Daniela Valcarcel 401 OMAM by Daniela Sofia Valcarcel https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2 Let's pool our knowledge about the 4 main themes in this novella en-us 2018-10-05 14:47:29 UTC 2025-12-29 01:21:08 UTC hello@padlet.com Dreams: a double-edged sword? 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289657402 In Of Mice and Men, dreams, hopes, and plans are the very foundation of what makes life worth living, but they are also double-edged. What does this mean?
 
The word "dream" is never used in the book in reference to anything like a hope or aspiration.
The characters never regard their hopes as impossible things to
fulfill. Instead, they see them as concrete and realistic plans.

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 ...." (Steinbeck, ##)
]]> 2018-10-05 14:52:22 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289657402 The American Dream: a reality or an illusion? 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289658282 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." (Steinbeck, ##)
]]> 2018-10-05 14:53:39 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289658282 Which to choose? Friendship or Isolation... 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289659155 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. 
 
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." (Steinbeck, 93-95)

VS.  

LENNIE whined, "If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time." (Steinbeck, ##)
]]> 2018-10-05 14:54:55 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289659155 Racism, sexism, ageism: just parts of our human nature? 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289659931 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." (Steinbeck, ##)
]]> 2018-10-05 14:56:12 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289659931 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289664641 "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 bunk house." (3.202-203)

]]> 2018-10-05 15:03:20 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289664641 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665084 "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." (1.113)]]> 2018-10-05 15:04:12 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665084 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665388 They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true. (3.221)]]> 2018-10-05 15:04:43 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665388 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665634 "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." He laughed delightedly. "Go on now, George!" (1.115-116)

]]> 2018-10-05 15:05:11 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665634 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665923 "It ain't so funny, him an' me goin' aroun' together," George said at last. "Him and me was both born in Auburn. I knowed his Aunt Clara. She took him when he was a baby and raised him up. When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin'. Got kinda used to each other after a little while." (3.12)]]> 2018-10-05 15:05:53 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289665923 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289666809 "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." (4.62

]]> 2018-10-05 15:07:33 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289666809 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289669277 "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' have rabbits. 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 on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George."

"Why'n't you do it yourself? You know all of it."

"No…you tell it. It ain't the same if I tell it. Go on…George. How I get to tend the rabbits." (1.119-123)

]]> 2018-10-05 15:12:10 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289669277 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289672840 "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." (4.62)

]]> 2018-10-05 15:18:13 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289672840 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289673488 "That ranch we're goin' to is right down there about a quarter mile. We're gonna go in an' see the boss. Now, look—I'll give him the work tickets, but you ain't gonna say a word. You jus' stand there and don't say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won't get no job, but if he sees ya work before he hears ya talk, we're set." (1.44)]]> 2018-10-05 15:19:18 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289673488 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289673683 "Yes sir. Jesus, we had fun. They let the nigger come in that night. Little skinner name of Smitty 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. (2.22)]]> 2018-10-05 15:19:38 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289673683 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289674374 "…You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room."

"Why ain’t you wanted?" Lennie asked.

"’Cause I’m black…" (4.10-11)]]> 2018-10-05 15:20:55 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289674374 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289674537 Candy leaned against the wall beside the broken collar while he scratched his wrist stump. "I been here a long time," he said. "An' Crooks been here a long time. This's the first time I ever been in his room."

Crooks said darkly, "Guys don't come into a colored man's room very much." (4.76-77)

]]> 2018-10-05 15:21:14 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/289674537 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291191491 "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."]]> 2018-10-10 12:23:29 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291191491 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291192391 ``S'pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing." Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. "We'd just go to her," George said. "We wouldn't ask nobody if we could. Jus' say, 'We'll go to her,' an' we would. Jus' milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an' go to her.``]]> 2018-10-10 12:25:42 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291192391 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291192634 ``I seen hundreds 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 . . . 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. 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.``]]> 2018-10-10 12:26:16 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291192634 36007071 https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291193017 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.... An' why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.]]> 2018-10-10 12:27:13 UTC https://padlet.com/36007071/lkiam68eonp2/wish/291193017