Theme Tracker by Brianna He https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6 Of Mice and Men en-us 2020-09-24 16:12:50 UTC 2020-10-19 21:01:03 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f4d3.png The American Dream: a reality or an illusion? 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/776478361 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)
]]> 2020-09-24 16:13:41 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/776478361 Which to choose? Friendship or Isolation... 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/776480599 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)
]]> 2020-09-24 16:14:09 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/776480599 Racism, sexism, ageism 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/776482526 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)
]]> 2020-09-24 16:14:32 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/776482526 Page 12 george 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842714099  "God a’mighty, 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." 

]]> 2020-10-19 20:18:57 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842714099 page 14 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842718982  "No - look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ’Cause'. I want you to stay with me. Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em." He paused. "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." 
-
 Lennie avoided the bait. He had sensed his advantage, "If you don’t want me, you only jus’ got to say so, and I’ll go off in those hills right there - right up in those hills and live by myself. An’ I won’t get no mice stole from me."
-
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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:20:25 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842718982 page 15 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842722966  George’s voice became deeper. He repeated his words rhythmically as though he had said them many times before. "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." 
+
 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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:21:58 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842722966 page 16 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842725500  "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. 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. Tell about that, George." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:22:56 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842725500 page 16 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842729101  "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!"

]]> 2020-10-19 20:24:19 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842729101 page 21 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842732849  "Yeah. Nice fella too. Got a crooked back where. a horse kicked him. The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck don’t give a damn about that. He reads a lot. Got books in his room." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:25:52 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842732849 page 23 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842735663  "Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is." - The Boss ]]> 2020-10-19 20:27:01 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842735663 page 25 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842739635  The old man looked uneasily from George to Lennie, and then back "I jus’ come there," he said. "I didn’t hear nothing you guys was sayin’. I ain’t interested in nothing you was sayin’. A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ast no questions." - Candy]]> 2020-10-19 20:28:41 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842739635 page 28 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842743046  "Well, Curley’s pretty handy," the swamper said skeptically. "Never did seem right to me. S'pose Curley jumps a big guy an’ licks him. Ever’body says what a game guy Curley is. And s’pose he does the same thing and gets licked. Then ever’body says the big guy oughtta pick somebody his own size, and maybe they gang up on the big guy. Never did seem right to me. Seems like Curley ain’t givin’ nobody a chance."]]> 2020-10-19 20:30:10 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842743046 page 33 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842749249  George looked around at Lennie. "Jesus, what a tramp," he said. "So that's what Curley picks for a wife."
-
"She's purty," said Lennie defensively. 
-
"Yeah, and she's sure hidin' it. Curley got his work ahead of him. Bet she'd clear out for twenty bucks." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:32:43 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842749249 page 34 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842751561  "Listen to me, you crazy bastard," he said fiercely. "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." - George]]> 2020-10-19 20:33:37 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842751561 page 34 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842752953  "Well, you keep away from her, 'cause she's a rattrap if I ever seen one. You let Curley take the rap. He let himself in for it. Glove fulla vaseline," George said disgustedly. "An' I bet he's eatin' raw eggs and writin' to the patent medicine houses." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:34:05 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842752953 page 36 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842755917  "Sure," said George. "We kinda look after each other." He indicated Lennie with his thumb. "He ain't bright. Hell of a good worker, though. Hell of a nice fella, but he ain't bright. I've knew him for a long time." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:35:16 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842755917 page 36 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842756901  "It's a lot nicer to go around with a guy you know," said George. ]]> 2020-10-19 20:35:40 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842756901 page 53 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842767676  George said, "She's gonna make a mess. They's gonna be a bad mess about her. She's a jail bait all set on the trigger. That Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain't no place for a girl, specially like her." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:39:57 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842767676 page 58 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842771556  "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:41:36 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842771556 page 58-59 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842773843  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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:42:29 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842773843 page 59 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842774957  "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:42:52 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842774957 page 59 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842778174  "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:44:06 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842778174 page 61 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842781456  Candy said, "I ain't much good with on'y one hand. I lost my hand right here on this ranch. That's why they give me a job swampin'. An' they give me two hundred an' fifty dollars 'cause I los' my hand An' I got fifty more saved up right in the bank, right now. ]]> 2020-10-19 20:45:32 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842781456 page 61 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842782308  He leaned forward eagerly. "S'pose I went in with you guys. Tha's three hunderd an' fifty bucks I'd put in. I ain't much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How'd that be?" - candy]]> 2020-10-19 20:45:53 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842782308 page 61 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842783976  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."  - candy]]> 2020-10-19 20:46:40 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842783976 page 62 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842785444  George said wonderingly, "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:47:19 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842785444 page 67 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842787245  CROOKS, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn ]]> 2020-10-19 20:48:10 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842787245 page 68 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842788458  This room was swept and fairly neat, for Crooks was a proud, aloof man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs ]]> 2020-10-19 20:48:42 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842788458 page 69 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842789706  Crooks said sharply, "You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:49:17 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842789706 page 69 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842790391  "Well, I got a right to have a light. 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. 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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:49:36 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842790391 page 71 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842792810  "There wasn't another colored family for miles around. And now there ain't a colored man on this ranch an' there's jus' one family in Soledad." He laughed. "If I say something, why it's just a nigger sayin' it" - crooks]]> 2020-10-19 20:50:34 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842792810 page 72 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842794623  "He won't do it," Lennie cried. "George wouldn't do nothing like that. I been with George a long time. He'll come back tonight-" But the doubt was too much for him. "Don't you think he will?" ]]> 2020-10-19 20:51:16 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842794623 page 73 crooks 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842796663  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, "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:52:11 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842796663 page 74-75 crooks 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842800039  "You're nuts." Crooks was scornful. "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:53:43 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842800039 page 75 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842801022  Candy stood in the doorway scratching his bald wrist and looking blindly into the lighted room. He made no attempt to enter. ]]> 2020-10-19 20:54:11 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842801022 page 77 candy 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842802695  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. ]]> 2020-10-19 20:54:54 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842802695 page 77 crooks 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842803969  "I never seen a guy really do it," he said. "I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever' time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:55:28 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842803969 page 95 3801784 https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842809033  "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." ]]> 2020-10-19 20:57:40 UTC https://padlet.com/3801784/m0qp4ilm92av4tf6/wish/842809033