Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men Essay
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, utilises a Middle American setting during the Great Depression, to display the hardships centred characters experience in their companionships with one another. It expresses loneliness for those who do not fit the social standards and are outcasts from the main group on the ranch. The unique relationship between George and Lennie, Candy and his dog plus the loneliness of Curley’s wife, combine to illustrate how friendships do not last forever and even the best of friends can end up lonely.
George and Lennie have a relationship that is in favour of Lennie, because Lennie has George to look after him, but who looks after George? All together though they have a special bond and they are like brothers. “Because I got you to look after me,” Lennie knows that George will always be there to help him and get him out of any trouble. Throughout the text Lennie and George are continuously talking about their dream to own a bit of land and “live off the fatta the lan”. George has promised Lennie if he behaves and does not get into any trouble, he gets to tend the rabbits. George has to treat Lennie like he is like a child to get him to understand what he means and wants. Lennie has a major obsession for soft things, which is what caused them to go on the run in the beginning of the text. Towards the end of the text Lennie and Curley’s wife are in the barn, when she offers for Lennie to feel how soft her hair is. When she wants him to stop he clasps tightly and eventually snaps her neck. Lennie runs and “hides in the brush,” where George told Lennie to go if he got into any trouble. George has to do the unthinkable and shoot his best friend, which would have been the most difficult thing he could do. However, he did it in Lennie’s best interest. George told Lennie to “look over the lake and picture their farm “. He did this so that Lennie was thinking about the thing he wanted most when he died and so that he could maybe have their dream in an afterlife.
Crooks, is probably the loneliest character in Of Mice and Men, because he is black. He puts up with having to read books instead of playing cards.”They play cards in there but I cannot play because I’m black.” Crooks feels anger towards the white men on the ranch because they get everything because of their race and he gets nothing. However, Lennie is the only one who can get him to open up and have a nice conversation, because Lennie kind of knows what Crooks feels like because George never takes him anywhere.”S’pose you did not have nobody,” Crooks is sorry for himself because Lennie has George, and all Crooks has are books,” Books ain’t no good,” Crooks is sick and tired of reading books over and over again. He believes “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ gets sick”. Crooks, knows what it used to be like to have someone to talk to, but now he has to deal with the hardships of being black. He is often referred to as the negro stable buck by all the characters in the text except George and Lennie. This may be because they know what it is like to be different.

Curley’s wife is a very misunderstood character in Of Mice and Men, and the way she is presented gives a reader a different outlook on her. She is the trouble maker on the ranch. She is forever flirting with other guys even though she is already married. She is an ultimately lonely character being the only woman on the ranch and her limitations set by her husband make her bored and wanting someone to talk to. She seeks refuge in Lennie the ‘dumb dumb’, telling him her sob story of how she could have been famous and that she did not have to live on the farm. She tells Lennie,” I never get to talk to nobody, I get awful lonely”. Lennie however, knows he should not talk to her because he knows she is trouble. Curley’s wife is known as a tart all the way throughout the text. She is true to that description, always interrupting the men and getting them in trouble after she flirts with them. If John Steinbeck did not make her flirty and instead she was presented as a farmer’s wife that gets mistreated and could have had everything, the reader may have had sympathy for her but, instead they do not care that she died.

Companionship is very important in of Mice and men, because it is what the text is all about. The protagonists might not have got where they did without their companion. There are many different types of companionships throughout the text such as, George and Lennie’s difficult friendship. There are also many ultimately lonely characters such as, Crooks the Negro, stable buck and Curley’s flirty wife. Together with the setting and story line Of Mice and Men, it is a highly intriguing read for all ages.