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Completed	30 April 2009
Title	Of Mice and Men
Author	John Steinbeck
Published	1937
Quote	"Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cat house all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of. An' I could do that every damn month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool." Lennie knelt and looked over the fire at the angry George. And Lennie's face was drawn with terror. "An' whatta I got," George went on furiously. "I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get me in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out." His words rose nearly to a shout. "You crazy son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time." He took on the elaborate manner of little girls when they are mimicking one another. "Jus' wanted to feel that girl's dress----jus' wanted to pet it like it was a mouse----Well, how the hell did she know you jus' wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse. She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin' for us. And we got to sneak out in the dark and get outta the country. All the time somethin' like that----all the time. I wisht I could put you in a cage with about a million mice an' let you have fun." His anger left him suddenly. He looked across the fire at Lennie's anguished face, and then he looked ashamedly at the flames.
Review	What a great, sad book. How very Steinbeck. Did you read this book in school, as I did? If so, I suggest you pick it up again. It's interesting to read this sad book as an adult. I think you might, as I did, enjoy and understand it a bit more. What a sad book, though, what with the sad duo of George and Lennie and the cloud of the 1930s Depression hanging overhead. Despite the dismal economic circumstances, George still feeds Lennie dreams of one day owning a ranch of their own where they can "live on the fatta the lan'." Lennie is like a dumb yet happy puppy dog, following George around, doing what he says. George says to Lennie, "You can't remember nothing that happens, but you remember ever' word I say." I think George secretly loves the unconditional loyalty. But even though George constantly complains about the responsibility, he needs Lennie just as much as Lennie needs him. In fact, toward the end of the book, the old ranch-hand Candy, with the stump of a wrist, becomes the veritable new Lennie. Does George collect these broken characters to feed his own ego? Or does George, like most people, have the need to be needed? Nonetheless, George and Lennie stick together. George said, "Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake an' then they blow it in. They ain't got nobody in the worl' that gives a hoot in hell about 'em----" "But not us," Lennie cried happily. "Tell about us now." George was quiet for a moment. "But not us," he said. "Because----" "Because I got you an' ----" "An' I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us," Lennie cried in triumph. Now am I the only one who imagines George and Lennie breaking out in song? ...that this sad book could be turned into a heart-warming Broadway musical? Now wouldn't that be entertaining?

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