‘The world of the ranch is tough and lonely, there is no place for friendship and no place for women’ Discuss Steinbeck’s depiction of ranch life in “Of Mice and Men” as experienced by George and Lennie

a family was extremely difficult so most people did not get married unless they were rich ranch owners or business men. These conditions caused a huge decrease in the number of marriages especially in the Southern States, and a huge increase in the number of ‘ whore-houses’ These allowed the men to feel their manhood but have to pay only once and not go on paying for food and necessities. Although it gave the men feeling of their manhood it didn’t satisfy their psychological needs in having a person to love and share their feelings with. This caused great loneliness, people after being left alone for a long time cant accept the idea of living around people again and if they do they become very mean and rude. Therefore most men had no real friends, maybe some colleagues or roommates but not soul mates. As it was a very rough world feelings were not present, and most people never expressed their feelings and most feelings were buried deep in people’s hearts. In this book it is different, there are two very good friends who are George and Lennie. They have a very close relationship very much like a parental relationship. As it is a tough world many people think that it is very weird and strange for two guys to go together everywhere that some people referred that there was a homosexual relationship.  As George is a smart, small guy and Lennie is huge and not really smart he follows George everywhere and in anything. George cares for Lennie and does not want to see him getting hurt this is shown when he shouts at him for drinking water from the pool. George shouts at him because he thinks that the water is “scummy” and “not running”, but Lennie does not really care and he continues drinking. This incident shows their parental relationship.