In Of Mice and Men what would Lennie carry around with him?

The dead mouse, or mice, that Lennie carried around with him in the novel 'Of Mice and Men' is an important image, all the more so because mice are actually mentioned in the title of the novel by John Steinbeck. It refers to 'the best laid plans of mice and men' that too often go wrong from the poem (although he too 'borrowed' the phrase) by Robert Burns. One of the messages it portrays is the sad, pathetic dreams that the men share of getting out of their labor-camp bondage situation of the Depression and becoming land-owners and free men themselves.

Learning-challenged Lennie still continues to pet the soft mice even after they are dead showing his lack of understanding about the concept of death and decay which mirrors his lack of understanding of the unavailbilty of the dream and of the consequences of his rough well-meaning actions.