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Dreams, Hopes and Plans Quotes
"I remember about
the rabbits, George."
"The hell with the rabbits. That’s all you
can ever remember is them rabbits." (1.18-19)
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This is
the first mention we have of the dream. Even from the introduction, it seems
Lennie is more excited than George about the prospect. George’s easy dismissal
of "them rabbits" makes it seem as though he thinks the whole thing
is silly. This will get more complex as we realize that George might be as
excited about the dream as Lennie; it seems he is just more cautious about that
excitement, given that he’s more world-weary than his companion.
"Well, we ain’t got any," George exploded. "Whatever we
ain’t got, that’s what you want. 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 at all, and when
the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and
get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cathouse all night. I could eat
any place I want, hotel or any 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." Lennie knelt and looked
over the fire at the angry George. And Lennie’s face was drawn in with terror.
"An’ whatta I got," George went on furiously. "I got you! You
can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all
over the country all the time." (1.89)
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George
explodes at Lennie and rattles off what he imagines to be the dream-life of a
traveling worker without any burdens (like Lennie). George envisions a carefree
life and is careful to emphasize that Lennie is the roadblock. What George
outlines for himself here is strangely prophetic, given what will come to him
later in the story.
GEORGE "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—"
This
kernel is one of the foundational pieces of the whole play, perhaps its most
important. There are numerous bits to analyze in this passage, ranging from its
reflection of the American Dream during the Depression to the fact that the dream is so repeated
among the two men that even dull Lennie has memorized some of it. For our
purposes, it’s very important that this talk of the farm oscillates wildly
throughout the play – it seems like the farm is a dream to George, a hope for
Lennie, and (eventually) even a plan for Candy. It’s especially interesting
that sometimes it seems the farm is the dream that keeps them going, and
sometimes it is just a reminder of the futility of dreaming.
[Crooks] hesitated. "… 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." (4.88)
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Dreams are almost
infectious. Even Crooks, whom we’ve only come to know for his nay-saying up to
now, seems ready to believe. It’s at this point we feel like this thing is
really going to happen – or that it might just be too good to be true.
Friendship Quotes
"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!" (1.113-116)
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This is a pretty
timeless definition of friendship: somebody to listen, somebody to bail you out
of jail, and most importantly, somebody that cares and looks out for you. It’s
notable, too, that though George is the one who usually gives the speech, he’s
clearly worked in the fact that both men rely on and look after each other.
Again, George is a friend (and not a father or a master) because he is so
willing to admit that he needs Lennie too.
"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." (3.56)
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This entire
passage with Candy and his relationship to his dog is incredibly important.
Candy has the same feelings toward his dog that George has toward Lennie. (This
isn’t to degrade Lennie or elevate the dog, but it’s a comment on the nature of
friendship and the love that comes with it.) Candy loves the dog though he
smells, George loves Lennie though he’s not too bright and accidentally kills
things. When asked to justify their friendships, both men simply say they’ve
gotten used to being with their companion.
Crooks scowled, but Lennie’s
disarming smile defeated him. "Come on in and set a while," Crooks
said. "’Long as you won’t get out and leave me alone, you might as well
set down." His tone was a little more friendly. (4.22)
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Lennie has gotten
Crooks to soften up a little. Likely, Crooks is cracked a bit by Lennie’s
innocence, but no matter the reason, it’s always a little flattering to have
someone try and be your friend. Lennie seems to be refreshingly open.
"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.“ (Lennie)
“We got somebody to
talk to that gives a damn about us.” (George)
“Because… because I
got you to look after me, and you got me to look after
you,” (Lennie)
“We kinda look
after each other.” (George)
“Got kinda used to
each other after a little while.” (George)
“even in the open
one stayed behind the other”
“Lennie, who had
been watching, imitated George exactly.”
“Lennie obeyed him.”
Isolation Quotes
LENNIE "If you don’ want me I
can g off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time." GEORGE
"No—look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ’Cause I want you to stay with
me." (1.103-104)
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Once Lennie seems
ready to leave George alone (whether he actually is or not), George finally
comes around to admitting that he needs Lennie. It seems he has realized that
isolation simply isn’t worth it.
BOSS "I said what stake you
got in this guy? You takin’ his pay away from him?"
GEORGE "No,
‘course I ain’t. Why you think I’m sellin’ him out?"
BOSS "Well, I
never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know
what your interest is." (2.45-47)
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The boss
immediately suspects George is taking advantage of Lennie. In this transient
worker culture, with men wandering around and generally suffering under the Depression,
the boss can’t imagine a situation where two guys would stick together, just
because. Though it’s a bit preposterous, to the boss it’s more believable that
this tiny guy would be taking advantage of this much bigger guy than that the
two could really just look out for each other. The boss, like any one else
familiar with ranch work during the Depression,
expects isolation as the status quo.
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." (2.179)
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It’s really
interesting that this comment comes from Slim. Of course, it characterizes how
all those people drifting in poverty across the country and looking for work
are feeling, but Slim’s the ranch’s own local megastar. He, who can do no
wrong, intimidate any man, and kill a fly with a bull whip, seems to have the
same feelings as everybody else about the whole world. It’s a lonely and scary
place.
GEORGE "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." (3.17)
Loneliness Quotes:
”Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the
loneliest guys in the world”
“We gota future. We got somebody to talk to
that gives a dam about us”
“I got you to look after me, and you got me
to look after you.”
“A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he
don’t ast no questions.”
“Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates
big guys.”
“Aint many guy travel around together”
“Maybe ever' body in the whole damn world is
scared of each other”
“Hardly none of the guys ever travel
together”
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Isolation seems
to make men return to their basest instincts – fighting to survive. It seems
companionship is the only thing that can keep men civilized, and ranches full
of lonely guys tend not to be that civilized.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Curley’s Wife:
“Listen Nigger, You know what I can do to you if you open your trap.”
Against mental disabilities:
“If he finds out
what a crazy bastard you are, we won’t get no job,” (George)
Racism:
“They let the
nigger come in that night.”
“I ain’t wanted in the bunk house,
and you ain’t wanted in my
room.”
“Well, you keep
your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny,” (Curley’s Wife)
"Guys don’t come into a colored man’s room very much.” ( Crooks)
“And a manure pile
under the window. Sure it’s swell.” (Crooks)
Sexism:
“I seen ‘em poison before, but I never
seen no piece of jail bait worse than her.” (George)
“bitch”/“tramp”/“tart”
“cathouse”/“whorehouse”
Themes
Themes
are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The
Predatory Nature of Human Existence
Of
Mice and Men teaches a grim lesson about the nature of human existence. Nearly
all of the characters, including George, Lennie, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s
wife, admit, at one time or another, to having a profound sense of loneliness
and isolation. Each desires the comfort of a friend, but will settle for the
attentive ear of a stranger. Curley’s wife admits to Candy, Crooks, and Lennie
that she is unhappily married, and Crooks tells Lennie that life is no good
without a companion to turn to in times of confusion and need. The characters
are rendered helpless by their isolation, and yet, even at their weakest, they
seek to destroy those who are even weaker than they. Perhaps the most powerful
example of this cruel tendency is when Crooks criticizes Lennie’s dream of the
farm and his dependence on George. Having just admitted his own
vulnerabilities—he is a black man with a crooked back who longs for
companionship—Crooks zeroes in on Lennie’s own weaknesses.
In
scenes such as this one, Steinbeck records a profound human truth: oppression
does not come only from the hands of the strong or the powerful. Crooks seems
at his strongest when he has nearly reduced Lennie to tears for fear that
something bad has happened to George, just as Curley’s wife feels most powerful
when she threatens to have Crooks lynched. The novella suggests that the most
visible kind of strength—that used to oppress others—is itself born of
weakness.
Fraternity
and the Idealized Male Friendship
One
of the reasons that the tragic end of George and Lennie’s friendship has such a
profound impact is that one senses that the friends have, by the end of the
novella, lost a dream larger than themselves. The farm on which George and
Lennie plan to live—a place that no one ever reaches—has a magnetic quality, as
Crooks points out. After hearing a description of only a few sentences, Candy
is completely drawn in by its magic. Crooks has witnessed countless men fall
under the same silly spell, and still he cannot help but ask Lennie if he can
have a patch of garden to hoe there. The men in Of Mice and Men desire to come
together in a way that would allow them to be like brothers to one another.
That is, they want to live with one another’s best interests in mind, to
protect each other, and to know that there is someone in the world dedicated to
protecting them. Given the harsh, lonely conditions under which these men live,
it should come as no surprise that they idealize friendships between men in
such a way.
Ultimately,
however, the world is too harsh and predatory a place to sustain such
relationships. Lennie and George, who come closest to achieving this ideal of
brotherhood, are forced to separate tragically. With this, a rare friendship
vanishes, but the rest of the world—represented by Curley and Carlson, who
watch George stumble away with grief from his friend’s dead body—fails to
acknowledge or appreciate it.
The
Impossibility of the American Dream
Most
of the characters in Of Mice and Men admit, at one point or another, to
dreaming of a different life. Before her death, Curley’s wife confesses her
desire to be a movie star. Crooks, bitter as he is, allows himself the pleasant
fantasy of hoeing a patch of garden on Lennie’s farm one day, and Candy latches
on desperately to George’s vision of owning a couple of acres. Before the
action of the story begins, circumstances have robbed most of the characters of
these wishes. Curley’s wife, for instance, has resigned herself to an
unfulfilling marriage. What makes all of these dreams typically American is
that the dreamers wish for untarnished happiness, for the freedom to follow
their own desires. George and Lennie’s dream of owning a farm, which would
enable them to sustain themselves, and, most important, offer them protection
from an inhospitable world, represents a prototypically American ideal. Their
journey, which awakens George to the impossibility of this dream, sadly proves
that the bitter Crooks is right: such paradises of freedom, contentment, and
safety are not to be found in this world.
Motifs
Motifs
are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to
develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The
Corrupting Power of Women
The
portrayal of women in Of Mice and Men is limited and unflattering. We learn
early on that Lennie and George are on the run from the previous ranch where
they worked, due to encountering trouble there with a woman. Misunderstanding
Lennie’s love of soft things, a woman accused him of rape for touching her
dress. George berates Lennie for his behavior, but is convinced that women are
always the cause of such trouble. Their enticing sexuality, he believes, tempts
men to behave in ways they would otherwise not.
A
visit to the “flophouse” (a cheap hotel, or brothel) is enough of women for
George, and he has no desire for a female companion or wife. Curley’s wife, the
only woman to appear in Of Mice and Men, seems initially to support George’s
view of marriage. Dissatisfied with her marriage to a brutish man and bored
with life on the ranch, she is constantly looking for excitement or trouble. In
one of her more revealing moments, she threatens to have the black stable-hand
lynched if he complains about her to the boss. Her insistence on flirting with
Lennie seals her unfortunate fate. Although Steinbeck does, finally, offer a
sympathetic view of Curley’s wife by allowing her to voice her unhappiness and
her own dream for a better life, women have no place in the author’s idealized
vision of a world structured around the brotherly bonds of men.
Loneliness
and Companionship
Many
of the characters admit to suffering from profound loneliness. George sets the
tone for these confessions early in the novella when he reminds Lennie that the
life of a ranch-hand is among the loneliest of lives. Men like George who migrate
from farm to farm rarely have anyone to look to for companionship and
protection. As the story develops, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife all confess
their deep loneliness. The fact that they admit to complete strangers their
fear of being cast off shows their desperation. In a world without friends to
confide in, strangers will have to do. Each of these characters searches for a
friend, someone to help them measure the world, as Crooks says. In the end,
however, companionship of his kind seems unattainable. For George, the hope of
such companionship dies with Lennie, and true to his original estimation, he
will go through life alone.
Strength
and Weakness
Steinbeck
explores different types of strength and weakness throughout the novella. The
first, and most obvious, is physical strength. As the story opens, Steinbeck
shows how Lennie possesses physical strength beyond his control, as when he
cannot help killing the mice. Great physical strength is, like money, quite
valuable to men in George and Lennie’s circumstances. Curley, as a symbol of
authority on the ranch and a champion boxer, makes this clear immediately by
using his brutish strength and violent temper to intimidate the men and his
wife.
Physical
strength is not the only force that oppresses the men in the book. It is the
rigid, predatory human tendencies, not Curley, that defeat Lennie and George in
the end. Lennie’s physical size and strength prove powerless; in the face of
these universal laws, he is utterly defenseless and therefore disposable
