George Milton Flashcards
significance of George’s Last name Milton
Milton is the last name of the author of one of Steinbeck’s favorite poems in which Adam and Eve fall from the Garden of Eden which leads to mankind being doomed to walk the earth lonelily. George represents that doomed man who longs to return to Eden, to avoid this lonely fate he finds Lennie but is fated to be lonely by the end of the book.
“Then he said thoughtfully, “Look, if me an’ Lennie work a month an’ don’t sown’ nothing, we’ll have a hunderd bucks. That’d be four fifty. I bet we could swing her for that. Then you an’ Lennie could go get her started an’ I’d get a job an’ make up the res’, an’ you could sell eggs an’ stuff like that”
Out of the two men he’s the one who thinks things through and considers how their goals can be reached. George comes up with all the details and makes the dream seem more plausible and makes them start to believe that their dream was coming true. This shows his rationality and intelligence.
“Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much”
shows that George tends to foresee possible complications in order to avoid them
“Now you listen and this time you got to remember so we don’t get in no trouble”
gives Lennie advice about what he must do in order to help their future and helps Lennie by reminding him of things that he easily forgets to not cause any trouble
“Lennie knelt and looked over the fire at the angry George”
“An’ whatta I got,” George went on furiously. “I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me every job I get”
“His voice rose nearly to a shout. You crazy son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time”
“Ain’t you gonna give me hell?”
- he tends to get frustrated and angry with Lennie quite often
- George repeatedly gets angry at Lennie and tends to go on long tangents about how much better his life would be without Lennie
- Lennie got used to George’s temper and expects him to give him hell
“His anger left him suddenly… then he looked ashamedly at the flames”
“I been mean, ain’t I?”
-although he often gets angry, his anger fades very quickly when he remembers Lennie’s innocence and his inability to remember thing or think clearly
“I want you to stay with me”
“I seen the guys that go
around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good.”
- George does get frustrated due to Lennie’s mental weakness but also feels compassion for him and he feels a strong sense of responsibility towards him (even towards the end where he takes responsibility for his death)
- This quote shows that although George always talks about how easy his life would be without Lennie he wouldn’t want to live without him because he’s grown used to being in the constant company of someone familiar and wouldn’t want to live like the other itinerant workers always meeting new people
“You ain’t done nothing wrong”
“All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of ‘em mean”
-George fully understands that Lennie doesn’t have an adult’s sense of guilt and doesn’t understand death or murder being anything beyond a “bad thing” because of him only giving
“Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is.” (The Boss)
-this quote shows how obviously unfamiliar it is to find itinerant workers travelling and further proves that George’s compassion that he shows to Lennie is unmatchable
