Vocabulary in Of Mice and Men

Traveling from place to place without a permanent home, typically to find work wherever it is available. George and Lennie are itinerant ranch hands who move on whenever trouble finds them.

Lean and thin in body but tough and strong, like a wire — not bulky, but not weak either. It describes a person whose strength is not obvious from their size.

An odd-job worker on a ranch who does the dirtiest, most menial chores — sweeping, cleaning, and general maintenance — often an older or disabled hand kept on out of charity.

A plain, shared sleeping building on a ranch where the hired hands live together, furnished with simple wooden bunks and little else in the way of comfort or privacy.

A rough, coarse woven fabric made from jute or hemp, used here as cheap mattress covering in the ranch bunkhouse rather than softer, more comfortable material.

A personal interest, share, or investment in something — here used to question why George would care about or take responsibility for Lennie's welfare and wages.

Colored with rouge, a red or pink cosmetic applied to the cheeks or lips to make them look brighter. Here it signals that Curley's wife is heavily and deliberately made up.

Sections of hair that have been curled and set into tight cylindrical coils, styled to look neat and fashionable, here compared to the shape of sausages.

A serious, weighty dignity in a person's manner that commands attention and respect without any need for force or loud speech. It is a quality of calm authority others instinctively respond to.

Extremely deep or intense — here describing a silence so complete and powerful that it causes everyone around to stop talking the moment Slim opens his mouth.

A driver of mule teams, responsible for hauling heavy loads with a team of mules. On a ranch the mule skinner is a skilled worker who manages the animals used for hard labor.

Following closely behind someone, watching over them, or being a constant burden and responsibility. George uses it to mean that Lennie is always there, slowing him down and complicating his life.

To have no community, home, or group that claims you as a member — to be rootless and unwanted everywhere you go, which is the common fate of migrant ranch workers.

To take care of and protect someone, watching out for their safety and well-being. George and Lennie each claim this responsibility toward the other as the bond that sets them apart from other lonely men.

Hired workers employed on a ranch to do physical labor such as feeding animals, repairing fences, and harvesting crops. They are typically paid low wages and move from ranch to ranch.

Controlling or pocketing another person's wages, implying exploitation. The boss suspects George of cheating Lennie out of his earnings because Lennie seems too simple to manage his own money.

A spoken, non-standard form of 'ought to have,' expressing a moral obligation or duty that was not fulfilled. Candy regrets that he should have been the one to shoot his own dog rather than letting a stranger do it.

A bitter distrust of other people's motives and a disbelief that good things will ever really happen, born from long experience of disappointment and being excluded from opportunity.

A pre-arranged meeting place that two or more people have agreed to return to. George and Lennie had agreed to meet at the riverbank if anything went wrong at the ranch.

A group of people who take violent punishment — usually killing — into their own hands outside of any legal process, driven by anger and a desire for immediate revenge.