Power and Powerlessness

They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.

"Listen, Nigger," she said. "You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?"

"They left all the weak ones here," she said finally.

Crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn.

And scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being alone, Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more possessions than he could carry on his back.

Now maybe George ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits, if he fin’s out you got killed.

I like to pet nice things. Once at a fair I seen some of them long–hair rabbits. An’ they was nice, you bet. Sometimes I’ve even pet mice, but not when I could get nothing better.

And Lennie said softly to the puppy, "Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard."

"I lived right in Salinas," she said. "Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. ..."

The rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover.