’Long as you won’t get out and leave me alone, you might as well set down.
Chapter 4 · Crooks
Context
After holding Lennie at the threshold and being slowly disarmed by his persistent, uncomprehending smile, Crooks reverses himself and invites Lennie to stay.
Analysis
The conditional 'Long as you won't get out and leave me alone' performs the invitation as concession rather than desire, allowing Crooks to accept companionship while disowning the wish for it. The double-negative syntax of grudging consent ('won't…leave me alone…might as well') is the dialect's instrument for protecting an exposed need: the line says yes to company in the grammar of saying no to imposition.
How to Use in Essay
Support a thesis that Steinbeck uses syntax of grudging concession to register the emotional cost of admitting loneliness in a culture where need is shameful—Crooks can welcome Lennie only by phrasing welcome as defeat.