# data[].attributes.headline
Which to choose?  Friendship or Isolation...

# data[].attributes.subject
Which to choose?  Friendship or Isolation...

# data[].attributes.body
In this novella, George and Lennie represent THE ideal male friendship.  They don’t talk about how they feel about each other or why they should stay loyal – they just stand by each other, and that’s that.

In contrast, everyone else is isolated from one another.  Everyone seems to get along quite well together by talking about how isolated they are, even though the men on the ranch are constantly together and chatting.

Although they are always together, George and Lennie are isolated from the rest of the world. Friendship is a negative relationship in the novella; every time any character gets close to any other, something goes wrong.

Friendship:

LENNIE exclaimed, "But I wouldn’t eat none, George. I’d leave it all for you. You could cover your beans

with it and I wouldn’t touch none of it." (p.13 in pdf)

Isolation:

LENNIE whined, "If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time." (p. 14 in pdf)

# data[].attributes.headline
The American Dream:  a reality or an illusion?

# data[].attributes.subject
The American Dream:  a reality or an illusion?

# data[].attributes.body
Of Mice and Men captures the feel of rural America during the Depression. Different outlooks are presented:
--the never-will-be starlet trying to make it to Hollywood,
--the isolated black man born and raised in California,
--a ranch full of men that like to go to whorehouses, play pool, and drink away their earnings
--men that are constantly bouncing from job to job just shy of making ends meet.

The America of Of Mice and Men is populated with dreamers who are constantly struggling to achieve their dreams.

This novella argues that there is no single America. Rather, there are many different groups

(women, blacks, farm workers, farm owners), each with their own unique struggle.

Quote:

GEORGE complained, "…If I was bright, if I was even a little bit smart, I’d have my own little place, an’ I’d be bringin’ in my own crops, ‘stead of doin’ all the work and not getting what comes up outa the ground."
(p. 40 in pdf)

# data[].attributes.body
Of Mice and Men deals with many of America’s age-old, hot-button issues, including sexism, racism, ageism, and discrimination against those with disabilities. Most importantly, this prejudice isn’t ever explicitly noted or fought against – those who are discriminated against accept the prejudice against them as a way of life.

Prejudice is a fact of life on the ranch because it was a fact of life everywhere in America at

that time.

Crooks said darkly, "Guys don’t come into a colored man’s room very much." (p. 76 in pdf)

# data[].attributes.body
GEORGE TO LENNIE:  "O.K. Someday - we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and -" "An’ live off the fatta the lan’,"Lennie shouted. "An’ haverabbits. [...] "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- "" (p.16 in pdf)

LENNIE : ""Let’s have different color rabbits, George." "Sure we will," George said sleepily. "Red and blue and green rabbits, Lennie. Millions of ’em." "Furry ones, George, like I seen in the fair in Sacramento."" (p.17-18 in pdf)

LENNIE: ""George, how long's it gonna be till we get that little place an' live on the fatta the lan-an' rabbits?" "
""Well, it's ten acres," said George. "Got a little win'mill. Got a little shack on it, an' a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, 'cots, nuts, got a few berries. They's a place for alfalfa and plenty water to flood it. They's a pig pen-'" (p.58 in pdf)

CANDY: ""I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How'd that be?" " (p.61 in pdf)

GEORGE & LENNIE: "They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true." (p.61 in pdf)

CROOKS: " "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 "" (p.74 in pdf)

CROOKS TO LENNIE AND CANDY: "If you . . . . guys would want a hand to work for nothing-just his keep, why I'd come an' lend a hand. I ain't so crippled I can't work like a son-of-a-bitch
if I want to."" (p.77 in pdf)

CANDY TO CURLEY'S WIFE: "" You don't know that we got our own ranch to go to, an' our own house. "" (p. 79 in pdf)

CURLEY'S WIFE TO LENNIE: ""Coulda been in the movies, an' had nice clothes-all them nice
clothes like they wear. An' I coulda sat in them big hotels, an' had pitchers took of me. When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an' spoke in the radio, an' it wouldn'ta cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher. An' all them nice clothes like they
wear. Because this guy says I was a natural."" (p.88 in pdf)

LENNIE: " "We gonna have a little place," Lennie explained patiently. "We gonna have a house an' a garden and a place for alfalfa, an' that alfalfa is for the rabbits, an' I take a sack and get it all fulla alfalfa and then I take it to the rabbits." " (p.89 in pdf)

GEORGE AND CANDY:
"Now Candy spoke his greatest fear. "You an' me can get that little place, can't we, George? You an' me can go there an' live nice, can't we, George? Can't we?" Before George answered, Candy dropped his head and looked down at the hay. He knew." (p. 94 in pdf)

# data[].attributes.body
GEORGE: " George still stared morosely at the fire. "When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never get no peace."  " (p. 13 in pdf)

GEORGE: " George said, "I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your Aunt Clara wouldn’t like you running off by yourself, even if she is dead." " (p. 14 in pdf)

GEORGE TO LENNIE: "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to." " (p. 15 in pdf)

LENNIE: "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." He laughed delightedly. "Go on now, George!"" (p. 15 in pdf)

SLIM: ""Hardly none of the guys ever travel together. I hardly never seen two guys travel together. You know how the hands are, they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then they quit and go out alone. Never seem to give a damn about nobody. "" (p.40 in pdf)

GEORGE: ""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. "" (p.41 in pdf)

CANDY: ""Well-hell! I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup. I herded sheep with him." He said proudly, "You wouldn't think it to look at him now, but he was the best damn sheep dog I ever seen."" (page 45 in pdf)

CANDY: "'I won't have no place to go, an' I can't get no more jobs.'" (p.62 in pdf)

CANDY: ""I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog." " (p.63 in pdf)

CROOKS: "He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs." (p.68 in pdf)

CROOKS: " You got George. You know he's goin' to come back.""
""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. "" (p.73 in pdf)

CROOKS: " "Come on in. If ever'body's comin' in, you might just as well." It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger. " (p.74 in pdf)

CANDY: "" An' we got fren's, that's what we got. "" (p.79 in pdf)

CROOKS: ""You guys comin' in an'
settin' made me forget. What she says is true." " (p.82 in pdf)

IMAGINARY AUNT CLARA: ""You never give a thought to George," she went on in Lennie's
voice. "He been doin' nice things for you alla time. When he got a
piece of pie you always got half or more'n half. An' if they was any
ketchup, why he'd give it all to you."" (p. 100 in pdf)

GEORGE AND LENNIE: ""But not us," he said. "Because-" "Because I got you an'' "An' I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us," Lennie cried in triumph. " (p.104 in pdf)

# data[].attributes.body
CANDY ABOUT THE BOSS:  ""Come right in when we was eatin’ breakfast and says, ‘Where the hell’s them new men?’ An’ he give the stable buck hell, too." George patted a wrinkle out of his bed, and sat ' down. "Give the stable buck hell?" he asked. "Sure. Ya see the stable buck’s a nigger."" (p. 20 in pdf)

CANDY ABOUT CROOKS: ""Yes sir. Jesus, we had fun. They let the nigger come in that night. Little skinner name of Smithy took after the nigger. Done pretty good, too. The guys wouldn’t let him use his feet, so the nigger got him. If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigger. The guys said on account of the nigger’s got a crooked back, Smitty can’t use his feet." He paused in relish of the memory." (p.21 in pdf)

CANDY ABOUT CURLEY'S WIFE: ""Well, I think Curley's married . . . . a tart."" (p. 29 in pdf)

GEORGE TO LENNIE: ""Don't you even take a look at that bitch. I don't care what she says and what she does. I seen 'em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be."" (p. 34 in pdf)

CROOKS: "being alone, Crooks could leave his things about," (p.67 in pdf)

CROOKS: "" I ain't wanted in the bunk house, and you ain't wanted in my room.""
""'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me." " (p. 69 in pdf)

CANDY TO CRULEY'S WIFE:  ""You ain't wanted here. We told you you ain't."" (p. 79 in pdf)

CURLEY'S WIFE TO CROOKS: ""Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny." " (p.81 in pdf)

CROOKS: ""You guys comin' in an'
settin' made me forget. What she says is true."" (p. 82 in pdf)

CURLEY'S WIFE""You can talk to people, but I can't talk to
nobody but Curley. " (p. 86 in pdf)

CURLEY'S WIFE: "Well, a show come through, an' I
met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my of lady- wouldn' let me. " (p.88 in pdf)

CANDY TO CURLEY'S WIFE: ""Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up. You
wasn't no good. You ain't no good now, you lousy tart."" (p.95 in pdf)