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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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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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George said to Lennie "You never had none, you crazy bastard. I got both of ’em here. Think I’d let you carry your own work card?". (p.
He knew Lennie would lose his work card and bus ticket so he kept them.

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Lennie said "George, you want I should go away and leave you alone?"

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Lennie said sweetly "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."

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George told Lennie "Tell you what I’ll do, Lennie. First chance I get I'll give you a pup. Maybe you wouldn’t killit. That’d be better than. mice. And you could pet it harder."

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Lennie plead  "Come on, George. Tell me. Please, George. Like you done before."

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Candy told  "A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ast no questions." (p.25 in pdf)

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"Give the stable buck hell?" he asked.
"Sure. Ya see the stable buck’s a nigger."

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Someone called "StableBuck. Oh! Sta-able Buck." (p.32 in pdf)

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"Stable Buck--ooh, sta-able Buck!" And then, " Where the hell is that God damn nigger?" (p.30 in pdf)

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A guy needs somebody -to be near him." He whined, "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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Carlson said  "Jesus, how that nigger can pitch shoes." (p.45 pdf)

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Quote 1: "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. Maybe if I give you guys my money, you'll let me hoe in the garden even after I ain't no good at it. An' I'll wash dishes an' little chicken stuff like that. But I'll be on our own place, an' I'll be let to work on our own place." (p. 61 pdf)

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Candy said  "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. 61-62 pdf)

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Quote 1:  George said "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 -"
Quote 2:  George explained dreamily "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!"
Quote 3:  George told Lennie "When we get the coupla acres I can let you tend the rabbits all right. ’Specially if you remember as good as that."
Quote 4:  "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." "Sure, furry ones."
Quote 5:  "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 pdf)

Quote 6:  "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 pdf)
Quote 7:  "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."  (p.50 pdf)
Quote 8:  "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. (p.50-51 pdf)
Quote 8:  "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." (p.59-60 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 pdf

"'Nother time I met a guy, an' he was in pitchers. Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon's he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it." She looked closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him. "I never got that letter," she said. "I always thought my of lady stole it. Well, I wasn't gonna stay no place where I couldn't get nowhere or make something of myself, an' where they stole your letters. I ast her if she stole it, too, an' she says no. So I married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside Dance Palace that same night."  p.88 pdf

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"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

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"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

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"Listen, Nigger," she said. "You know what I can do to you if you open. your trap?" p.81 in pdf

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"I ain't wanted in the bunk house, and you ain't wanted in my room." p.69 in pdf

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"'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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"If I say something, why it's just a nigger sayin' it" p.71 in pdf

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"Well, I think Curley's married . . . . a tart." p.29 in pdf

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"Jesus, what a tramp,"  p.33 in pdf