"...and he (Lennie) walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws." Chapter 1 Animal Theme

“His huge companion (Lennie) … drank with long gulps, snorting inot the water like a horse.” Chapter 1 Animal Theme

"Slowly, like a terrier who doesn't want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again." Chapter 1 Animal Theme

"Lennie covered his face with huge paws and bleated with terror." Chapter 3 Animal Theme

Crooks predicts Lennie's fate without George: "Want me to tell ya what'll happen? They'll take ya to the booby hatch. They'll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.“ Chapter 4 Animal Theme

"He (Lennie) pawed up the hay until it partly covered her." Chapter 5 Animal Theme

“Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves.” Chapter 6 Animal Theme

"'Well,' said George, 'we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof...'" Chapter 1 Dreams Theme

"We could live offa the fatta the lan'." Chapter 3 Dreams Theme

"I could build a smoke house like the one gran'pa had..." Chapter 3 Dreams Theme

"An' we'd keep a few pigeons to go flyin' around the win'mill like they done when I was a kid." Chapter 3 Dreams Theme

“’I tell you I could of went with shows. Not jus’ one, neither. An’ a guy tol’ me he could put me in pitchers.’” (Curley’s wife) Chapter 4 Dreams Theme

"Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land." (Crooks on the dream) Chapter 4 Dreams Theme

“’Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?’” (Curley’s wife) Chapter 4 Dreams Theme

“George said ‘We’ll fix up that little old place an’ we’ll go live there,’ They all sat still bemused by the beauty of the thing,” Chapter 3 Dreams Theme

“Candy leaned forward eagerly. ‘S’spose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in.’” Chapter 3 Dreams Theme

"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us." (George) Chapter 1 Friendship Theme

"An' why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why." (Lennie) Chapter 1 Friendship Theme

"'Ain't many guys travel around together,' he mused. 'I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.'" (Slim) Chapter 2 Friendship Theme

"Made me seem God damn smart alongside of him.“ (George about his earlier relationship with Lennie) Chapter 3 Friendship Theme

"Carl's right, Candy. That dog ain't no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple." (Slim) Chapter 3 Friendship Theme

"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog." (Candy realises that friends should look out for each other) Chapter 3 Friendship Theme

"'A guy needs somebody-to be near him.' He whined, 'A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.'" (Crooks) Chapter 4 Friendship Theme

“’I get lonely. You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?’” (Curley’s wife) Chapter 5 Friendship Theme

“’You’re a nice guy. I don’t know why I can’t talk to you. I ain’t doin’ no harm to you.’” (Curley’s wife) Chapter 5 Friendship Theme

George will not subject his best friend to unnecessary pain. "'Never you mind,' said Slim. 'A guy got to sometimes.'" (Slim) Chapter 6 Friendship Theme

"Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones." Chapter 1 Nature Theme

“A stilted heron laboured up into the air and pounded down-river.” Chapter 1 Mirrors the image in chapter 6 “The heron pounded the air with its wings, jacked itself clear of the water and flew off down-river.” Nature Theme

“A water-snake slipped along on the pool, its head held up like a little periscope. The reeds jerked slightly in the current.” Chapter 1 Nature Theme

“A water-snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.” Nature Theme Chapter 6

Nature Theme The water-snake is killed in chapter 6, symbolising the death of Lennie

"Although there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunk house, inside it was dusk." (contrast of the dark bunkhouse and light outside) Chapter 3 Nature Theme

"As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment." (Calm before Candy finds George) Chapter 5 Nature Theme

"Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun." (The book ends as it begins by the banks of the Silinas River) Chapter 6 Nature Theme

"The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again." (The landscapes reaction to the violence) Chapter 6 Nature Theme