IDIOMS from of Mice and Men

IDIOMS from Of Mice And Men

Look at the underlined idioms from the novel. What do you think they really mean?

" 'I ain't got no people,' George said (p. 41)." ______

" 'Well, that girl rabbits in an' tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie (p. 42).' " ______

" 'I think he is a wing-ding (p. 46).' "______

" 'Me an' Lennie's gonna roll up a stake (p. 50).' "______

" 'Well, ain't she a looloo (p. 51).' "______

" 'Curley's got yella-jackets in his drawers...(p. 51).' "______

" 'She's a jail baitallset on the trigger (p. 51).' "______

" 'What's it set you back?' George asked (p. 53)." ______

" 'You can get ashot for two bits (p. 52).' "______

" 'If a guy don't want aflop, why he can just set in the chairs...(p. 52).' ______

" 'Clara gets three bucks acrack...(p. 53).' "______

" 'Don't let no goo-goos in, neither (p. 53).' "______

" 'Lookin' for his old lady (p. 53).' "______

" 'These here jail baits is just set on the trigger of the hoosegow (p. 56).' "______

" 'Ever' six weeks or so,' George continued, 'them does would throw a litter...(p. 58).' "

______

" 'The ol' people that owns it is flat bust...(p. 59).' "______

" 'Jus' as soon as I can't swamp out no bunk houses they'll put me on the county (p. 60).' "

______

" '...some day we'll go get our pay an' scramouta here (p. 61).' "______

" 'You God damn punk,' he said (p. 62)." ______

" 'You tried to throw a scare into Slim, an' you couldn't make it stick (p. 62).' "

______

" 'You're yellaas a frog belly (p. 62).' "______

" 'I don't care if you're the best welter in the country (p. 62).' "______

"Then Curley attacked his stomach and cut off his wind (p. 63)." ______

Fix their grammar!!

The characters are uneducated, and thus are portrayed that way by making them speak the way an uneducated person does.

"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."
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch. 1
"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."
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch. 1
"I ain't got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time. . . 'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him."
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
"S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody - to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, Ch. 4

Answers to Idioms:

bucks: dollars

crack: A crack refers to an attempt or a try. In this instance, a crack means one session of sexual intercourse with a prostitute.

cut off his wind: wind, in this case, refers to breath or the ability to breathe. When someone is hit in the stomach and has his wind cut off, that person my have trouble breathing for a time.

flat bust: completely broke; without any money

flop: sexual intercourse with a prostitute

goo-goos: silly young men; idiots; perhaps those who are a little lovestruck

hoosegow: jail

looloo: a sexy woman

make it stick: To make something stick is to be successful. Curley was not successful in his attempt to scare or intimidate Slim.

old lady: in this case, wife

on the county: on welfare; on public relief

people: family

punk: an insignificant person; someone of no importance

rabbits in: jumps in

roll up a stake: save up some money

scram: leave, usually in a hurry

set on the trigger: Someone set on the trigger is on the verge of causing (just about to cause) trouble.

set you back: cost

shot: one drink (an ounce) of liquor

start a party out to lynch: To lynch is to murder someone, usually by hanging, without following a legal procedure. A lynch party is a mob of people who take the law in their own hands and are determined to illegally kill someone. According to George, some men in the town of Weed wanted to capture Lennie and kill him.

throw a litter: give birth. A litter is the young of an animal that were born at the same time.

throw a scare: scare, intimidate

welter: a welterweight; a boxer who weighs 136 to 147 pounds

wing-ding: a terrific person; someone to be admired

yella-jackets in his drawers: Yellow-jackets are a form of wasps (see a picture of some wasps). Drawers, in this case, are underwear. Whit's description of Curley is a lot like saying that he has ants in his pants; that is, that he is restless and nervous.

yella: yellow; a coward

Point of View

Everything written is told from one of these perspectives:

First Person:

I remember standing in that small, dimly lit room. There was no air circulation. Each breath I took felt like a mass of congealed soup slipping into my lungs. The ripe smell in the air lingered around; silently mocking and tormenting me with its invisible tendrils of death and decay. My mind forced me to look away, yet my eyes kept gravitating back with an impossible will of their own.

Second Person:

“You woke up this morning, in a bad mood. Feeling sluggish, you decided to stay in bed and sleep the day away. Now your boss is calling, wondering where you are. What will you do?”

Third Person:

John couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He thought the flash of bright, red light that streaked across the sky might’ve been lightning. Rubbing his eyes, he looked a second time and realized, as it flashed in the same place again, that it wasn’t, nor was it a figment of his imagination.

Third Person Limited Omniscient:

Third Person Omniscient: (Of Mice and Men is written from this point of view)

Allows the author to tell the reader exactly what is going on inside various characters’ heads in regards to their thoughts and feelings, while also showing their actions.

The excerpt fromOf Mice and Men(on the back of this sheet)was written in third person omniscient perspective. Rewrite it in other perspectives, and see what changes about the meaning and/or effect!

Third Person Omniscient Perspective:

A tall man stood in the doorway. He held a crushed Stetson hat under his arm while he combed his long, black, damp hair straight back. Like the others he wore blue jeans and a short denim jacket. When he had finished combing his hair he moved into the room, and he moved with a majesty only achieved by royalty and master craftsmen…

This was Slim, the jerkline skinner. His hatchet face was ageless. He might have been thirty-five or fifty. His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought. His hands, large and lean, were as delicate in their action as those of a temple dancer.-Of Mice and Men, page 33

Change the excerpt so it is written in first person perspective.

Change the excerpt so it is written in second person perspective.