What does the mouse that Lennie carries in his pocket symbolize in Of Mice and Men?At the beginning of the book Lennie always carries a mouse in...

Lennie, we quickly realise, is huge and unaware of his own strength, which frequently gets himself into trouble. He loves animals. The mouse may be a symbol of his simplicity and his otherness. After all, few grown men carry mice in their pockets. We learn that he constantly kills the mice he so loves, by literally "loving them to death" and this angers George.

The mouse image or symbol also introduces the theme which becomes the central one of the book. The inadvertent killing of the mice escalates into the killing, however, unwittingly of other larger animals such as the pup and later of course of the woman, Curly's wife, in the barn.