Of Mice And Men Theme Essay

John Steinbeck's bestselling novel, Of Mice and Men, was a compelling read. It always kept you wondering what was going to happen next. The main protagonists, George and Lennie, are going from job to job, trying to make ends meet. Lennie, a large man with the brain capacity that of a five year old, who is very strong and loves anything soft, with his caretaker/friend George. George is a smaller man who is always getting Lennie out of trouble and is trying to earn money during a hard time. Steinbeck did an amazing job describing, and writing this astounding novel. There are many themes portrayed throughout the novel, showing how hard it was to live in such rough times during The Great Depression. Here are a few examples of important themes throughout the novel.
One theme is the importance of home. Because George and Lennie lived in such a hard time period, they didn’t really have a home. Their dream was to own their own home, with their own acreage, maybe a few animals, earning their own money. This shows how they didn’t have much, and all they wanted was a place to call their own. In the book, George and
Lennie talked about their dream a lot. They both fantasized a lot about their dream and how marvelous it is going to be. Lennie believed that this dream was actually attainable, but George knew better.
The character Candy is another good example of the importance of home. Candy is an elderly man that works on the farm as well. He lost his hand working, so he doesn’t really do much but some janitorial type work. One night, when George and Lennie were talking about their wondrous dream, Candy overhears and gets really excited about their dream, and offers to help pay for their acreage. He has a lot more money and can help pay for the majority of it, only if he gets to live there and work with them. George, Lennie, and Candy were all getting excited about the dream, because it might actually be able to happen. Candy is really excited because he might actually get a home, but then it all blows up in his face. This really goes to show how even a little acreage of land makes people so excited back then, because people didn’t own much, if anything at all.
Relationships are another important theme shown in the book.
Some characters had good relationships, others had bad relationships. An example of a good relationship is George and Lennie. George had to take care of Lennie because he can’t take care of himself. The night before they start their new job, George tells Lennie how great his life would be without him and how much money he is going to make if Lennie wasn’t always getting into trouble all the time. Then, Lennie tells George that he can just go live in the mountains by himself so that way George can be happy. But, George tells him that he wants Lennie to stay by his side. This proves that it is very lonely, and traveling by yourself from job to job isn’t fun at all. George and Lennie are better together anyways. No matter how much Lennie got in trouble, George was always there for him and got him out of
it.
Crooks is a good example of having a relationship. The way Steinbeck described Crooks, he was more of a thing, rather than a person. Crooks was the only black family in that town since he was little. Because he was the only black person in the town for miles, he got treated differently because of the time period Of Mice and Men takes place in. The boss only let Crooks have fun with the rest of the group on New Year’s. Based on the way Steinbeck describes him, you can only imagine how lonely he is, and how excited he was when Lennie started talking to him. This shows how important having a friend was back then, and how lonely it can get, especially if you are in the minority and aren’t treated the same as everyone else.
In conclusion, there are many significant themes throughout the entire book, Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck does a phenomenal job of writing this stellar novel, as he incorporates several themes throughout it, such as the importance of relationships, and the importance of home. While it was a little slow at the beginning, it started to unfold and got better and easier to understand. This book really showed you what true tragedy is like, and how it impacts people. Steinbeck really shows us how important it is to have healthy relationships, and how it is good for our mental health. Steinbeck also shows us how important and how lucky it is that people have a place to call home. Steinbeck did an incredible job of incorporating these themes in this best-selling novel, Of Mice and Men. It’s no wonder why this book is praised by many critics and has won many awards for this novel.