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Of Mice and Men - Coggle Diagram

- - - - "Oh! I ain't saying he's bright. He aint."
      - "In denim trousers and denim coats with brass buttons"
      - "immediately, Lennie got up and did the same with his bed"
    - - "Lennie stared at him blankly. "Huh?"
      - "in embarrassment hid his face against his knees. "i forgot again"
      - "Jus talks on, an' you don't know what the hell it's all about."
    - - "a huge man, shapeless of face"
      - "doesn't know his own strength"
      - "this curley punk is gonna get hurt if he messes with Lennie"
- - - - "live off the fatta the lan"
        
        represents the concrete ways in which the American Dream served as an idealised goal for poor and working class Americans
        
        their dream never comes true, Steinbeck suggesting that the American Dream was an illusion for workers during the Great Depression which helped make life seem bearable
  - - - beginning of the novella
        
        It's clear that George and Lennie have been dreaming of the place for awhile. Lennie loves hearing George 'tell about' their future raising rabbits together and although George is weary not to repeat the details out loud to Lennie all the time, he can't help but get swept into their dreams.
        
        everytime George describes the way he and Lennie will 'live on the fatta the lan' he elaborates the fantasy further adding more and more details about the rabbits that Lennie will tend to and the food they'll grow and eat.
      - at the ranch
        
        George and Lennie although keeping their dreams private to most people, let a few labourers at the ranch in on it.
        
        Candy overhears the 2 talking and at first George is unhappy with Candy knowing, he eventually lets Candy in on the dream as candy talks about the money he has
        
        Crooks is brought into the dream when Lennie confides in him one evening while George is out at town. Crooks tries to tell Lennie that the dream will never happen but once he hears about Candy being involved, he starts to believe in it too
        
        Crooks is aware of life's twists and turns that make it hard for dreams to come true as he's been disappointed time and time again by the world and it's people
      - Dream is broken
        
        it eventually becomes apparent that George and Lennie's dream may not come true as George can't help but spend his money in town on whiskey and company. When Lennie kill's Curley's wife it becomes clear to George that him and Lennie's dreams were never going to become a reality
        
        George admits to Candy that he never really believed he would actually get a place of his own. "I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her."
        
        shows he is aware of the ways in which fate gets in the way and interferes with people's dreams. George is aware of the socioeconomic climate in which he lives and the disadvantage that has given him and all other dreamers
    - - Curley's Wife confides in Lennie telling him how she wanted to be a star in Hollywood. She wanted to star in 'pitchers'
        
        "I tell ya I could of went with shows. Not jus' one, neither. An' a guy tol' me he could put me in pitchers."
        
        alludes to the fact that her dreams of stardom were crushed when she married Curly
        
        Curley's WIfe had to put her dreams behind her to make a sensible financial decision because of the Great Depression
        
        "heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules"
        
        She still dresses herself up like a stars in Hollywood did at the time, suggests her inability to accept that she's not going to be a movie star and instead she is just the wife of a ranch hand
  - - - only characters in the novella that have a meaningful relationship together which makes them stand out and seem unusual to the other ranch workers
        
        "guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest in the world...which us it ain't like that"
        
        George compares their relationship to others to demonstrate how unusual it is. He uses pronouns such as 'we' and 'they' to emphasise this difference in their relationship to others.
    - - loneliest characters in novella as they are all marginalised for different reasons because they're different
        
        Crooks
        
        'I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse'
        
        Crooks is physically seperated and isolated from the others at the ranch because of his race. This isolation causes him to become bitter and angry to people that approach him such as Lennie. This demonstrates the damaging effects of loneliness
        
        Candy
        
        'candy looked for help from face to face'
        
        Candy is marginalised because of his age and disability. This causes him to be seen as irrelevant on the ranch as he can not work like the other workers. The lack of reaction from the other workers when Carlson wants to kill his dog shows the lack of empathy the workers feel for those in pain. Candy's need for a companion is not acknowledged as the others are unable to form relationships themselves
        
        Curley's wife