Of Mice and Men and John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men Literary Essay

Friendships are one of the major aspects of life people that come into our lives will either stay or leave people go through bullying, fights, drama, amd family problems. The conditions during the tough times simultaneously encourage and discourage friendships. John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men illustrates the natures of friendship during the hard times. The author does an excellent job of showing the strength of friendship, the lack of friendship, and how they were present each and every day in the lives of the people during the depression.

In special circumstances, depression encourages commitments. “But not us. . . because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why,”(pg.14). Lennie’s delightful statement sums up the friendship between the two. John Steinbeck gave an example of them sticking up for each other. George gave Lennie advice, “Look Lennie. You try to keep away from him, will you? Don’t never speak to him will you do that Lennie?” (pg.29). George has looking out for Lennie again and again, running away to keep him safe, protecting him, talking for him, and making sure he was alright. Lennie might not have known much, but he had a big heart and would have done anything to protect what he loved, like George. The times during the depression might have been tough, but those times created strong bonds of friendship that could last forever.

John Steinbeck illustrated the lack of friendship. Slim captured this thought with “Funny how you an’ him string along together. I hardly never saw two guys travel together”(pg.39). Nowadays it’s rare to find someone traveling by themselves, the thought that it would be surprising to find two people traveling together definitely was a sad thing. To have no company for a very long time that one would turn mean a very serious thing. George’s response shows that friendships really weren’t very common during depression. It was also really tough for racial and religious groups. Crooks had no friends, he knew he couldn’t be friends with white people, it was such a small group and there weren’t any people he could be friends with. The absence of friendship was a big theme in Of Mice and Men.

The lack of friendship was one part, but the depression also prevented friendships from happening. It meant a lot when a man’s best friend was his dog, “. . . had him since he was a pup”(pg.44). Candy was a perfectly nice man, he was very sociable and didn’t seem to get in anyone’s way. There was no reason for him to not have plenty of friends. Sadly people were so used to going to a job for just a little amount of time and then moving on. It was very risky getting attached, just for that person to move on a few months later. Candy held on to his dog because he knew the dog would always be there for him. The group of workers were friendly, but they weren’t super close. In fact, when they knew how Candy felt about his dog, and how he would have felt if he was shot, they still pressured him to let Carlson kill the dog. The peer pressure was too much, if circumstances had not prevented it, Candy might have had a friend who would have stood up for him.

Depression affects a person’s thought, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. It is tough on families, businesses, and it takes a toll on friendships. Friendships, whether you have it or not, are a big part of everyone’s life. As Crooks said, “it’s just bein’ with another guy. That’s all”(pg.69) If someone reads Of Mice and Men, they might notice the point John Steinbeck made. It is not the things you have, or places they go to, but the people whom you are with what matters. In the end, I conclude that in this novel Of Mice and Men that lack of friendship was theme and it causes them live their life depressed and miserable.