English Questions

"Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely." (84)...."Wha's the matter with me?... Ain't I got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I am, anyways?"

"Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is."

"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 ******** 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."

"No I couldn't do that. I had 'im to long"

"I seen hundreds of men comme by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their backs an' that same damn thing in their head. Hundreds of 'em."

"An' you ain't gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither"

"With us it ain't like that. We got a future."

"Hardly none of the guys ever travel together. I hardly never seen two guys travel together."

"A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tale waved frantically."

"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."

"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."

"Lennie--if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here and hide in the brush" (16).

"The rabbits we're gonna get, and I get to tend 'em, cut grass an' give 'em water, an' like that."

"We could live offa the fatta the lag'"

"The rabbits we're gonna get and I, I get to tend 'em."

"Were gonna get a little place" (103)

"I oughtta shoot that dog myself, George. I shouldnt oughtta let no stranger shoot my dog" (61)

'em." "Ever' six weeks or so," George continued, "them does would throw a litter so we'd have plenty rabbits to eat an' to sell. An' we'd keep a few pigeons to go flyin' around the win'mill like they done when I was a kid." He looked raptly at the wall over Lennie's head. "An' it'd be our own, an' nobody could can us. If we don't like a guy we can say, 'Get the hell out,' and by God he's got to do it. An' if a fren' come along, why we'd have an extra bunk, an' we'd say, 'Why don't you spen' the night?' an' by God he would. We'd have a setter dog and a couple stripe cats, but you gotta watch out them cats don't get the little rabbits." Lennie breathed hard. "You jus' let 'em try to get the rabbits. I'll break their******** necks. I'll . . . . I'll smash 'em with a stick." He subsided, grumbling to himself, threatening the future cats which might dare to disturb the future rabbits."

"The swamper considered.... 'Well... tell you what. Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at em because he ain't a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain't you? Always scrappy?" (26)

Theme of Companionship and Plight of the Migrant Worker