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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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"God, you’re a lot of trouble," said George. "I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl." (p.9 in pdf)

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"if I was alone I could live so
easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess ' all,
and when the end of the month come I coul' take my fifty bucks
and go into town and get what‘ ever I want. Why, I could stay in a
cat house night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or an 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."
(p.12 in pdf)

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"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’ haverabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is an the milk like you can hardly cut it.
...
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 i pdf)

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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)

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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."
(p.36 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.” Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego—nothing to arouse either like or dislike. He said, “Yes, ma’am,” and his voice was toneless.”
(p.81 in pdf)

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“I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.”
(p.15 in pdf)

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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.”
(p.73 in pdf)

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“Just like heaven. Ever’body 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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“We could live offa the fatta the lan'.”
(p.59 in pdf)

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“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.”
(p.36 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 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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'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.”
(p.42 in pdf)

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"It ain't no lie. We're gonna do it. Gonna get a little place an' live on the fatta the lan'.”
(p.70 in pdf)

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"I had enough," he said coldly. "You got no rights comin' in a colored man's room. You got no rights messing around in here at all. Now you jus' get out, an' get out quick. If you don't, I'm gonna ast the boss not to ever let you come in the barn no more."
(p.80 in pdf)

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“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.”
(p.74 in pdf)

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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.”
(p.61 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 pound-in’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”
(p.15 in pdf)

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“This is just a nigger talkin', an' a busted-back nigger. So it don't mean nothing, see?
(p.71 in pdf)

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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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"Why'n't you tell her to stay the hell home where she belongs?"
(p.63 in pdf)

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Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses.
(p.67 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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S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black.
(p.73 in pdf)

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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.
(p.74 in pdf)

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"Guys don't come into a colored man's room very much. Nobody been here but Slim. Slim an' the boss."
(p.76 in pdf)

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"Well, I ain't giving you no trouble. Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever' once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house afla time?"
(p.78 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.” Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego—nothing to arouse either like or dislike. He said, “Yes, ma’am,” and his voice was toneless.”
(p.81 in pdf)