George and Lennie had a dream; they wanted to buy their own little farm and not have to work for someone else ever again. Later on in the story others hear about the dream and want to join in on it. Creating friendships, a relationship that normally would not have normally occurred between men on a ranch in the time period that the story was set in.
In the second chapter of the novel George and Lennie find work on a ranch, and we meet some new characters. These characters seem lonely too; none of them have relatives to consider or any dreams to fulfil. They end up spending their wages on drink, gambling and whores in the town.
First of all we meet Candy, an old man with only one working arm and an old dog which he has had since it was a puppy. The dog obviously keeps the old man company, and for Candy this is a big deal because he has not got many friends on the ranch, no one to really talk to. His age difference alone set him apart from the other men on the ranch, never mind the fact that he did not have a very taxing job like the other workers. All he did was sweep and mop floors. When the dog is shot by Carlson (another ranch hand), Candy is very upset. “You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me.”
Candy is afraid that when he gets too old and can not help on the ranch anymore they will send him to the county (which I presume is an elderly people’s home). “They’ll can me purty soon.” “They’ll put me on the county.”
This is when Candy decides to join George and Lennie’s dream as well as form a friendship with his bunk companions. “Maybe if I give you guys my money, you’ll let me hoe in the garden even after I ain’t no good at it. An’ I’ll wash dishes an’ little chicken stuff like that. But I’ll be on our own place, an’ I’ll be let to work on our own place.” This to Candy was a sense of security, not only did he now have a friend to talk to, but he did not have to worry about going to the county and being alone.
Another man who is as lonely as Candy if not more is Crooks (the black crippled stable buck). Crooks is a lonely soul because he is a cripple like Candy, but he also suffers discrimination from the other ranch workers. They refer to Crooks as a ‘nigger’ and will not let him join in on any card games. Even his boss shows him discrimination by taking his anger out on the poor crippled ranch hand and only ever allowing Crooks to sleep in the stable, not in the bunk house.
Crooks is a very intelligent man and finds it extremely hard to not to be able to share his intelligence with anyone through conversation. This and the discrimination led Crooks to become very hostile towards most of the ranch workers. “You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me.” “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all stink to me.”
Crooks realises he is lonely and hates the fact that he is, where as the other men on the ranch even Candy just deal with the feeling. Some even enjoy being alone like Slim. “A guy needs somebody-to be near him.” “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you.” “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”
He considers joining George and Lennie’s dream, but then quickly forgets about the idea. “If you guys would want a hand to work for nothing just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to.” Crooks changed his mind because he got threatened by Curley’s wife. She reminds him that he is a ‘nigger’ and that she could get him hung any time she wanted. “Member what I said about hoein and doin’ odd jobs? Well, jus’ forget it, I didn’ mean it. Jus’ foolin’. I wouldn’ want to go no place like that.”
The only other person in the novel who shows loneliness more than some of the others on the ranch is Curley’s wife (who is not given a name).
She is the only woman on the ranch, and finds being kept in the house out of the way, away from anybody else’s eyes extremely boring and lonely. Her husband she dislikes and only married him because her dream of becoming an actress failed. So Curley’s wife forces herself upon the other men on the ranch hoping they will talk and take some interest in her. By doing this she receives the title ‘tart’. All the ranch men are afraid of talking to her as Curley is a boxer and assured to beat them up if they even glance at her. “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?”
One of the reasons why Curley’s wife is named a ‘tart’ is because she tries to hard to get someone’s attention, even to the point where it looks like she is flirting.
This behaviour not only causes her problems but other people as well, and eventually brings Lennie and George’s dream to an end.
Lennie does not mind talking to Curley’s wife apart from the fact that George told him not to. Curley’s wife knows that he is soft, and with enough work she could eventually get him to talk to her and possibly become a friendly companion. This shows that she must have been extremely lonely to want to talk to Lennie; everyone knew he was a little slow, and not much of a companion.
As I said Curley’s wife does end the dream that George and Lennie had. It was on a day when all the other ranch workers were paying horse shoes outside. She is wandering around and eventually makes her way to the barn where she finds Lennie, and realises that he has killed his puppy that Slim gave him. She tries to make Lennie feel better. This immediately makes Lennie start to trust her and talk openly about his dream with George even though George said not to. They talk for a while about their lives and dreams, and then Curley’s wife finds out that Lennie likes to touch soft things.
Curley’s wife is not ashamed of her body; she knows she is attractive and that men look at her. She explains to Lennie how she has just done her hair and that it is really soft. Finally she decides to let him stroke it, thinking the idea was harmless. Lennie does as she asks for a while enjoying the feel, but when Curley’s wife decides she does not want it anymore he won’t stop. Curley’s wife starts to panic and screams, this immediately frightens Lennie and he tries to get her to stop, pleading with her did not work, so he starts shaking her until her neck snaps.
All of a sudden the dreams and hopes of a few lonely men come to an abrupt halt. Especially for Candy who realises when he finds out about Curley’s wife’s death that he will remain lonely, and live in a county home when he has to retire as a ‘nobody’. Crooks saved himself the pain of being let down, he realised that men just dream and never do.
“They come an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a god damn one of ‘em ever gets it.”
People during the 1930’s to the 1940’s when the Wall Street Crash had taken place, were very poor and found it hard to find work. Men did not have stable jobs so they would not marry. Friendships were never made because these men had to move on every couple of months for more work. It was the survival of the fittest, where companionship and relationships did not have a place.