Analysis for Chapter 1, Quote #2

"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. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." (George pg. 13-14)

This quote goes along with a few of the book's themes: loneliness, friendship and the American dream. Essentially, George is explaining to Lennie that as long as they stick together, nothing can touch them. No matter what happens in their separate lives, they still have each other's backs. George says that they have a future-- this plays on the idea that George's American dream of having the little plot of land is alive and achievable as long as he has Lennie. The reader sees this kind of friendship throughout the whole book. There were many opportunities when George could have, and probably should have, ditched Lennie because of the trouble he got into. But they remained together, right until the end.