Slim on Lennie: “I ain’t never seen such a worker”, “I ain’t never seen such a strong guy”
George “He can’t think of nothing to do himself, but he sure can take orders”
Slim: “seems kinda funny a cuckoo like him and a smart guy like you travellin’ together”
George “He ain’t no cuckoo” “dumb as hell” but “ain’t crazy” “If I was bright … I’d have my own little place” we “was both born in Auburn” “I knowed his Aunt Clara” when she died, “Lennie just come along with me” “Got kinda used to each other” “too dumb to take care of ‘imself” “Too dumb even to know he had a joke played on him” made me seem “smart alongside of him” “he’d do any damn thing I tol’ him. If I tol’ him to walk over a cliff, he’d go” “I’ve beat the hell outta him … but he never lifted a finger”
George speaks like a ‘confession’
told Lennie to “jump in” the river “An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke… damn near drowned” “so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in.” “I ain’t done nothing like that no more.”
George: after a long time alone, guys “ain’t no good” “mean” “wantin’ to fight all the time”
Slim and George both say that Lennie: “ain’t mean” George: “but he gets in trouble all time” in Weed “he seen this girl in a red dress” Slim asks: “didn’t hurt the girl none?” George: “he just scared her”
George tells Lennie to take the pup back to its mother ‘You’ll kill him”
“There ain’t no more harm in than a kid neither, except he’s so strong”
Carlson: “that dog stinks” “no teeth’ “he ain’t no good” to himself “Why’n’t you shoot him, Candy?”
“he’d never know what hit him”
Candy ‘unhappily’ “I had ‘im too long”
Carlson “It won’t hurt him none”
‘A shot sounded in the distance’ Candy ‘rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent’
General Chitchat
George “Me an’ Lennie’s gonna roll up a stake”
Whit describes Curley’s Wife as “new kid” then “a looloo” “she got the eye goin’ all the time on everybody”
George asks if there’s been any trouble. Whit says “No… nothing yet. Curley’s got yella-jackets in his drawers” (is jealous, irritable) “pants is just crawlin’ with ants, but they ain’t nothing come of it yet”
George: “She’s gonna make a mess … a bad mess. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger.” “Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her.”
The brothel: ‘Ol’ Susy’s place’, and ‘Clara’s house’ – a “flop” (colloquial euphemism for sex)
George resists because “Me an’ Lennie’s rollin’ up a stake” (he wants to save money.
Candy ‘still faced the wall’
Carlson says “Curley’s handy, God damn handy. Got in the finals for the Golden Gloves” He wants to watch Candy confront Slim but George would rather stay out of trouble.
“Lennie and me got to make a stake”
Lennie returns : “I ain’t done nothing.” “I been good, George” and “I wasn’t hurtin’ ’em none.”
George “If there’s any fightin’, Lennie, you keep out of it.”
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.’
George uses lovely sensory language: cream so “thick you got to cut it with a knife and take it out with a spoon”.
“We’d belong there. There wouldn’t be no more runnin'”
“When we put in a crop, why, we’d be there to take the crop up. We’d know what come of our planting.”
“It’d be our own, an’ nobody could can us.” We could have a “fren'” to stay over. This ends on a slightly 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: “How much they want for a place like that?”
“I ain’t much good with on’y one hand” ‘They give me two hundred an’ fifty dollars ’cause I los’ my hand”
“S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hunderd an’ fifty” “I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some.”
George: “If me an’ Lennie work a month an’ don’t spen’ nothing, we’ll have a hunderd bucks. That’d be four fifty. I bet we could swing her for that.”
‘They looked at one another, amazed. The thing they had never really believed in was coming true.’
George’s ‘eyes were full of wonder’ ‘softly’.
Candy: “They’ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk houses they’ll put me on the county.” “When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs.”
Candy: “I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.”
Slim and Curley enter, arguing. Slim has the upper hand.
Carlson says “You let her hang around bunk houses”
‘Curley whirled on Carlson’
‘Carlson laughed. “You God damn punk.”
Candy joined in the attack with joy. “Glove fulla vaseline,” he said disgustedly. Curley glared at him. His eyes slipped on past and he lighted on Lennie.’ ‘like a terrier’ “Come on, ya big bastard”
Lennie ‘looked helplessly at George’; Curley ‘slashed’ ‘smashed’ ‘slugging him in the face’
Lennie: ‘cry of terror’ ‘Blood’ “Make ‘um let me alone, George” ‘the big face was covered in blood’
George yelled “I said get him.” (he has to say it twice)
Curley’s ‘closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand.’ ‘flopping little man’ ‘Curley was white and shrunken’ ‘crying’ ‘fist lost in Lennie’s paw’
Slim: “Jesus! He ain’t hardly got no han’ left.” Slim tells Curley to keep quiet or they’ll “tell ever’body” “an’ then will you get the laugh”
Lennie asks “I can still tend the rabbits?” and “I di’nt mean no harm.”