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Which to choose?  Friendship or Isolation...

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Which to choose?  Friendship or Isolation...

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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)

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The American Dream:  a reality or an illusion?

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The American Dream:  a reality or an illusion?

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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)

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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)

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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)

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"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)

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Lennie was delighted. "That’s it - that’s it. Now tell how it is with us." George went on. "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’ 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." He laughed delightedly. "Go on now, George!" (p.15 in pdf)

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"Sure," said George. "I seen plenty tough little guys. But this Curley better not make no mistakes about Lennie. Lennie ain’t handy, but this Curley punk is gonna get' hurt if he messes around with Lennie." (p. 27-28 in pdf)

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"Well," said George, "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!" He took out his pocket knife. "I ain’t got time for no more."  (p. 16 in pdf)

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"Sure," said George. "We kinda look after each other." He indicated Lennie with his thumb. (p. 36 in pdf)

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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." "It's a lot nicer to go around with a guy you know," said George. (p. 36 in pdf)

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"Oh, I dunno. 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. It jus' seems kinda funny a cuckoo like him
and a smart little guy like you travelin' together." (p. 40 in pdf)

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"I ain't got no people," George said. "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.
"Yeah, they get mean," Slim agreed. "They get so they don't want to talk to nobody."  (p. 42 in pdf)

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"'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time," said
George. "But you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't
get rid of him." (p. 42 in pdf)

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Why'n't you shoot him, Candy?"
The old man squirmed uncomfortably. "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." (p.45 in pdf)

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"Carl's right, Candy. That dog ain't
no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I get old an' a
cripple."
Candy looked helplessly at him, for Slim's opinions were law.
"Maybe it'd hurt him," he suggested. "I don't mind takin' care of
him." (p. 46 in pdf)

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the presence of derogatory terms
«Slim followed the stable buck out of the room. » (p. 52)

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"George, how long's it gonna be till we get that little place an' live
on the fatta the lan-an' rabbits?"
"I don' know," said George. "We gotta get a big stake together. I
know a little place we can get cheap, but they ain't givin' it away." (p. 58 in pdf)

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"George, how long's it gonna be till we get that little place an' live on the fatta the lan-an' rabbits?" "I don' know," said George. "We gotta get a big stake together. I know a little place we can get cheap, but they ain't givin' it away." Old Candy turned slowly over. His eyes were wide open. He watched George carefully. Lennie said, "Tell about that place, George." "I jus' tol' you, jus' las' night." "Go on-tell again, George." "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-' "An' rabbits, George." "No place for rabbits now, but I could easy build a few hutches and you could feed alfalfa to the rabbits." "Damn right, I could," said Lennie. "You God damn right I could." George's hands stopped working with the cards. His voice was growing warmer. "An' we could have a few pigs. I could build a smoke house like the one gran'pa had, an' when we kill a pig we can smoke the bacon and the hams, and make sausage an' all like that. An' when the salmon run up river we could catch a hundred of 'em an' salt 'em down or smoke 'em. We could have them for breakfast. They ain't nothing so nice as smoked salmon. When the fruit come in we could can it-and tomatoes, they're easy to can. Ever' Sunday we'd kill a chicken or a rabbit. Maybe we'd have a cow or a goat, and the cream is so God damn thick you got to cut it with a knife and take it out with a spoon." Lennie watched him with wide eyes, and old Candy watched him too. Lennie said softly, "We could live offa the fatta the lan'." "Sure," said George. "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 bunt house." "Tell about the house, George," Lennie begged. "Sure, we'd have a little house an' a room to ourself. Little fat iron stove, an' in the winter we'd keep a fire goin' in it. It ain't enough land so we'd have to work too hard. Maybe six, seven hours a day. We wouldn't have to buck no barley eleven hours a day. An' when we put in a crop, why, we'd be there to take the crop up. We'd know what come of our planting." "An' rabbits," Lennie said eagerly. "An' I'd take care of 'em. Tell how I'd do that, George." "Sure, you'd go out in the alfalfa patch an' you'd have a sack. You'd fill up the sack and bring it in an' put it in the rabbit cages." "They'd nibble an' they'd nibble," said Lennie, "the way they do. I seen'em." "Ever' six weeks or so," George continued, "them does would throw a litter so we'd have plenty rabbits to eat an' to sell. An' we'd keep a few pigeons to go flyin' around the win'mill like they done when I was a kid." He looked raptly at the wall over Lennie's head. "An' it'd be our own, an 'nobody could can us. If we don't like a guy we can say, 'Get the hell out,' and by God he's got to do it. An' if a fren' come along, why we'd have an extra bunk, an' we'd say, 'Why don't you spen' the night?' an' by God he would. We'd have a setter dog and a couple stripe cats, but you gotta watch out them cats don't get the little rabbits." Lennie breathed hard. "You jus' let 'em try to get the rabbits. I'll break their God damn necks. I'll . . . . I'll smash 'em with a stick." He subsided, grumbling to himself, threatening the future cats which might dare to disturb the future rabbits. George sat entranced with his own picture. When Candy spoke they both jumped as though they had been caught doing something reprehensible. Candy said, "You know where's a place like that?" George was on guard immediately. "S'pose I do," he said. "What's that to you?" "You don't need to tell me where it's at. Might be any place." "Sure," said George. "That's right. You couldn't find it in a hundred years." Candy went on excitedly, "How much they want for a place like that?" George watched him suspiciously. "Well-I could get it for six hundred bucks. The ol' people that owns it is flat bust an' the of lady needs an operation. Say-what's it to you? You got nothing to do with us." (p. 58, 59 and 60 in pdf)

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The happiness when they think they'll be able to live their dream

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The happiness when they think they'll be able to live their dream

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They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true. George said reverently, "Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her." His eyes were full of wonder. "I bet we could swing her," he repeated softly.  (p.61 in pdf)

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"Candy sat on the edge of his bunk. He scratched the stump of his
wrist nervously. "I got hurt four year ago," he said. "They'll can me
purty soon. Jus' as soon as I can't swamp out no bunk houses
they'll put me on the county. " (p.61 in pdf)

"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. I'll have thirty dollars more comin', time you guys is ready to quit."  (p. 61 and 62 in pdf)

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Disrimination-racism (the living conditions that Crooks has compared to the others is a lot less nice and it's very degrading because it doesn't seem like something made for a human person)

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Disrimination-racism (the living conditions that Crooks has compared to the others is a lot less nice and it's very degrading because it doesn't seem like something made for a human person)

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"CROOKS, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. On one side of the little room there was a square four-paned window, and on the other, a narrow plank door leading into the barn. Crooks' bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung. On the wall by the window there were pegs on which hung broken harness in process of being mended; strips of new leather; and under the window itself a little bench for leatherworking tools, curved knives and needles and balls of linen thread, and a small hand riveter. On pegs were also pieces of harness, a split collar with the horsehairstuffing sticking out, a broken hame, and a trace chain with its leather covering split. Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses. There were cans of saddle soap and a drippy can of tar with its paint brush sticking over the edge. And scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being alone, Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more possessions than he could carry on his back. " (p.67 in pdf)

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"Why ain't you wanted?" Lennie asked. "'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)

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" 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." He whined, " (p.73 in pdf)

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"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," he cried, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." (p.73 in pdf)

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"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." (p.75 in pdf)

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Candy cried, "Sure they all want it. Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus' som'thin' that was his. Som'thin' he could live on and there couldn't nobody throw him off of it. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near ever'body in this state, but they wasn't my crops, and when I harvested 'em, it wasn't none of any harvest. But we gonna do it now, and don't you make no mistake about that. George ain't got the money in town. That money's in the bank. Me an' Lennie an' George. We gonna have a room to ourself. We're gonna have a dog an' rabbits an' chickens. We're gonna have green corn an' maybe a cow or a goat." He stopped, overwhelmed with his picture. (p.77 in pdf)

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"They left all the weak ones here," she said finally. (p.77 in pdf)

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"Well, George says you'll get us in a mess." "Aw, nuts!" she said. "What kinda harm am I doin' to you? Seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself." (p.88 in pdf)

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"Come there when I was a kid. 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. She says because I was on'y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I'd went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you bet." (p.88 in pdf) -->dreams of having a better life (not being told what she can and can't do, acting)

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They talk about the dream again on p.95 in pdf

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They talk about the dream again on p.95 in pdf

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Old Candy watched him go. He looked helplessly back at Curley's wife, and gradually his sorrow and his anger grew into words. "You God damn tramp," be said viciously. "You done it, di'n't you? I s'pose you're glad. Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up. You wasn't no good. You ain't no good now, you lousy tart." He sniveled, and his voice shook. "I could of hoed in the garden and washed dishes for them guys." He paused, and then went on in a singsong. And he repeated the old words: "If they was a circus or a baseball game . . . . we would of went to her . . . . jus' said `ta hell with work,' an' went to her. Never ast nobody's say so. An' they'd of been a pig and chickens . . . . an' in the winter . . . . the little fat stove . . . . an' the rain comin' . . . . an' us jus' settin' there." His eyes blinded with tears and he turned and went weakly out of the barn, and he rubbed his bristly whiskers with his wrist stump.  (p.95 in pdf)

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"George gonna wish he was alone an' not have me botherin' him." He turned his head and looked at the bright mountain tops. "I can go right off there an' find a cave," he said. And he continued sadly, "-an' never have no ketchup-but I won't care. If George don't want me . . . . I'll go away. I'll go away." (p.99 in pdf)

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George said, "Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake an' then they blow it in. They ain't got nobody in the worl' that gives a hoot in hell about 'em-" "But not us," Lennie cried happily. "Tell about us now." George was quiet for a moment. "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)