"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest
guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no
place. . . . With us it ain't like that. We got a future.
We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We
don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack jus'
because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets
in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not
us."
Lennie broke in. "But not us! An' why? Because...because
I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you,
and that's why."
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 1, George extols the virtues
of friendship to Lenny, explaining that they are not like
everyone else that work in their profession because they travel
together. He reassures him that they will look after each
other no matter what happens.
A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in
close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water
is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow
sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool.
Of Mice and Men
Opening words of novella introduce a
mood of peacefulness.
Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among
the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top.
On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray,
sculptured stones.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 1. The description of the green
river and the yellow sands presents a peaceful image, broken
only by the entrance of George and Lennie. We are introduced
to the land before the men, with the focus on the rabbits
when the main characters first arrive.
He walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a
bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides,
but hung loosely.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 1. The first time we see Lennie
he is immediately compared to an animal, a bear - a massive
and sometimes violent creature.
We'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens.
And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with
goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and
set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof
- nuts!
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 1. George talks to Lennie about
his version of the American Dream, a place they can call their
own where they have the freedom to work or not and come and
go as they please. It is a dream that will never come to pass.
You'd drink out of a gutter if you was thirsty.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 1. Lennie is presented as almost
less than human, his mental retardation made obvious by the
fact that he is not intelligent enough to check if the water
is fresha and clean.
George's hand remained outstretched imperiously. Slowly,
like a terrier who doesn't want to bring a ball to its master,
Lennie approached, drew back, approached again. George snapped
his fingers sharply and Lennie laid the mouse in his hand.
"I wasn't doin' nothing bad with it, George. Jus' strokin'
it."
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 1. This shows the relationship
between George and Lennie. George has taken on the role of
father to the simple, childlike Lennie who likes to catch
mice and pet them. But because he can't control his own strength,
Lennie accidentally kills the pet mice that he hidesd from
George inside his pockets.
"Well, we ain't got any," George exploded. "Whatever
we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was
alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work,
an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month
come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get
whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cathouse all night.
I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order
any damn thing I could think of. An' I could do all that every
damn month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room
and play cards or shoot pool."
Of Mice and Men
George to Lennie in Chapter 1. George
is furious with Lennie for asking for ketchup. He mentions
all the things he could have if his friend weren't around.
But these things are not as important as his friendship with
Lennie, if they were he would have abandoned him long ago.
At about ten o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright
dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and
out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 2. The ray of light is a symbol
of hope and belief in the American Dream.
Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another
guy. I just like to know what your interest is.
Of Mice and Men
The Boss on George and Lennie's friendship,
Chapter 2.
His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech
had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond
thought.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 2. In this description introducing
Slim, he is depicted as a man of deep wisdom and understanding.
He is able to look beyond the obvious, probes deeply into
a situation and is an excellent judge of people. Not surprising
then that the men look up to him and depend on him for support
and guidence.
Slim looked through George and beyond him. "Ain't many
guys travel around together," he mused. "I don't
know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared
of each other."
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 2. Slim on the rarity of friendship
and how the fear of other people stops people from building
friendships with one another. This is why the friendship between
George and Lennie is so special.
Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's
alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's
mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy.
Of Mice and Men
Candy explains about Curley to George,
Chapter 2. Curley takes an immediate dislike to Lennie because
he is such a huge guy and attacks him.
Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes
it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy
and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 3. The wise, insightful and non-judgemental
Slim is talking here about Lennie. He is such a "nice
fella" he doesn't see he is being targeted by Curley,
whom Slim sees as filled with meanness.
We could live offa the fatta the lan'.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 3, Lennie to George, dreaming
of a better life.
All kin's a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little
whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk.
We'd jus' live there. We'd belong there. There wouldn't be
no more runnin' round the country and gettin' fed by a Jap
cook. No, sir, we'd have our own place where we belonged and
not sleep in no bunk house.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 3. George to Lennie on the worker's
dream - a place where they feel they belong and do not have
to leave.
I ain't got no people. I seen the guys that go around on
the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no
fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to
fight all the time. . . 'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance
most of the time, but you get used to goin' around with a
guy an' you can't get rid of him.
Of Mice and Men
George on loneliness and Lennie, Chapter
3
I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought
to of let no stranger shoot my dog.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 3. Candy is remorseful over allowing
someone who didn't care about his dog to shoot it.
Carl's right, Candy. That dog ain't no good to himself. I
wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 3. The men try to convince Candy
that it is all right to euthanize his dog. The suggestion
is that once you get older and are unable to do physical work
you are a burden and no use to anyone, even yourself. The
same argument will come up again at the end of the novella
when George must kill Lennie.
You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't
no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here
I wisht somebody'd shoot me. But they won't do nothing like
that. I won't have no place to go, an' I can't get no more
jobs.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 3. A depressed Candy laments
his fate. Like the old dog he too has become a castaway. He
doesn't know how he will survive if he gets tossed off the
ranch.
S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into
the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd
you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books.
Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then
you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody
- to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.
Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with
you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets
sick.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 4. Crooks on a black man's loneliness
with nobody to talk to because he is so secluded from the
social circle.
I seen too many guys with land in their head. They never
get none under their hand.
Of Mice and Men
Crooks in Chapter 4. He is deeply pessimistic.
Here he quick to point out the big difference a person's dream
and the reality.
I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches,
with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing
in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit
an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece
of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever
gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece
of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets
to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.
They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their
head.
Of Mice and Men
A cynical Crooks on George and Lennie's
dream, Chapter 4. He foresees their dream is going to end
in eventual disappointment.
Maybe you guys better go. I ain't sure I want you in here
no more. A colored man got to have some rights even if he
don't like 'em.
Of Mice and Men
Crooks on human rights, Chapter 4. The
social gap between blacks and white is still very apparent.
Even though slavery has been abolished, African Americans
don't have equal rights.
A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or
thinkin' or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin', an'
he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so. Maybe
if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or
not. He can't turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees
it too. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen
things out here. I wasn't drunk. I don't know if I was asleep.
If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an'
then it would be all right. But I jus' don't know.
Of Mice and Men
Crooks to Lennie in Chapter 4. The themes
of loneliness, the predatory nature of people, and discrimination
are all addressed here.
If I catch any one man, and he's alone, I get along fine
with him. But just let two of the guys get together an' you
won't talk. Jus' nothing but mad. You're all scared of each
other, that's what. Ever' one of you's scared the rest is
goin' to get something on you.
Of Mice and Men
Curley's wife on men, Chapter 4. She
speaks of how the men are driven by fears of failure and what
dirt other men will get on them, rather than by banding together
to fight a common cause. The survival of the fittest is a
constant theme throughout the book.
Why do you got to get killed? You ain't so little as mice.
I didn't bounce you hard... Now maybe George ain't gonna let
me tend no rabbits if he fin's out you got killed.
Of Mice and Men
Lennie in Chapter 5. He is alone in the
barn talking to the dead puppy that he accidentally killed.
Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I
get awful lonely.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 5, Curley's wife talks to Lennie
in the barn.
Lennie went back and looked at the dead girl. The puppy lay
close to her. Lennie picked it up. "I'll throw him away,"
he said. "It's bad enough like it is."
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 5. After shaking Curley's wife
so hard that he breaks her neck, Lennie knows he has done
a bad thing. But he actually thinks it will make it look better
if he throws away the puppy.
I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd
never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got
to thinking maybe we would.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 5, George talks about the lost
dream after Candy suggests they could still have the farm
together. Without Lennie the dream is no more but maybe it
never really existed except in talking about it with Lennie.
Lennie said, "I thought you was mad at me, George."
"No," said George. "No, Lennie, I ain't mad.
I never been mad, and I ain' now. That's a thing I want ya
to know."
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 5. George is trying to wipe all
thoughts of sorrow and loneliness from Lennie's mind just
before he shoots his friend. He wants his final thoughts to
be about their friendship and the dream of the farm and rabbits.
And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought
the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head. The hand
shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He
pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills
and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly
forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 6. George shoots his best friend
Lennie in the back of the head, to save him from prison or
a worse fate at the hands of Curley.
Slim came directly to George and sat down beside him, sat
very close to him. "Never you mind," said Slim.
"A guy got to sometimes."
Of Mice and Men
Slim on George's killing of Lennie, Chapter
6. Here Slim takes on the role of priest, comforting George
after he just killed Lennie, suggesting it was the right thing
to do in the circumstances. George kills Lennie to spare him
jail or a painful death at the hands of the mob, after Lennie
kills Curley's wife by shaking her so hard her neck breaks.
A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope
head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool
and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the
shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it
out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while
its tail waved frantically.
Of Mice and Men
Chapter 6. With the use of powerful imagery
and symbolism, Steinbeck paints a picture of the predatory
nature of life and foreshadows Lennie's imminent death.
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