Quote Analysis Flashcards
(62 cards)
‘ See the stable buck’s a n**’
Candy uses racial language about crooks very casually showing how normalised Crook’s mistreatment is in 1930’s
‘had his bunk in the harness room’ and ‘long box filled with straw’
crooks sleeps in the barn, isolated from the other migrant workers and treated similarly to animals (dehuminisation)
‘a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the california civil code’
shows how educated crooks is and how he wants to be treated better for himself and other black people
‘ because i’m black, they say I stink. well i say you all stink. ‘
crooks bitterly explaining to lennie the discrimination he has faced and shows how much it hurts him
‘ you got no rights coming in a coloured man’s room’
crooks tries to exert some power over lennie to show he knows his rights on the ranch
‘ what if george don’t come back no more?’
crooks acts cruelly towards lennie to gain some power in the ranch hierarchy which he doesn’t have very often
‘ i seen hundreds of men come through . they never get no land. it’s all in their heads’
this shows how long crooks has worked on the ranch and how there is no escape for migrant workers at a time like this. He knows the American dream is dead but people use it to cope with their lives
‘ crooks retreated to himself’
after CW abused crooks he is reminded of his place on the ranch and gives up his confidence
‘ i could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’ (crooks)
CW threatens crooks of lynching, which he knows is a real threat.
‘ Lennie imitated George’
Shows a father / son and paternal relationship between george and lennie
‘ I coulda lived so easy if it weren’t for you’
Shows how lonely life was for migrant workers in the 1930’s
‘He ain’t bright but he’s as strong as a bull’
George compliments Lennie to help get them the job. A simile is used to compare Lennie to a large and strong animal (like him)
‘ a little bit of land ‘
‘ live off the fatta the land’
(george)
george doesn’t want much, he just wants a simple life and somewhere to call his own so he can be self efficient
‘ I should a known… he said it so much I started believing it’
By the end George realises that the dream was never a real possibility especially when your a migrant worker in the 1930s
George refers to curleys wife as ‘jailbait’
George sees CW as a troublemaker. He is scared her actions will hurt Lennie and because she is a woman
‘’poking your big ears into our buisness’
Candy is recognised as the gossip on the ranch who is very nosy
‘ She’s got the eye’
Candy likes to make up rumours to feel included with the other men on the ranch
‘ They’ll can me soon. Just as soon as I can’t swamp out’
Shows how desperate Candy , because he knows that it’s not long until he will be fired and can’t find another job
‘ I could hoe in the garden and little chicken stuff like that’
Candy just wants a simple life free of worry
‘ See the stable bucks a n***** the boss gives him hell when he gets mad’
Shows that Candy doesn’t care about Crook’s struggles and he uses them as a funny story to tell the other men
‘ You bitch’
Candy says this to CW when she dies as he only cares about the fact that she has now destroyed the chance of their dream coming true
‘ old grey dog’
This is also how Candy sees himself as well as his dog, and how they similarly compare to one another
‘ he was a good sheepdog when he was younger’
This shows the dog wasn’t always useless but that doesn’t matter because people and animals are only what they can offer in 1930’s America
‘ I shouldn’t ought let no stranger shoot my dog’
Candy regrets his decision of letting Carlson shoot his dog, but he also knows he has zero power on the ranch
