approach, Rodya suddenly tells Razumikhin that he has something to do, but will catch up with them later. He hastens back to his flat, checks to see if he has left any evidence in his room, then wanders out. Outside, the caretaker points out a tradesman who had been asking after Rodya. The tradesman, still there, looks at Rodya and walks away without a word. Rodya catches up with him and asks his business. The man calls him a murderer, and disappears without explanation.

Weak, Rodya returns to his room and lies down. His thoughts swirl around this unknown man who seems to know everything. He reflects on his failure in committing the crime‹he has proved not to be an "extraordinary" man but a "louse." He falls asleep and has tormented dreams. He awakens to find a stranger in his room. The man introduces himself as Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov.

After some strange conversation, Rodya demands to know the man's business. He replies that he has come to offer Dunya 10,000 roubles to break off her engagement with Luzhin. Indignant at first, Rodya at last consents to pass on the message to her. On his way out, Svidrigailov informs Rodya that Marfa Petrovna, who had died recently, has left Dunya 3,000 roubles in her will.

Razumikhin comes to get Rodya, and they head for their meeting. On the way Rodya entrusts his family to Razumikhin's care. At the meeting, Dunya announces that she wishes Luzhin and Rodya to reconcile. Luzhin, however, refuses, and it is not long before another quarrel erupts and Dunya, angered and insulted, breaks off the engagement and kicks him out. Luzhin departs, seething with hatred for Rodya and nourishing the hope that he may be able to reconcile yet with Dunya and her mother.

Everyone is joyful, especially at Marfa Petrovna's bequest to Dunya, and they start planning for the future. Rodya, however, abruptly leaves, requesting to be left alone. Razumikhin chases after him. Rodya once more entrusts his family to Razumikhin's care, and they exchange a long look in the hallway, through which Rodya seems to transmit his horrible secret to Razumikhin.

Rodya immediately goes to Sonya. He torments her, yet also kisses her foot. He wonders how she has managed to keep her soul untainted, and learns that her unshakeable faith in God has preserved her. Suspecting that she is a "holy fool," he asks her to read him the story of Lazarus from the Bible. After she does so, he promises to tell her who killed Lizaveta if he comes back the next day, and departs. On the other side of the door sits Svidrigailov, who has been listening with great interest to the entire conversation.

The next morning, Rodya goes to Porfiry Petrovich's office. Again, the conversation goes badly, as Rodya is unable to read Porfiry. It is a game of psychological cat and mouse, and Porfiry uses thinly-veiled references to Rodya's own behavior to point out that human nature is on the investigator's side, because it will eventually lead the criminal to break down. Frustrated by Porfiry's repeated attempts to catch him up with lies, Rodya erupts in fear and indignation. As he is leaving, Nikolai Dementiev, the house-painter who has been under suspicion in the murder case, bursts in, falls on his knees, and intones a confession, throwing Porfiry off in a way that cheers Raskolnikov.

Rodya goes home for a little while, then gets up to go to Marmeladov's memorial meal. At his door, he encounters the tradesman who had accused him of being a murderer. The man asks forgiveness for his suspicion. He leaves Rodya a new man, refreshed by the fact that Porfiry now has not a single thing to make his suspicions stick.

Luzhin, upset at losing Dunya, concocts a plan to discredit Raskolnikov to his family by framing and slandering Sonya, and thereby return into Dunya's good graces. Before Marmeladov's memorial meal, Luzhin calls Sonya in, and gives her 10 roubles out of a large stack of money he has been counting, in the presence of his roommate, Andrei Semyonovich Lebezyatnikov.

Sonya then goes to the meal, where Rodya sits with Katerina Ivanovna and a host of other rather unpleasant guests. The meal goes badly, and is on the point of breaking out into a fight when Luzhin enters. He accuses Sonya of having stolen 100 roubles from him. She denies it, but a search turns up the money in her pocket. Before the police can be called, however, Lebezyatnikov, who has been watching, announces that Luzhin had planted the money on Sonya without her knowing. Rodya steps forward to explain Luzhin's probable motivation. Luzhin escapes before he suffers at the hands of the company. Chaos ensues: Sonya runs home hysterically, the landlady kicks the Marmeladovs out, and Katerina Ivanovna goes out to seek justice.

Rodya goes to Sonya's place and confesses his crime to her. She is horrified, incredulous at first, but in the end she hears his explanations and sees his torment. She tells him that he must confess his crime to the world. He resists this idea, though he knows he will eventually be imprisoned.

Lebezyatnikov comes in to tell them that Katerina Ivanovna has gone mad and is making her children sing in the streets for money. Sonya runs out. Rodya goes home. Unexpectedly, Dunya comes in. She tells him that Razumikhin had told her that Rodya is under suspicion for murder, and that she is there for him if he needs her. After she leaves, he goes out again, and encounters Lebezyatnikov, who takes him to where Katerina Ivanovna and her children are.

Katerina Ivanovna is nearly raving, and her children are terrified. She refuses to go back to the apartment. The children try to run away, and in chasing them she collapses. In the final stages of her consumption, she is taken to Sonya's apartment, where she dies.

Svidrigailov tells Rodya that he will provide for her children, and then drops a few quotes to show Rodya that he had been eavesdropping on Rodya's confession to Sonya. Terrified, Rodya plunges into a time of vagueness, wandering about aimlessly. One day Razumikhin comes into his room to vent his indignation at Rodya's treatment of his family. As he leaves, Rodya commends the ladies to Razumikhin's care, and even mentions that Dunya may love him already. Razumikhin leaves, elated, but pokes his head back in to tell Rodya that the painter Nikolai confessed to the murders; Porfiry himself told Razumikhin all about it.

Rodya, unburdened by this unexpected news, is about to go out and find Svidrigailov when Porfiry comes in. They sit down. Porfiry tells Rodya that he knows he is guilty, and that he should turn himself in. He exhorts Rodya not to give up on life, because he has his whole life before him. After telling him that he will probably arrest him within two days, Porfiry takes his leave of Rodion, wishing him well.

Rodya leaves in search of Svidrigailov. He finds him in a tavern. He tells Svidrigailov point-blank that if he plans to blackmail Dunya with his knowledge of Rodya's secret, Rodya will kill him.

Svidrigailov, rather drunk, talks about Marfa Petrovna and his attempted seduction of Dunya. He also tells Rodion about his new 16-year-old fiancée. Rodya, disgusted by him, gets up to go. They both leave at about the same time. Rodya follows Svidrigailov for a little while before he is convinced that Svidrigailov has no plans to meet Dunya that day. He leaves him.

Almost immediately, Dunya enters the picture, indeed to meet with Svidrigailov, who has sent her a letter mentioning Rodya's secret and promising to provide proof. He takes her to his apartment, ostensibly to provide proof but really to blackmail her. Too late, she finds herself locked in the room with him. She has brought a gun, however, and threatens to shoot him if he comes near her. In the end, she drops the gun and he, touched by this, drops his threatening demeanor. When he establishes that she can never love him, he tells her to leave quickly. He leaves his apartment, spends the remainder of the day wandering about and settling his affairs, and shoots himself the next morning.

Later that day, Rodya goes to see his mother for the last time before turning himself in. He then hurries home, where he finds Dunya waiting for him. He takes leave of her and goes to Sonya. She gives him a cross. He rushes out rudely, not even saying goodbye to her, impatient to get it over with, even though he can't understand why he should go, because he still does not see his act as a crime.

He goes to the station, with Sonya following him. He finds out that Svidrigailov is dead, and, stunned, leaves without confessing; but Sonya is waiting for him, and he goes back upstairs and confesses.

Rodya is exiled to Siberia, where Sonya follows him. Dunya marries Razumikhin. Pulcheria Alexandrovna dies. Sonya writes to the Razumikhins about Rodya. He is unsociable and hated by his fellow prisoners. He falls ill. At the end of his illness, Sonya herself is ill, and he misses her. When she recovers, she goes to him, and he at last repents truly, falling at her feet and weeping. Having finally recognized his sin, he is resurrected‹able to love Sonya and look forward to his life with her.

[love-to-learn]

Dear Asalbanoo,

It's a while I have been trying to spare some time to read some of these novels but as I'm always short of time, I didn't succeed.
Now I'm happy to have the chance to read their summaries. it's perfect, keep going.
I have seen some of the films based on these novels but books also have their own attraction.

Cheers

[Asalbanoo]

The narrator, Jake Barnes, describes Robert Cohn, a rich Jew who graduated from Princeton with low self-esteem, had an unsuccessful marriage, lost most of his inheritance, and moved to Paris with an exploitative woman, Frances, to write a novel. Jake plays tennis with him. Cohn sold his novel in America and returned with arrogance and a craving for adventure. He frequently imposes on Jake.
One night, Jake picks up a girl, Georgette, and turns down her sexual advances, explaining he is "sick." They end up at a dancing-club, where Jake sees the beautiful and independent Lady Ashley, known to him as Brett. He eventually leaves with her; they have had a romantic relationship in the past, and though they kiss, Brett does not want to go through "'that hell again.'" They briefly discuss Jake's physical condition, which appears to be impotence. They meet one of Brett's friends, Count Mippipopolous. Jake makes plans to see her tomorrow. In his bed, he cries when thinking about Brett, and is woken when Brett drunkenly comes up. She invites him to go out with her and the count for dinner tomorrow, kisses him, and leaves.
The next day, Cohn asks Jake about Brett; he explains she's getting a divorce now and is going to marry Mike Campbell, who is currently in Scotland. Cohn admits he's falling in love with her. Jake says he met her while he was in a hospital during the war; she was a volunteer nurse and had married the man whose name she took, Ashley. Later, after Brett blows off a date with Jake, Frances humiliates Cohn in front of Jake. Jake leaves, unable to stand it.
Brett shows up with the count. Brett joins Jake in his room, and Jake says he loves her. Brett sends the count out for champagne. Jake asks Brett if they could live together, but she says they couldn't, as she would "tromper" (be unfaithful to, or elude) him. She says she is going away from him tomorrow, to San Sebastian, until Mike comes back. The count returns and shows his scars on his stomach and back from arrow wounds in various wars. They go to a club. Brett tells Jake about Mike, then tells Jake she is "'so miserable.'" They take the count's car to her hotel, but Brett doesn't want Jake to come up with her. They kiss at her door, but Brett pushes him away before leaving.
Jake does not see Brett until she returns from San Sebastian, nor does he see Cohn, who takes a trip to the country. He works hard in preparation for his trip at the end of June to Spain with Bill Gorton. Bill arrives in Paris, and they run into Brett, just back from her trip. That night, they meet up with Brett and Mike. Brett introduces Mike as an "'undischarged bankrupt'"; he explains that his ex-partner "'did me in.'" Mike is very drunk and possessive of Brett.
Jake receives a letter from the vacationing Cohn, who is eager to go on the fishing trip with Jake and Bill. Jake writes him and gives him instructions for where to meet them in Spain. Mike also asks if Jake would mind if they accompanied him to Spain, and Jake says it's fine. When Mike leaves, Brett tells Jake that it might be "'rough'" on Cohn to accompany them, as she went to San Sebastian with him. Bill and Jake take a train to Bayonne and meet Cohn that night.
Jake, Bill, and Cohn hire a car and drive to Pamplona. They discuss Brett and Mike; Cohn bets Bill that they won't arrive. At night, Jake and Cohn go to meet Brett and Mike's train; they are not on it. Cohn tells Bill not to worry about the bet. Jake receives a telegram from Brett and Mike; they've stopped over in San Sebastian. They make plans to leave tomorrow; if Brett and Mike get in later, they can follow them. The next day, Cohn says he won't be leaving with them. He explains that he is supposed to meet Brett and Mike in San Sebastian, as he had suggested it to Brett. Bill and Jake share information about Cohn and Brett, and decide they're better off without him and take a bus to Burguete for fishing.
Bill and Jake bond while fishing, and meet an Englishman named Harris at their inn. One day, Jake receives a letter from Mike; Brett passed out on the train, so they decided to recuperate in San Sebastian with old friends. He says they are going to Pamplona. Jake and Bill take a bus to Pamplona. They talk to the head of the hotel, Montoya, and learn about the bull-fights for the next couple of days. Montoya believes he and Jake are true, passionate "aficionados" of bull-fighting. The good bull-fighters stay at Montoya's hotel. Jake describes the "unloadings" of the bull-fights to Bill: they release the bulls from their corrals, and they chase and gore steers, young oxen castrated before sexual maturity. The purpose is to calm down the bulls and prevent them from fighting each other. Jake and Bill find Brett, Mike, and Cohn, and they watch the bulls unloaded. One steer is gored and excluded, while the other befriends the bulls. Brett is fascinated. Later, Mike says Cohn follows Brett around like a steer and that he is not wanted. Bill leads Cohn away. While Mike knows Brett has affairs -- she tells him -- he finds Cohn pathetic. Later, everyone has a pleasant dinner together, pretending nothing happened. Jake has a rough night, tormenting himself with thoughts of Brett. Pamplona gets ready the next two days for the fiesta.
The fiesta explodes at noontime on Sunday. While some people are at mass, as San Fermin is also a religious festival, music, dancing, and drinking fill the streets.
Wearing wreaths of garlic, dancers chant around Brett in a circle. They do the same to Bill and Jake. Afterwards, they seat Brett on a cask from which they draw wine, and give her a wreath of garlic. Jake, Bill, and Mike share food and drink with the Spaniards. Jake wakes the next morning to the rocket announcing the release of the bulls. He watches from the balcony. Men run down the street to the bull-ring, chased by bulls.
Jake and his friends go to the bull-fight that afternoon. Jake gives some advice to Brett about watching the fight; she is nervous about what will happen when the bull attacks the horse. Jake returns to the hotel for his wine-skin, where Montoya briefly introduces him to Pedro Romero, an extremely good-looking young bull-fighter. Jack finds the fight good, as Romero is a "real" bull-fighter. Later, Mike points out and Brett admits that she could not stop staring at Romero. Romero dominates the second day of fighting. Jake explains to Brett why Romero is so skilled a matador. Mike jokes that Brett is falling in love with Romero.
At dinner in the hotel, Romero invites Jake to his table. They discuss bull-fighting. Jake introduces him to his friends, and Brett flirts with Romero; Mike, drunk and disorderly, makes disparaging comments to Romero and, when he leaves, to Cohn. Later, Brett tells Cohn to leave her and Jake alone. She admits she has fallen in love with Romero and cannot help it. She feels she has to do something, as she has lost her self-respect with the way Mike and Cohn are around her. She asks Jake to help her through this, and they find Romero in the café with other bull-fighters. Romero joins them. Jake leaves with an excuse, but he makes it clear it is to leave Romero and Brett alone. When he returns later, they are gone.
Jake reunites with Mike, Bill, and Cohn. Mike says that Brett has gone off with Romero. Cohn asks Jake if it's true, and when he receives no answer, calls Jake a "'pimp.'" They fight, and Cohn beats up Jake and Mike. Later, at the hotel, Bill tells Jake that Cohn wants to see him. Jake reluctantly goes to Cohn's room. Cohn is crying and begs Jake's forgiveness, and says he'll be leaving in the morning. He says he can't take the way Brett treats him like a stranger, after they had lived together in San Sebastian. Jake says goodbye to him.
Jakes wakes and goes to the bull-ring to watch the bulls run in. A bull gores one man in the back. Jake reads about the man in the paper the next day, and the town has a funeral for him the day after that. Jake describes how Romero killed the bull the afternoon of the funeral. Its ear was cut off and given to Romero, who gave it to Brett. She discarded the ear in her hotel room's drawer. Bill and Mike tell Jake that after Cohn beat up him and Mike, he found Brett in Romero's room and beat up Romero badly. When he tried to apologize to Romero, the bull-fighter hit Cohn in the face, and then threatened to kill him if he weren't out of town by the morning. Brett told Cohn off until he cried. Brett is now taking care of Romero. Mike also relates Brett's unhappy relationship with the Englishman Lord Ashley (from whom she received her title).
It is the last day of the fiesta. Brett tells Jake and Bill at the café that Romero is badly hurt and won't leave his room, though he is still going to fight. Mike angrily tips over the table. Brett leaves with Jake. She tells him she is happy, and asks him to go to the fight with her. After lunch, Jake, Bill, and Brett sit ring-side at the fight. Three matadors are there -- Romero, Marcial, and Belmonte. Belmonte, a legend who recently came out retirement, renowned for working close to the bull and gravely endangering himself, goes first and is very good, but not as good as he used to be, and the crowd turns against him. Romero is elegant in the "quite," in which the bull charges all three matadors. With his own bull, whose vision is impaired, Romero works to make the match exciting, but the crowd does not understand the situation, and believes he is afraid. He brilliantly handles the last bull, the one that gored the man the other day. His brother cuts the ear off the bull and hands it to Romero, who gives it to Brett. That night, Mike tells Jake that Brett left with Romero on the train.
The fiesta is over the next morning. The men split up, and Jake ends up in San Sebastian. He spends several relaxing days there until he receives a telegram from Brett in Madrid, saying she is in trouble and asking him to come to her hotel. He arrives in Madrid on the overnight train. Brett is happy to see him and kisses him, and says she made Romero leave yesterday. He wanted to marry her so that she "'couldn't go away from him.'" Ultimately, she feels she could have lived with him had she not seen it would be bad for him. Brett cries, and Jake holds her. She says she is returning to Mike. They get train tickets for that night, and later go for a taxi ride through Madrid. Brett laments that she and Jake could have had "'such a damned good time together.'" Jake replies, "'YesŠIsn't it pretty to think so?'"

[Asalbanoo]

THE NARRATOR, AN AIRPLANE PILOT, crashes in the Sahara desert. The crash badly damages his airplane and leaves the narrator with very little food or water. As he is worrying over his predicament, he is approached by the little prince, a very serious little blond boy who asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator obliges, and the two become friends. The pilot learns that the little prince comes from a small planet that the little prince calls Asteroid 325 but that people on Earth call Asteroid B-612. The little prince took great care of this planet, preventing any bad seeds from growing and making sure it was never overrun by baobab trees. One day, a mysterious rose sprouted on the planet and the little prince fell in love with it. But when he caught the rose in a lie one day, he decided that he could not trust her anymore. He grew lonely and decided to leave. Despite a last-minute reconciliation with the rose, the prince set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.
While journeying, the narrator tells us, the little prince passes by neighboring asteroids and encounters for the first time the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups. On the first six planets the little prince visits, he meets a king, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, all of whom live alone and are overly consumed by their chosen occupations. Such strange behavior both amuses and perturbs the little prince. He does not understand their need to order people around, to be admired, and to own everything. With the exception of the lamplighter, whose dogged faithfulness he admires, the little prince does not think much of the adults he visits, and he does not learn anything useful. However, he learns from the geographer that flowers do not last forever, and he begins to miss the rose he has left behind.
At the geographer’s suggestion, the little prince visits Earth, but he lands in the middle of the desert and cannot find any humans. Instead, he meets a snake who speaks in riddles and hints darkly that its lethal poison can send the little prince back to the heavens if he so wishes. The little prince ignores the offer and continues his explorations, stopping to talk to a three-petaled flower and to climb the tallest mountain he can find, where he confuses the echo of his voice for conversation. Eventually, the little prince finds a rose garden, which surprises and depresses him—his rose had told him that she was the only one of her kind.
The prince befriends a fox, who teaches him that the important things in life are visible only to the heart, that his time away from the rose makes the rose more special to him, and that love makes a person responsible for the beings that one loves. The little prince realizes that, even though there are many roses, his love for his rose makes her unique and that he is therefore responsible for her. Despite this revelation, he still feels very lonely because he is so far away from his rose. The prince ends his story by describing his encounters with two men, a railway switchman and a salesclerk.
It is now the narrator’s eighth day in the desert, and at the prince’s suggestion, they set off to find a well. The water feeds their hearts as much as their bodies, and the two share a moment of bliss as they agree that too many people do not see what is truly important in life. The little prince’s mind, however, is fixed on returning to his rose, and he begins making plans with the snake to head back to his planet. The narrator is able to fix his plane on the day before the one-year anniversary of the prince’s arrival on Earth, and he walks sadly with his friend out to the place the prince landed. The snake bites the prince, who falls noiselessly to the sand.
The narrator takes comfort when he cannot find the prince’s body the next day and is confident that the prince has returned to his asteroid. The narrator is also comforted by the stars, in which he now hears the tinkling of his friend’s laughter. Often, however, he grows sad and wonders if the sheep he drew has eaten the prince’s rose. The narrator concludes by showing his readers a drawing of the desert landscape and by asking us to stop for a while under the stars if we are ever in the area and to let the narrator know immediately if the little prince has returned.

[Asalbanoo]

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the specific story of the Joad family in order to illustrate the hardship and oppression suffered by migrant laborers during the Great Depression. It is an explicitly political tract that champions collectivist action by the lower classes over expressions of individualist self-interest and chastises corporate and banking elites for shortsighted policies meant to maximize profit even while forcing farmers into destitution and even starvation.
The novel begins with the description of the conditions in Dust Bowl Oklahoma that ruined the crops and instigated massive foreclosures on farmland. No specific characters emerge initially, a technique that Steinbeck will return to several times in the book, juxtaposing descriptions of events in a larger social context with those more specific to the Joad family.
Tom Joad, a man not yet thirty, approaches a diner dressed in spotless, somewhat formal clothing. He hitches a ride with a truck driver at the diner, who presses Tom for information until Tom finally reveals that he was just released from McAlester prison, where he served four years for murdering a man during a fight. Steinbeck follows this with an interlude describing a turtle crossing the road, which he uses as a metaphor for the struggles of the working class.
On his travels home, Tom meets his former preacher, Jim Casy, a talkative man gripped by doubts over religious teachings and the presence of sin. He gave up the ministry after realizing that he found little wrong with the sexual liaisons he had with women in his congregation. Casy espouses the view that what is holy in human nature comes not from a distant god, but from the people themselves. Steinbeck contrasts Tom's return with the arrival of bank representatives to evict the tenant farmers and the tractors to farm the land. He raises the possibility of a working class insurrection, but cannot find an effective target for collective action.
When Tom and Casy reach the Joad's house, it has been deserted. Muley Graves, a local elderly man who may not be sane, tells them that the Joads have been evicted, and now stay with Uncle John. Muley's own family has left to find work in California, but Muley decided to stay himself. That night, since they are trespassing on the property now owned by the bank, the three are forced to hide from the police who might arrest them.
Steinbeck follows this with a description of the tactics that car dealers use to exploit impoverished customers. They find that they can make a greater profit by selling damaged jalopies than by selling dependable new cars.
Tom Joad finds the rest of his family staying with Uncle John, a morose man prone to depression after the death of his wife several years before. His mother is a strong, sturdy woman who is the moral center of family life. His brother, Noah, may have been brain damaged during childbirth, while his sister, Rose of Sharon (called Rosasharn by the family) is recently married and pregnant. Her husband, Connie Rivers, has dreams of studying radios. Tom's younger brother, Al, is only sixteen and has the concerns befitting that age. This is followed by a more general description of the sale of items by impoverished families who intend to leave Oklahoma for California, as the Joads expect to do.
The Joads plan to go to California based on flyers they found advertising work in the fields there. These flyers, as Steinbeck will soon reveal, are fraudulent advertisements meant to draw more workers than necessary and drive down wages. Jim Casy asks to accompany the Joads to California so that he can work with people in the fields rather than preach at them. Before the family leaves, Grampa Joad refuses to go, but the family gives him medicine that knocks him unconscious and takes him with them. The subsequent chapters describes the vacant houses that remain after the Oklahoma farmers leave for work elsewhere, as well as the conditions on Route 66, the highway that stretches from Oklahoma to Bakersfield, California.
Almost immediately into the journey, the Joad family loses two members. The first victim is the family dog, which is run over during their first stop. The second is Grampa Joad, who dies of a stroke. The Wilson family helps the Joads when Grampa dies, and the two families decide to make the journey to California together. Steinbeck follows this with a larger statement about the growing of a collective consciousness among the working class, who shift their perceptions from "I" to "we."
The Wilson's car soon breaks down, and Tom and Casy consider separating from the rest of the family temporarily to fix the car, but Ma Joad refuses to let the family break apart even temporarily. Tom and Al do find the necessary part to fix the car at a junkyard, where the one-eyed man who watches over the junkyard complains about his boss and threatens to murder him. Before the Joads set out on their journey again, they find a man returning from California who tells them that there is no work there, and the promises of work in the flyers are a fraud.
The Joads and Wilsons reach California, where they are immediately subjected to intimidation by police officers who derisively call them and other migrant laborers "Okies." At the first camp where they stay, Granma becomes quite ill, but receives some comfort from proselytizing Jehovites who merely annoy Ma Joad. The police force them out of the camp, but the Wilsons choose the possibility of arrest instead, since Sairy Wilson is too sick to continue. The next time that the police stop the Joads on their travels, Ma Joad forces them to let them pass without inspection. She does this to hide from the police the fact that Granma has died.
Steinbeck follows this with a description of the history of California, which he frames as one marked by oppression and slavery. However, he predicts an imminent revolution, for the people there have been deprived to such a great degree that they must take what they need in order to survive.
At the next camp where the Joads stay on their search for work, they learn about Weedpatch, a government camp where the residents do not face harassment by police officers and have access to amenities including baths and toilets. When more police officers attempt to start a fight with Tom and several other migrant workers, Tom trips him and Casy knocks him unconscious. To prevent Tom from taking the blame, for he would be sent back to jail for violating his parole, Casy accepts responsibility for the crime and is taken away to jail. The rest of the family begins to break apart as well. Uncle John leaves to get drunk, Noah decides to leave society altogether and live alone in the woodlands, and Connie abandons his pregnant wife. Before they must move on, Tom does retrieve Uncle John, who is still consumed with guilt over his wife's death. They head north toward the government camp.
At the government camp, the Joads are shocked to find how well the other residents treat them and how efficiently this society ¬ in which the camp leaders are elected by the residents ¬ functions. Tom even finds work the next day, but the contractor, Mr. Thomas, warns him that there will be trouble at the dance at Weedpatch that weekend. Since the police can only enter the camp if there is trouble, they intend to plant intruders there who will instigate violence.
The Joads settle into a comfortable existence at the government camp, and during the dance that Saturday, Tom and several other residents defuse the situation, preventing the police from taking control of the camp. Nevertheless, after a month in Weedpatch none of the Joads have found steady work and realize that they must continue on their journey. They arrive at Hooper Ranch, where the entire family picks peaches. The wages they receive are higher than normal, for they are breaking a strike. Tom finds out that the leader of the labor force that is organizing the strike is Jim Casy. After his time in prison, Casy realized that he must fight for collective action by the working class against the wealthy ruling class. Tom, Casy and the other strike leaders get into a fight with strike breakers, and one of them murders Casy with a pick handle. Tom struggles with the man and wrests away the weapon. He, in turn, kills the man who murdered Casy, and barely escapes capture by the police.
Although Tom wishes to leave the family to spare them from taking responsibility for him, the Joads nevertheless decide to leave Hooper Ranch for a location where Tom can be safe. They reach cotton fields up north, where Tom hides in the woods while the family stays in a boxcar. Although the family attempts to keep Tom's identity and location a secret, young Ruthie Winfield reveals it during a fight with another child. When Ma tells Tom about this, he decides to leave the family and go off alone, determined to fight for the cause for which Casy died, and vows to return to his family one day.
The raining season arrived almost immediately after Tom left the family, causing massive flooding. The Joads are caught in a dangerous situation: they cannot escape the flooding because Rose of Sharon suddenly goes into labor. While other families evacuate the camp near the rapidly rising creek, the Joads remain and attempt to stop the flood waters. Without the aid of others, the Joads are unsuccessful, and they must seek refuge on the top of their car. Rose of Sharon delivers a stillborn child that Uncle John sends in a box down the creek. The family eventually reaches higher ground and finds a barn for shelter. Inside the barn is a starving man and his young son. Steinbeck ends the novel with Rose of Sharon, barely recovered from the delivery, breastfeeding the dying man to nurse him back to health.

[Asalbanoo]

This novel traces three days in the life of Robert Jordan, an American Spanish professor who has volunteered to fight for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. Jordan is a dynamite expert, and is ordered by General Golz, a Russian leader of the International Brigades, to bomb a bridge as part of their offensive against the Fascists. Golz is only interested in the offensive as a means of practicing his military tactics and he is cynical about its success in the hands of the Spanish peasants.
Anselmo, an old guide, brings Jordan through the woods to the hideout, an abandoned cave, of the men who will help him complete his mission. The guerillas that Jordan encounters obviously do not want to be involved in the war any longer. They meet Agustin in the woods, visibly relieved to see them because he has forgotten the password to their lair. The gypsy Rafael, despite being the guard, is only interested in cracking jokes. He tells Jordan about Kashkin, the previous foreign dynamite expert who, ironically, killed himself after being wounded during their last mission, the explosion of a train. The most cynical and despondent guerilla, however, is Pablo, their leader. Despite being a courageous man before, Pablo now wants only to return to his village to raise the horses he gained as spoils of war. Many conflicts arise between Pablo and Jordan, as the Pablo resents that a foreigner is interfering in a matter that can risk his own life and those of his band.
There are also two women at the camp: Pilar, who is Pablo's wife, and Maria, a girl they rescued from the train carrying prisoners of war. Despite her cropped hair, which was shaved during her interment by the Fascists and the obvious psychological damage wrought upon her, she is beautiful. Pilar is an ugly woman, but celebrated for her bravery. Since Pablo "went bad" and lost the courage and zeal he displayed at the beginning of the war, Pilar maintains the unity of his band. Pilar is a gypsy and, upon introductions, reads Jordan's palm. The future she foretells there, but will not reveal, is grim.
Pablo's cowardice soon makes him relinquish power to Pilar, his bold wife. Pablo announces that he is against blowing up the bridge, but Pilar backs Robert Jordan and the men follow her lead. After the confrontation, Rafael tells Jordan that he should have killed Pablo, and that he would have had the support of the guerillas. Jordan reasons that, unprovoked, this would be assassination. As Pablo continues to insult and cause trouble of Jordan throughout the novel, Jordan wonders if he made the right decision.
After the confrontation with Pablo, during the night after the first day, Jordan makes love to Maria when she comes to his makeshift bed outside the cave. The nineteen-year-old girl, who has been raped and orphaned, has fallen quickly and madly in love with Jordan. She believes that her love will purify her from past atrocities committed to her. Jordan returns her feelings, as he has gazed upon her all day with a lump in his throat. He celebrates finding, for the first time, happiness in unity with another individual.
Jordan's newfound love, however, is overshadowed by the many obstacles he must face to complete his mission. The appearance of enemy planes, for one, heighten tension at the camp because either they are planning an attack of their own, or have gotten wind of the Loyalist offensive. So too, when Maria, Pilar and Jordan journey up the mountain to the guerilla leader El Sordo's camp, he reminds them of how dangerous the bridge mission is. He agrees to help them, but as they leave camp it begins to snow. Now, the enemy could be able to follow El Sordo's tracks to the bridge.
The only person who really encourages Jordan is Anselmo, who he finds loyally waiting in his post, despite the storm, for Jordan to dismiss him. Besides being a loyal soldier who is committed to the Cause, Anselmo is distinguished as a true humanitarian. He is preoccupied not with the thought of losing his own life during the attack on the bridge, but rather fears that Jordan will order him to kill another human being. He sees the enemy not as evil Fascists, as do the others, but as poor countrymen like themselves.
Pablo again makes trouble for Jordan on the second day, when he baits him about his relationship with Maria. Jordan tries to goad him into fighting, as this would be an appropriate time to kill him for the sake of the mission. Pablo refuses to be baited, however, and later resumes a cooperative mood. Jordan trusts him less than ever, and grows increasingly worrisome about the success of the mission. Thus, Jordan feels his time is limited, which is evidenced by his urgent need to make love to Maria.
The next morning, Jordan is awakened by the sounds of an approaching enemy horseman. Jordan shoots the soldier, and the camp frantically scrambles to arm themselves with a machine gun that did not even come with directions. Tension mounts as Fascist troops pass by the camp. Jordan acts as the example of level-headedness for his men, as Agustin wants to kill the passing soldiers. Then, sounds come from El Sordo's. His camp is attacked and bombed, and they all are killed. Primitivo urges Jordan to help El Sordo, but Jordan knows that the bridge mission must be his priority, even over the lives of his comrades. Thus, the guerillas remain undiscovered for the time being. The fighting between El Sordo and the Fascists, led by Lieutenant Berrendo, show how neither side really wants to fight or die. Jordan sends a young guerilla, to General Golz with news of El Sordo's defeat and a request that the offensive be cancelled.
The last night before the attack is very eventful. Maria is inflicted by pain, so the couple discusses their future and their luck in finding each other. Jordan, however, thinks that being unable to make love is a bad omen. Indeed, his presentiment comes true when Pilar wakes him with the news that Pablo, ever treacherous, has fled with some dynamite.
Jordan is worried now that his plan won't work. Jordan does not have enough men and Pablo stole the equipment he needed to blow the bridge correctly. It is highly unlikely that the attack will be postponed, even if Andres does deliver the message to General Golz. Pablo returns that morning accompanied by five extra men and their horses, claiming that he is not a coward after all and will help blow the bridge.
The apathy and inefficiency of the Loyalist army stalls Andres, and the message does not reach General Golz in time. The bridge bombing must proceed. At the bridge, Jordan orders Anselmo to kill the sentry, which he tearfully accomplishes. Then they dynamite the bridge, and Anselmo is killed by a falling rock. In the ensuing fighting, the only guerillas who survive are Pablo, Pilar, Maria, Primitivo and Agustin . Jordan is hit by a shell as they escape on horseback and is unable to escape. He tells Maria that they will always be one person, and refuses to be shot out of mercy. His comrades give him a machine gun so that he can defend himself from the approaching enemy. Jordan fights pain and suicidal thoughts with the hope that he can buy time for the fleeing guerillas. The novel closes here, as Jordan awaits his certain death on the pine-covered ground he appeared on in the first scene.

[Asalbanoo]

Anna Karenina, considered by many critics to be Tolstoy's finest achievement, is one of the most important novels of the nineteenth century. Tolstoy imbues the simple tale of a love affair with rich portraits of Russian high society, politics, and religion.
As the book opens, Prince Stephen Oblonsky, known as Stiva, is arguing with his wife, Dolly: he has had an affair with their children's governess, and she is threatening to leave him. He is happy that his sister, Anna Karenina, will be coming the next day to visit and smooth things over between himself and Dolly. Anna is married to a distinguished official in St. Petersburg, and moves in the highest circles of Russian Society with the reputation of a charming woman.
That same day, Oblonsky runs into his friend Constantine Levin, who has just arrived from his country estate. Levin is in town to see Oblonsky's sister-in-law, Kitty Shcherbatskaya, for Levin is rather smitten with the eighteen-year-old girl. Oblonsky suggests a meeting with Levin later that evening at the park where Kitty ice-skates.
Levin goes to the park. He skates with Kitty and flirts with her boldly, but she sends him mixed signals. At dinner with Oblonsky that night, Levin learns that he has a rival for Kitty's affections: Count Alexis Kirilovich Vronsky. And indeed, when Levin proposes to Kitty, but she rejects him in the hopes that Vronsky will make his proposal soon.
When Oblonsky goes to the railway station to meet Anna the next morning, he runs into Vronsky, who is waiting for his mother to get off the same train. It turns out that Anna and Vronsky's mother were seatmates in the same compartment, and his mother is quite taken with Anna. So is Vronsky, at once, charmed by Anna's spirit and vitality. Before they leave the station, a railroad guard is run over and killed by a passing train. At the urgings of Anna, Vronsky leaves 200 roubles for the guard's widow.
Anna ably convinces Dolly not to leave Oblonsky. At a ball the next night, Kitty notices that Vronsky is distracted and inattentive to her. The source of this inattention becomes clear when she watched Vronsky waltz with Anna. The two of them are completely smitten, and Kitty's heart is shattered. She realizes that her hopes are shot; Vronsky never wanted to marry her.
Levin goes to see his elder brother Nicholas, who is sickly and lives in depraved conditions. Disgusted with the entire trip, Levin leaves Moscow. Anna leaves the same day as Levin, on the train for St. Petersburg. During a brief stop, Vronsky emerges on the platform and tells her that he is in love with her and will follow her to St. Petersburg. Anna claims that this is impossible and tries to resume her life, but she is constantly displeased with everything.
Kitty Shcherbatskaya's heartache manifests itself in physical symptoms. Her family decides to take her to a spa in Germany to recover.
Upon her return to St. Petersburg, Anna begins circulating more frequently in the circles where she is sure to meet Vronsky. Anna tells herself that she simply enjoys the attention, but soon she admits to herself that his feelings constitute the whole passion of her present existence. Their behavior quickly escalates into the realm of the Socially Unacceptable. Karenin is a man vitally concerned with external appearances, and it is for this reason that he confronts Anna. She disregards his concern, and the couple swiftly withdraws from each other. Vronsky and Anna consummate their love and Anna says, "Everything is finished. I have nothing but you now. Remember that."
Meanwhile, Levin prepares his estate for the arrival of spring. Unlike many estate owners, Levin delights in doing heavy labor on his estate. Oblonsky comes to visit his estate to sell one of his forests to a local dealer named Ryabinin at a serious loss. Before he leaves, Oblonsky tells Levin that Kitty is ill and that Vronsky has left Moscow in pursuit of Anna.
In Petersburg, Vronsky and Anna's affair is rapidly becoming common knowledge. Petersburg Society is waiting eagerly for Anna's downfall, and Vronsky's family is becoming concerned that this affair is distracting him from progressing in his career. In the midst of all this concern, Vronsky is preparing to ride in a horse race. Right before the race, Vronsky visits Anna. She tells him that she is pregnant. Vronsky then hurries to the race. Anna and her husband both attend the race, but sit separately in the stands. Vronsky's horse falls and breaks her back, though he himself is unhurt.
At the race, Karenin watches as Anna reacts physically when Vronsky falls. He confronts her about her affair, with more strength this time. Anna confesses her feelings for Vronsky and says that she hates Karenin. Karenin demands that she observe "external conditions of propriety" until he can protect himself, presumably through a divorce.
At the German spa, Kitty makes the acquaintance of Varenka, a pious young woman. Kitty tries to imitate her sense of deep spirituality and tries to be charitable like the girl. She fails to achieve the same type of understanding with the less fortunate as Varenka has, but comes to a greater understanding of herself by the time she leaves the spa. Meanwhile, Dolly and the children move to their country estate to save money while Oblonsky is in St. Petersburg. Levin visits them, and Dolly suggests that he propose to Kitty again. The suggestion embarrasses Levin. But when he glimpses Kitty a few days later, he realizes that he still loves her.
Karenin decides that the only option is to force Anna to break off relations with Vronsky and stay with him. Outwardly at least, this will preserve the status quo. The same morning, Vronsky receives a visit from his friend Serpukhovskoy, who offers him the chance to jump-start his career by leaving the regiment, Vronsky refuses because it will take him away from Anna.
Levin attempts to avoid thoughts of Kitty, who is staying with Dolly less than twenty miles away. He develops a "theory" of economic labor that involves cooperative labor and ownership. He attempts to implement this theory on his farm, but the peasants respond with far less enthusiasm than Levin does. At the end of September, Levin receives a surprise visit from his consumptive brother Nicholas. Nicholas is emaciated and obviously very sick; his death is imminent. After Nicholas leaves, Levin sinks into moroseness. He begins seeing death everywhere and is depressed about his own soul.
The Karenins are living together in a state of tension. Anna continues to see Vronsky outside the house. One night, the two men meet each other as Vronsky rushes in to see Anna. This is the first night Vronsky notes that Anna's jealous fits make her less attractive to him. Anna tells him of a nightmare she had concerning a dirty old peasant. Vronsky had the same nightmare and is horrified. Karenin confronts Anna again. Faced with her implacable resolve, he tells her that he intends to begin divorce proceedings.
During a dinner party at the Oblonskys', Levin and Kitty reunite and find a new interest in each other. Kitty hints that she would accept if Levin were to propose to her again. This he does, and they begin planning their marriage.
Anna lies close to death after giving birth to Vronsky's daughter. Vronsky is in an outer room, weeping. Seeing Anna in her agitated state stirs Karenin to forgiveness. Weeping freely, he forgives both her and Vronsky in a state of great joy and happiness. Karenin shames Vronsky by saying that no matter how the two of them humiliate him, Karenin will not leave Anna. Devastated by Karenin's nobility, Vronsky goes home and attempts suicide by shooting himself with a revolver. The bullet misses his heart, and he recuperates with the help of his sister-in-law. As she recovers, Anna remains awed by her husband's generous feelings, but she still feels stifled. Oblonsky, sensing the torture of the situation, visits Karenin and encourages him to begin divorce proceedings again. In an emotional moment, Karenin agrees. Upon hearing this news, Vronsky immediately abandons his military duties and rushes to the Karenins' house. But though Anna is elated to see him, she will not accept Karenin's offer of a divorce.
Levin and Kitty have a wonderful marriage despite Levin's concern about his agnoticism. The conversations of the other guests about the failed marriages they are in or that they know of add a sober note to the proceedings.
Anna and Vronsky leave Russia and travel in Italy. Vronsky has a new interest in painting and has begun a portrait of Anna. He abandons this interest when he meets a famous painter named Mikhailov. Mikhailov's superior dedication to the craft, along with his superior portrait of Anna, do a great deal to undermine Vronsky's confidence. They decide to return to Russia.
Levin is disillusioned that his marriage seems to consist of petty quarrels that he had once laughed at in other married couples. Things do not begin to go smoothly until Levin receives news that his brother, Nicholas, is on the verge of death in Moscow. Kitty goes along and takes care of the dying man with great care and tenderness. Levin gains a new appreciation for her. Kitty announces her pregnancy soon after Nicholas dies.
Karenin suffers under the humiliations of public opinion and a stagnated career. His only friend is Countess Lydia Ivanovna, who encourages him to join her in her brand of emotional Christianity. When they return to St. Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky are greeted with the unfortunate news that they have been outcast from high society, especially Anna. Still, Anna tests this by attending the opera. Anna creates a scene and is insulted by members of society. Anna blames him for her social position, making it necessary for him to soothe her with constant assurance of his love. They move to his country estate.
Many people visit the Levins at their estate that summer. Varenka and Koznyshev have a brief romance that ends when Koznyshev is too shy to propose. Oblonsky arrives with Vasenka Veslovsky, a handsome young playboy, who proceeds to flirt inappropriately with Kitty. Levin, who already feels insecure about his relationship to Kitty, fears adultery and throws Veslovsky out.
One day, Dolly goes to visit Anna at Vronsky's country estate. Though at first she is impressed by the luxury Anna and Vronsky live in, and of Anna's vitality, she soon becomes uncomfortable. They have had to consort with lower classes of people and are surrounded by hangers-on. Plus, Anna is in decline: she refuses to accept Karenin's offer of a divorce, she cares little for her daughter, takes morphia in order to sleep, and uses birth control for fear that Vronsky will lose interest in her if she becomes pregnant again.
Anna is increasingly paranoid and dependent on Vronsky. When he attends elections in Moscow and stays one day later than planned, she tricks him into returning. Vronsky feels increasingly stifled by her demands. At last she agrees to write Karenin for a divorce and the couple moves to Moscow.
The Levins are also in Moscow, awaiting the birth of their first child. Levin is uncomfortable in the city but does the best he can. Under Oblonsky's influence, Levin not only makes peace with Vronsky but also agrees to visit Anna, whom he has never met. Levin is completely charmed by Anna. When he returns home, Kitty is furious that he went to see Anna and can see the change in him. He stays up late comforting Kitty and assuring her of his love. Meanwhile, Anna's hold over Vronsky is crumbling; they typically greet each other with hostility. She has not heard from Karenin about her request for a divorce, and this makes their relations still more tense. That night, Kitty goes into labor. The birth takes 22 hours and Levin prays for the first time in years. When his son is born, Levin experiences a feeling of profound joy and happiness.
Oblonsky visits Karenin to press him about divorcing Anna. Karenin reacts with great emotion and claims that his Christianity will not allow him to do such a thing. Meanwhile, relations between Anna and Vronsky continue to sour. Anna grows more jealous, and Vronsky goes colder and more distant. Vronsky spends more time out of the house, and his mother encourages him to marry the young Princess Sorokin. They quarrel that night and then again the next morning; Vronsky leaves in disgust. Anna takes a dose of morphia and writes Vronsky a note begging his forgiveness and pleading with him to return at once. Then, despairing, she goes to visit Dolly.
The next several chapters take place mostly in Anna's head. She goes to see Dolly, but Kitty is there. The two sisters react to Anna awkwardly, and they have little to talk about. She leaves and returns home, where she finds everything and everyone repulsive. Desperate to see Vronsky, she leaves for the Nizhni train station. On the way to the train station, Anna is in a terrifying mental state. To her, everything is despicable and the world is full of ugliness, misery and hate. Overwhelmed, she gets off the train after one stop. She runs into Vronsky's coachman, who gives her a cold note from Vronsky. Insane with misery, she wanders along the platform. Suddenly, she remembers the porter who died the first day she met Vronsky, and decides what she must do. She descends onto the tracks and waits for the oncoming train. She dies begging God for forgiveness, and her last vision is of the peasant from her dream.
Two years later, there is a great movement of Russian sympathy towards the Slavic peoples ruled by the Serbs. When Levin's half-brother Koznyshev goes to the train station to head to Levin's country estate, there are several groups of men who are volunteering to fight with the Slavs. One of those volunteers is Vronsky. The volunteer movement is Vronsky's only hope; he has been a wreck since Anna's death. The fight has given him something to be interested in. Alexis Karenin has taken Vronsky's daughter, and Vronsky is unable to get her back. Vronsky has aged many years and acts as though he is living in a mental prison.
The Levins' home is a portrait of domesticity and happy, effective labor. Levin is tortured by religious doubts and spiritual strivings, and these matters are so clearly troubling to him that even Kitty has begun to question what is going on in her husband's head. Levin's basic question, as he puts it, is this: "If I don't accept the answers given by Christianity to the questions of my life, what answers do I accept?" He wonders about his moment of prayer during Kitty's labor and constantly questions and tortures himself about his doubts. At times it becomes so bad that he wishes to kill himself. He attempts to distract himself with his family and farm duties, and in this he is moderately successful.
He experiences an epiphany in a conversation with a peasant named Theodore. He realizes that he has already been living for God. By appreciating his family and his workers, and dedicating himself to the well-being of others around him, he is behaving the way God wishes him to. He is reinforced in this belief when a tremendous thunderstorm strikes and he rushes to look for Kitty and the baby in the woods. While he hunts for them, lightening strikes a tree in front of him. The tree is scorched and tumbles in front of him. When he finds them a moment later, unhurt, he is overcome with relief. The experience renews his belief in God. Later that night, Levin reflects once more on the nature of his questions, and decides that his belief in God belongs to him alone, and that he has no right to remark on others' relationships with the Lord. Kitty comes in and asks him what he is thinking about, but he demurs to talk to her about it. It is a personal matter, he realizes, one that may not affect his external life but that will make all the difference to his inner peace.

[Asalbanoo]

novel, which takes place during the Great Depression, begins beside the Salinas River near Soledad, California, where two migrant workers, Lennie Small and George Milton, are walking on their way to a nearby ranch. They had recently escaped from a farm near Weed where Lennie, a mentally deficient yet docile man, was wrongly accused of rape when he touched a woman to feel her soft dress. George is his physical opposite, a small man with defined features. George scolds Lennie for playing with a dead mouse and warns him not to speak when they arrive at their new place of employment. When Lennie complains about not having ketchup for the beans they eat for dinner, George becomes angry, telling Lennie that he would be better off if he didn't have to travel with his retarded friend. George soon delineates his dream: he and Lennie will raise enough money to buy a patch of land, where they will have a small farm with a vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch. The rabbit hutch is the only detail of the plan that Lennie consistently remembers. George tells Lennie that, if he gets into trouble as he did in Weed, he should return to the brush near the river and wait for George to find him.
When George and Lennie reach the bunkhouse at the farm where they will work, an old man named Candy shows them their beds and tells them that the boss was angry that they didn't show up the night before. George and Lennie were late because the bus driver who brought them near Soledad dropped them off several miles away from the ranch. The boss questions George and Lennie and finds them suspicious because George speaks for Lennie. He cannot understand why George would travel with Lennie until he explains that Lennie is his cousin. After the boss leaves, his son, Curley, enters the bunkhouse looking for the boss. Curley is a short man who hates larger men out of jealousy and insecurity, and has a new wife who everyone suspects is unfaithful. His wife visits the bunkhouse later that night searching for Curley, and flirts with the other men. Later, Curley returns looking for his wife, and confronts George in an attempt to start a fight.
After a day of work, the men return to the bunkhouse. Slim, whose dog had a new litter of puppies, gives Lennie one of them. George admits to Slim that he and Lennie escaped lynching when Lennie was accused of rape. Carlson complains about Candy's dog, a decrepit creature that barely survives. He offers to shoot the dog, and after repeated complaints, Candy relents, despite his obvious wish to keep the dog. George complains about 'tarts' such as Curley's Wife, and when the other men suggest that they visit a whorehouse the next night, George says that he prefers the company of whores, since there is no chance of danger. When George tells Lennie the story about the house that they will have, Candy says that he knows about an available house that they could have if the three men pooled their money. Curley searches for his wife once more, and fights Lennie when he suspects that Lennie is laughing at him. Curley punches Lennie several times, but Lennie does not fight back until George gives him permission. He crushes Curley's hand, and does not stop until George tells him to do so.
While the other men are at the whorehouse, Lennie goes to visit Crooks, the black stable buck. Crooks is rude and contemptuous toward Lennie until he realizes that Lennie has no ill intent. Crooks makes Lennie realize how alone and isolated he would be if George would abandon Lennie. Candy also visits the two men, for they are the only ones left at the ranch. They discuss the plan for a small farm, and even Crooks shows some interest. Curley's Wife sees the three men and, when Crooks tells her that she is not supposed to be in his room, she upbraids them as useless cripples and even threatens Crooks with lynching. However, she reveals that, as the only woman on the ranch, she is lonely.
The next morning, when Lennie is playing with his new puppy, he accidentally kills it when he bounces it too hard. Curley's Wife finds him in the barn with the dead puppy, and when she allows him to feel how soft her hair is, he handles her too forcefully. When she screams, Lennie covers her mouth and, as she tries to struggle free from his grasp, he snaps her neck. When Lennie escapes the ranch, Candy and George find the body and immediately realize that Lennie killed her. Candy alerts the other men, and Curley forms a party to search for Lennie. Curley intends to murder him. In the interim, George steals Carlson's gun, leading the other men to think that Lennie actually took it before he escaped.
George, who points Curley and the other men in the wrong direction, finds Lennie in the brush where he told him to go at the beginning of the novel. Lennie has been having hallucinations of a giant rabbit and his Aunt Clara; they warn Lennie that George will be angry at him for killing Curley's Wife and that he has lost the possibility of having a house with a rabbit hutch. George begins to tell Lennie about their plans for a house and the rabbit hutch when he shoots Lennie in the back of the head with Carlson's gun. Upon hearing this, the other men find George and Lennie. George tells them that Lennie had stolen the gun and he shot Lennie when he got the gun back from him.