OMAM quotes/themes Flashcards
The power George wields over Lennie:
‘“Give it here!” Lennie’s closed hand slowly obeyed’
George deluding himself about a better life:
‘“God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy.’”
George caring about Lennie’s feeling:
‘He looked across the fire at Lennie’s anguished face, and then he looked ashamedly at the flames.’
The power the American Dream holds over them:
‘He repeated his words rhythmically as though he had said them many times before.’
Their ultimate dream:
“An’ live off the fatta the lan”
Lennie and George as parent and child:
‘“Good boy! That’s fine, Lennie! [..] Lennie choked with pride.
Bunkhouse having no care put into it:
‘Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted.’
Bunkhouse resembling a prison:
‘the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows”
Candy having a disability:
‘He pointed with his right arm, and out of the sleeve came a round stick-like wrist, but no hand.’
Lennie needing George for assistance:
‘In a panic, Lennie looked at George for help’
The rarity of friendship on the ranch:
‘“Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.”
Candy’s age as a handicap embodied by his dog
‘At his heels there walked a drag footed sheep dog, gray of muzzle, and with pale blind, old eyes.’
The solitariness of the ranch:
“‘A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ask no questions.”
Slurs labelled at Curley’s wife to indicate the threat she poses:
‘a tart’; ‘what a tramp’; ‘that bitch’; ‘jailbait’; ‘poison’ ‘rattrap’
Curley’s wife’s flirtatious actions
‘She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the doorframe so that her body was thrown forward’
. Slim’s authority:
a majesty achieved only by royalty and master craftsmen…the prince of the ranch,
His authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject,
his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.
The consequences of loneliness/isolation:
“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.’’
Crooks’ lodgings symbolising the segregation at the time:
‘a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn.’
Crooks relying on education to navigate racist society:
‘a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905.’
Crooks being denied a voice in society:
‘pain-tightened lips’
Racism being the sole reason for why Crooks isn’t wanted:
“Cause I’m black.”
Crooks not naturally aloof:
Crooks scowled, but Lennie’s disarming smile defeated him
What would happen to Lennie without George to protect him:
‘“They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.’”
. The importance of companionship:
“‘A guy needs somebody to be- to be near him.” he whined, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got
nobody.”
Reminder that women were above black people in society:
'’You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?” Crooks stared hopelessly at her, and
then he sat down at the bunk and drew into himself.’
The setting of the brush:
A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas river … runs deep and green
The rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover.
A water snake slipped along on the pool
The bunkhouse:
In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch.
Lennie’s physical shape:
a huge man, shapeless of face,
Lennie’s movement:
walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.
snorting into the water like a horse
Lennie’s problems/ mental capacity:
“They was so little,
“I forgot,” Lennie said softly. “I tried not to forget”
Just wanted to feel that girl’s dress
Lennie droned to himself softly, ‘I ain’t gonna say nothin’.’
George’s frustration/ temper:
Think I’d let you carry your own work card?
if I was alone I could live so easy.
‘God, you’re a lot of trouble.’
Curley’s aggression:
His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists
Curley lashed his body around
His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious.
Curley’s wife’s attention seeking:
She had full, rouged lips… Her fingernails were red….
red mules, … little bouquets of red ostrich feathers
Attitudes to Candy’s dog:
He ain’t no good to you Candy
He was the best damn sheepdog I ever seen
Candy looked a long time at Slim to try to find some reversal. And Slim gave him none.
Attitude to Susy’s/ the whorehouse:
Hell of a nice place. Old Susy’s a laugh—always crackin’ jokes
You give me a good whore house every time
The beauty of the dream:
when the salmon run up river we could catch a hundred of ‘em
the cream is so God damn thick you got to cut it with a knife
We wouldn’t have to buck no barley eleven hours a day.
We’d belong there
The attack on Curley’s hand:
Curley was flopping like a fish on a line
Lennie covered his face with his huge paws and bleated with terror.
Crooks’ poor living conditions:
a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. ..
Crooks’ bunk was a long box filled with straw
“They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink.”
Crooks’ attitude to isolation/ loneliness:
Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture.
“Books ain’t no good… a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”
“white kids come to play at our place, an’ sometimes I went to play with them, and some of them was pretty nice.”
Crooks’ cynicism of the dream:
“Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”
Curley’s wife’s threat to Crooks:
you keep your place then, N.
I could get you strung upon a tree so easy it ain’t even funny
The effect of Curley’s wife on Crooks:
Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego
“You guys comin’ in an’ settin’ made me forget.”
