OMAM Key Quotes

• G and L arrive


  The first man was small and quick…with restless eyes and sharp, strong features…behind him walked his opposite, a huge man…he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.
• Parental relationship, L is childlike

  His huge companion..drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse. Lennie, he said sharply. Lennie for God’s sake don’t drink so much!...you drink some George. You take a good big drink. He smiled happily.
• L admires G


  Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly.
• G can get frustrated with L

  Blubberin’ like a baby? Jesus Christ! A big guy like you.
• L struggles to understand consequences of his own actions


  I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead – because they was so little.
• G pretends like he'd enjoy his life more without L


  God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work an’ no trouble…I could stay in a cat house all night.
• But G secretly still needs L

  I want you to stay with me Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself
• RW are lonely

  Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake…
• L is a very optimistic character, G+L are unique

  …but not us! Because I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you and that’s why he laughed delightedly.
• The men have a dream revealed in chp1

  Someday, we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs…an’ live off the fatta the lan! Lennie shouted.
• RLID 


  Says, positively kills lice, roaches, and other scourges. What the hell kind of bed you giving us anyways? We don’t want no pants rabbits.
• Crooks is looked down upon and targeted

  an he gave the stable buck hell too…ya see the stable buck’s a nigger.
• Lennie is very strong

  Strong as a bull
• RW live an isolated existence 


  A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ast no questions.
• Curley is constantly waiting for confrontation


  He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious….Curley lashed his body around.
• Curley is insecure


  Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys.
• Curleys marital problems


  Married two weeks and got the eye? Maybe that’s why Curley’s pants is full of ants
• CW is not respected. Slim is.

  Slim’s a jerkline skinner. Hell of a nice fella….I seen her give Slim the eye…I think Curley’s married a tart.
• Foreshadowing. G knows what will happen.


  Look Lennie! This here ain’t no set-up. I’m scared. You gonna have trouble with that Curley guy.
• Description of CW 


  She had full, rouged lips..her finger-nails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules on which were red ostrich feathers…She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward.
• CW is looked down upon and insulted

  Don’t you even take a look at that bitch…I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her.
• Slim is ranch royalty


  He was a jerkline skinner, the prince of the ranch…all talk stopped when he spoke…his word was taken on any subject
• Many RW are isolated. G and L are unique 


  Ain’t many guys travel around together, he mused…maybe everybody in the whole damn world is scared of each other
• Slim is perceptive and G and L are unique 


  Funny how you an’ him string along together…I hardly never seen two guys travel together.…..He ain’t mean, said Slim. I can see Lennie ain’t a bit mean…I can tell a mean guy a mile off.
• The ranch is a brutal place and the weak suffer


  Had him since he was a pup…you wouldn’t think it to look at him now, but he was the best damn sheep dog I ever seen…I’m so used to him he said softly. Candy looked helplessly at him, for Slim’s opinions were law.
• Candy cannot stand up against Slim or Carlson

  Candy looked a long time at Slim to try to find some reversal. And Slim gave him none. At last, Candy said softly and hopelessly: awright – take im. He did not look down at the dog at all. He lay back on his bunk and crossed his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling.
• The men cannot deal with emotions well

  The silence came into the room. And the silence lasted….the silence fell on the room again. It came out of the night and invaded the room
• The dream is a common thread

  S’pose I went in with you guys.Thta’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some.
• The dream is starting to come to life

  They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true..they all sat stillall bemused by the beauty of the thing, each mind was popped into the future when this lovely thing should come about.
• foreshadows G decision. Candy admits cowardice

  I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.
• Slim is able to stand up to Curley

  Curley said ‘ well I didn’t mean nothing, Slim. I just ast you’. Slim said, ‘ well you been askin’ me too often. I’m getting God damn sick of it. If you can’t look after your own God damn wife, what you expect me to do about it
• Curley is violent and angry

  Curley stepped over to Lennie like a terrier…then Curley’s rage exploded. Come on ya big bastard…no big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me…Lennie looked helplessly at George. Curley was balanced and poised. He slashed at Lennie with his left, and then smashed down his nose with a right.
• L cannot control his own strength

  Curley slashed at his eyes. The big face was covered with blood…Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish….he stood crying, his fist lost in Lennie’s big paw…suddenly Lennie let go his hold. He crouched cowering against the wall
• Introduction to Crooks


  Crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn….And he had books too; a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905….This room was swept and fairly neat, for Crooks was a proud, aloof man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people kept theirs.
• Crooks is isolated and discriminated against


  Crooks said sharply, you got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me….Cause I’m black. They play cards in there but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, you all of you stink to me.
• Crooks is cynical


  You’re nuts, said Crooks. You’re crazy as a wedge. What rabbits you talkin about?....S’pose George went into town tonight and you never heard of him no more. Crooks pressed forward some kind of private victory…want me ta tell ya what’ll happen? They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.
• Crooks is cynical and doesnt believe in the dream


  A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody…I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick…I see 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…an’ never a God damn one of em ever gets it..nobody never gets to heaven and nobody never gets no land…
• RLID and the dream is an escape

  If everybody’s comin’ in, you might just as well. It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger…..You guys is just kiddin yourself. You’ll talk about it a hell of a lot, but you won’t get no land....Candy cried ‘ sure they all want it. Everybody wants a little bit of land. I never had none. I planted crops for damn near ever’body in this state but they wasn’t my crops and when I harvested ‘em it wasn’t none of my harvest.
• Crooks has observed men from the outside, as he's never allowed 'in' due to racism


  I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore-house or a black jack game took what it takes...if you guys would want a hand to work for nothing – just his keep, why i’d come an ‘lend a hand.
• Cr,Ca and L are all low on the hierarchy of the ranch and so is CW


  They left all the weak ones here...Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?.. sure I gotta husban’. You all seen him. Swell guy ain’t he?