Characters in Of Mice And Men Essay

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel involving two extremely different main characters. George is a reasonably intelligent, hardworking ranchman. Lennie on the other hand always manages to find trouble. He is equally as hardworking and honest as George but his simple childlike mind always finds him trouble wherever he goes. However they have one thing that unites the two of them as close as any bond can. This is that they both share the same dream of owning their own ranch and after many hard working years, moving from ranch to ranch, living in complete poverty and working for next to nothing they finally try to achieve this life long dream.

I enjoyed this novel because I found the contrast between the two main characters very interesting and wanted to try to understand why Steinbeck has chosen main characters such as George and Lennie, as the rest of the book was mainly moulded around these two specific characters. I was very involved with most aspects of the book particularly that of the setting. However I have decided my task will be to focus on the themes of friendship and loneliness.

Steinbeck writes the novel Of mice and Men using 3rd person narrative to show how emotionally remote the characters are and to show that they dont get to know people intimately. This for me is enhances the success of the book as it gives an equal account of all the characters feelings.

In the opening chapter Steinbeck immediately introduces the idea of loneliness and the idea of the men living very temporary lives, with no real direction. Steinbeck cleverly uses the setting to convey these ideas. The path George and Lennie are walking on is described as

A path beaten hard by boys and beaten hard by tramps who came wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle up near water and an ash pile made by many fires

These quotes for me convey the idea of the setting and the characters living very temporary, lonely lives. Not only do these quotes describe the setting, they also give us a detailed description of the mens tragic, isolated lives as well. For example when Steinbeck tells us about an ash pile made by many fires. He is actually making the point that the ash pile occurred from lots of men passing through that point in the forest and so they live temporary lives and are always moving from ranch to ranch and this is just like all the men on the ranch. This also shows how hard work was to find as so many wonder from place to place.

Another point about the setting that I feel relates to the mens lives is shown on p.g. 18. The description is that of the bunk house where all the ranch workers stay

Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for personal belongings

The manner in which Steinbeck describes the bunkhouse is very similar to that of the ranchmans lives and it also shows us all they have for personal belongings is two shelves. Steinbeck shows us that by having only two shelves for belongings they live lonely insecure lives.

One man who suffers from the extremes of loneliness on the ranch is a man named Crooks

"A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody. Dont matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick"

Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation because the society in which he resides in is racist. Crooks is forced to live in the barn by him self and can not join in any social activities with the other men. The quote says dont matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I feel this makes the point that although Lennie does rely on George a lot, George also relys on him to be a friend and the fact that Lennie is simple makes no difference because they have something which all the workers envy - friendship. Crooks is possibly the loneliest character on the ranch along side Curleys wife who is also very lonely.

Curley is the ranch owners son and likes to think everything he does is right. Curley likes to think he owns his wife and that he should tell her what she can and cant do and consequently this is what makes her another very lonely character. If she tries to talk to the ranchmen they ignore her, because they fear Curley and she has no female friends so she is very isolated. His wife is never given a name in the book and is constantly referred to as Curleys wife; this for me makes an important and bold statement to the reader. Steinbeck shows how lonely she is, as she is never given a name it shows that no one thinks of her as a friend, but more of an object. She shouldnt really be as lonely as she is because she has a husband, but still she has no real friends. She has no real grip on life and lives in two completely different worlds. In reality she lives in an old ranch surrounded by ranchmen with no friends or companions to communicate with. However she longs and truly believes she can be a film star. She once told Lennie

I aint used to livin like this. I coulda made something of myself maybe I will yet

Curleys wife is not the only one dreaming of a better life, all the characters struggling in this novel are dreaming of moving away and making something of themselves.

All the characters on the rank suffer from loneliness, and this is down to having no friends. They all in some way or other envy George and Lennie because no matter what happens George and Lennie have each other as friends; no one else on the ranch can boast this. It wasnt normal for people to travel together like George and Lennie did and this is what brought about suspicion, for example the boss of the ranch thought George was taking Lennies wages showing that nobody really knew or understood friendship, as it didnt really exist for anyone on the ranch.

Candy is an old ranch worker who was disabled a few years back while working. He has a little bit of money and feels he can contribute towards paying for George and Lennies little ranch, as long as he can be a part of the dream. This is a very strange peculiar part of the novel as it gives an unexpected twist to the story line. Throughout the novel the dream is always associated with George and Lennie, like the times when George explains the dream to Lennie and how they always keep the dream alive by talking about it. Candy an old lonely, isolated man changes this and George and Lennie need to make an important decision whether or not to allow Candy in on their dream.

Spose I went in with you guys. Thats three hundred and fifty bucks Id put in Howd that be?

Once again candys desperate attempt to be a part of the dream shows us the degree of loneliness that exists for him. Candy owns an old disabled dog, which is much like him in many ways. The dog is only used for labor and is not really needed around the ranch: very similar to the way the other men look upon Candy. In the end his dog was shot and I think this is also making the statement that candys life may be going in the same direction, even if this is contradicting the American dream. Candy worked hard all his live and all he had to show for it was nothing, not much when you consider how long he worked for.

Crooks dreams of a better life just like all the characters, but he dreams of a different life, he dreams of educating himself.