 Hello and welcome. Now, in this video, I'll be going over a very quick and very brief plot overview of My Son and Men in a quick nutshell. Now do bear in mind that I have created a video where I go into lots of detail as to what happens within the plot in depth. However, this video was really made if you are, for example, having an exam the next day, for instance, or you need something that's really quick, short and snappy, just to give you a very general idea, because you're really familiar with all the nitty gritty details of this novella, but you just need to kind of take a step back and look at the plot in a nutshell. So now, as you can see behind me, what I did was essentially just create a very brief mind map of all the key major events that happen in the novella. So let's begin with the opening. And essentially, always remember that the opening of the this novella, it begins with George and Lenny who are looking for work. And essentially they're by the river and they dream and they articulate their dream of owning a farm one day. And one of the things that we quickly realize is that George is essentially the leader and Lenny in many ways is held back by his mental deficiencies that seems to be somewhat of an obstacle to them. We don't quite know how this is an obstacle until later on in the story. So then it progresses to when George and Lenny do find work on a ranch in Soledad. So that's the second major thing that happens. Then thirdly, once they find work in Soledad and then the bunkhouse, they meet the first main character, Curly, who's the boss's son. And we learned that he's very angry. He's quite jealous. He has a new wife called Curly's wife. We never know her real name. And he's very jealously protective of her. He doesn't want any of the men to look at her. And this is a bit of a problem for him because she loves attention. She's always being chased by him. He doesn't quite know where she is. Okay. So Curly, the boss's son is quite angry. He doesn't let anyone look at his new wife. But also another event that happens is that Candy, who's one of the other older ranch workers who we meet later on, his old dog is killed by Carlson. Then the fourth event that happens, the fourth major event that happens is Curly accuses Slim, who's the other ranch hand, who's quite powerful. He's the buck line skinner. He accuses him of crossing the line with his new wife. He's constantly insecure that his wife is very drawn to Slim. Now he then, Curly, out of his frustration because he knows that he cannot pick a fight with Slim as Slim is taller and more powerful than him. He ends up picking a fight with Lenny. And he tries to fight Lenny, who ultimately crushes his hand, which is a very humiliating defeat for Curly. Now the fifth major thing that then happens afterwards is most of the ranch workers including Curly himself go to a brothel or a place where they can basically buy sexual services from women. And even Curly does so in spite of being newly married to his wife. Now whilst they're at the brothel, we learn that key characters have been left behind. These characters are Lenny, Crooks, the only African American or Negro stable buck. Also Candy, the old hand and of course Curly's wife. And they're all left behind whilst all the rest of the ranch workers go off to the brothel. Now Curly does come in to Crooks' place because Lenny first enters, then Candy follows, Crooks' own home, okay? And Curly then comes in and basically insults the men as being weaker than the rest of the men, hence why they were left behind. When Crooks does try to stand up for himself and ask her to leave, she then also threatens him and essentially tells him that she would get him lynched if he doesn't know his place as a black man. Then the sixth major event is we learn that Lenny, one of the puppies that he's allowed to have as a pet, he pets it to death. And this ultimately foreshadows the killing, his accidental killing of Curly's wife. When he pats her hair too much, she panics. He then smothers her and he accidentally kills her. Now this ties into the opening. This is now where we realise the main thing that is standing in Jordan and Lenny's way of achieving their dream of owning a ranch is Lenny's own unwieldy strength, which he's unable to control. So Lenny kills Curly's wife and runs away and he runs back to the river and where he and George had promised, in case there's any issues, they would wait for each other there. Ultimately, the men, including Curly, discover that Curly's wife has died. So it's first Candy who discovers the dead body of Curly's wife. He then informs George who then lets all the other men know. Curly is in a massive rage and they go out with their shotguns in search of Lenny to kill him. So the death is discovered and the men search for Lenny. George does find him because George remembers that they had agreed at the beginning of the novella where they would find each other in case of any trouble. George finds him and as he's articulating their dream of owning their ranch and Lenny is looking out onto the river, George shoots him up the back of his head, ultimately as an act of preservation for his own protection. So that's really it when it comes to understanding the key events in a nutshell in terms of what happens in Of My Semen. And of course, as I've mentioned, if you want more detail, do check out my other video where I go into detail on what happens in the plot, key characters, as well as important contextual factors that you need to understand. So hopefully this helps, especially if you're revising under pressure.