The scene is peaceful, like Eden: ‘deep and green’ ‘warm’ ‘golden’.
George and Lennie appear as anonymous, typical migrant workers: ‘both wore’ the same thing, but George is ‘sharp’, and Lennie is ‘his opposite’ ‘huge’ ‘shapeless’ like a ‘bear’ ‘the follower’ ‘like a horse’ ‘big paw’ ‘imitated George exactly’
George says ‘I could live so easy’ without you” and says: “blubberin’ like a baby” “a big guy like you”. This shows Lennie’s helplessness, but also that he’s dangerous: ‘you always killed em.”
“live so easy” “no trouble. No mess”
But Lennie loves the companionship: ‘Lennie’s face was drawn with terror’ ‘anguished’
George “I want you to stay with me. Trouble with mice is you always kill ‘em”
“Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world… We got a future.”
Lennie says: “because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you.’
In the Bunkhouse: Candy: ‘no hand.’
Boss “I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.”
George lies: “He’s my cousin””got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid.”
‘pale, blind old eyes’ ‘struggled lamely’ and ‘moth-eaten’ “I had ‘im ever since he was a pup”
Candy: says Curley is “picking scraps” “he’s worse lately” “got married” “Curley says he’s keepin’ that hand soft for his wife”
Candy on Curley’s Wife: “she got the eye””I think Curley’s married … a tart”
‘the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off’; ‘a girl’ ‘full, rouged lips’ ‘wide’ eyes ‘heavily made up’, fingernails ‘red’, ‘red mules’ ‘red ostrich feathers’. Her voice was ‘nasal, brittle’. ‘her body’ is repeated twice.
George “Jesus, what a tramp.” / Lennie “she’s purty”
G “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch” “poison”
Slim: “seems kinda funny a cuckoo like him and a smart guy like you travellin’ together”
Slim and George both say that Lennie: “ain’t mean” “There ain’t no more harm in than a kid neither, except he’s so strong”
Carlson: “that dog stinks”, “shoot him” Candy says: “I had ‘im too long”
George “Me an’ Lennie’s gonna roll up a stake”
George: “She’s gonna make a mess … a bad mess.” “Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her.”
Lennie is childlike, asking “why” and saying “I don’t know what for”, he also forgets easily. He asks again about their dream to “get that little place an’ live on the fatta the lan’ – an’ rabbits?”
George tells the story again: ‘Old Candy turned slowly over. His eyes were wide open.’
This ends on an ominous note:
“you gotta watch out them cats don’t get the little rabbits.”
Lennie reacts violently:
“I’ll break their God damn necks. I’ll… I’ll smash ’em with a stick”
‘When Candy spoke they both jumped as though they had been caught doing something reprehensible.’
Candy: “They’ll can me purty soon.” “When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shot me.”
Lennie ‘looked helplessly at George’; Curley ‘slashed’ ‘smashed’ ‘slugging him in the face’
Lennie: ‘cry of terror’ ‘Blood’
George yelled “I said get him.” (he has to say it twice)
Curely’s ‘fist lost in Lennie’s paw’ Lennie: “I di’nt mean no harm.”
‘being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men’ ‘he had books too’ ‘tattered dictionary‘ and ‘mauled copy of the California civil code‘ ‘large gold-rimmed spectacles’ ‘thin, pain-tightened lips’
Crooks speaks ‘sharply’ ‘You got no right’ to come in ‘Nobody got any right in here but me’ ‘right’ is repeated semantic field of human rights)
Lennie asks naively: “Why ain’t you wanted?”
Crooks “‘Cause I’m black.”
Loneliness and Cruelty: “They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.”
Crooks tells Lennie (cruelly) what would happen if George left him: “They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.” (this idea is repeated later – it’s also an example of animal imagery)
“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. … Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”
Crooks: “I never seen a guy really do it.” “I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes.”
Curley’s Wife Enters (looking for Curley who she knows is at the brothel):
“They left all the weak ones here.” She kicks back because the men are always cruel to her.
Curley’s Wife says: “You’re all scared of each other, that’s what.” “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?”
“I tell ya I could of went with shows.” “a guy tol’ me he could put me in pitchers . . . .”
She complains that all she has to do is stand “talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs—a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep—an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else.”
Crooks: “You got no rights comin’ in a colored man’s room.
Curley’s Wife says: “Listen, Nigger …I could get you strung upon a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”
Candy:“That bitch didn’t ought to of said that to you.”
Crooks: “What she says is true.” “Lennie’s a nice fella.” When the guys start to leave, he calls out: “’Member what I said about hoein’ and doin’ odd jobs?”
“Yeah,” said Candy. “I remember.”
“Well, jus’ forget it,” said Crooks. “I didn’t mean it. Jus’ foolin’. I wouldn’ want to go no place like that.”
The scene opens quietly: Lennie has ‘a little dead puppy’.Curley’s wife enters: “I get awful lonely.” She says about the dog “He was jus’ a mutt.”
Candy: Curly will ‘get ‘im lynched’
foreboding George: “I think I knowed from the very start”
“Then it’s all off -” Candy asked sulkily.
George: “All the time he done bad things but he never done one of ‘em mean”
Candy “You god damn tramp” ‘viciously’ “You done it” “You ain’t no good now you lousy tart” ‘his eyes blinded with tears’
Curley “That big son of a bitch done it”
Slim Curley will want to “shoot ‘im” suppose they “put ‘im in a cage”
Curley “Don’t give ‘im no chance. Shoot for his guts.”