The men on this ranch are very lonely because they have to travel around for work and they normally travel by themselves. I know this straight away because the boss says “I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin’ his pay from him?”. This quotation shows us that it is unusual for two men to travel together because the boss thinks its suspicious. This is also backed up when slim says “hardly none of the guys ever travel together” so this proves it is unusual.
The men spend their time working, they have an occasional game of horseshoes and every Saturday night most of them go into the nearest town apart from Candy, Crooks Curley’s wife and Lennie. They visit a whore house, we know that the all the men go apart from crooks because he says “all the boys gone into town, huh?”, this shows that this is a regular thing but Crooks doesn’t because he is black, so he is excluded.
Most of the men on the ranch have no family and no stability, they travel from place to place, working and spending their money in the whore house. They do not have a wife or children either; they carry their things around in bindles. They are clothes and belongings wrapped up in a blanket for carrying; this shows that they only have to take the minimum for them to carry it around.
There are three bonds on the ranch, one is between Lennie and George, the other is Candy and his dog, the last is Curley and his wife. Candy is the old ranch hand, who they have kept on because he only has one hand. Candy has had his dog all his life and even though Candy knows his dog should be shot, he can not see his life without the dog. The dog is a bit like Lennie because they both need looking after. George and Lennie’s relationship is quite similar to candy and his dog’s relationship, they both depend on each other. The relationship gives Candy companionship.
Carlson starts to talk about the dog and he says “look, Candy. This old dog just suffers himself all the time”. Candy knows this is true but cannot think of what he would he would do without the dog as the dog is Candy’s best friend. But Carlson takes the dog and shoots it. Later Candy says “I ought to of shot that dog myself”. He tells George this and this may influence George. Candy thinks he should of shot the dog himself because it was his dog, his responsibility and so it should have been up to him. Candy feels he will be even lonelier without the dog and that soon he will be shot because he is tired and no good. Candy has low status because his job is not a real job they just felt sorry for him.
Another lonely and low status character is Crooks. He is treated very differently to everyone else on the ranch because he is black. He is treated as something they would pick off their shoe and chuck in the bin but Lennie doesn’t realise that Crooks should be treated differently; Lennie doesn’t understand racism due to the fact that he is mentally child like. Crook is not allowed to sleep in the bunkhouse like all the over men and the only way he can get his own back is by not allowing them in his room.
There is a point in the book where everyone has gone to town except Lennie, Candy Curley’s wife and Crooks. Lennie goes to Crooks room and tries to be nice but straight away Crooks says “you got no right to come in my room”, he is being protective because nobody has ever come in his room before apart from Slim and the Boss. Lennie doesn’t understand racism so he just thinks of Crook as another man. Lennie starts to talk to Crook, which surprises him because it is so unusual. Eventually Crooks softens and allows Lennie into his room. Lennie starts to talk about George and their dream, Crooks then makes Lennie mad by suggesting that George won’t come back but eventually Lennie calms down. Candy now comes in but he doesn’t feel comfortable, Crooks starts to feel equal and even begins to think he could be involved in the dream. Well until Curley’s wife interrupts and Crooks tells her to get out of his room. She replies “keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it isn’t even funny. Even though she is low status because she is a woman, he is even lower because he is black. Anybody would take the other persons word over Crooks unless the other person was also black. This is because in the 1930s, there was lots of racism and sexism.
Curley is another character in this novel. Curley is the boss’s son, he is small but cocky. He recently married a pretty but flirtatious woman. All of the men are very aware and try to stay away from her; they call her “jail bait”. Curley’s wife is treated badly by everyone on the ranch; most of the men think that she is a tart.
Curley still goes to a whorehouse even though he is married; this could make her feel very insecure. Life on the ranch is very lonely for her because she is made to keep inside the house by Curley, so she uses the excuse of looking for Curley to try and get the men attention by flirting with them. Also she doesn’t have a name, she is called “Curley’s wife” which makes it sound like she is Curley’s property or it could be that nobody stays long enough to find out. She is treated differently because she is a woman in the 1930s. Curley’s wife and Crooks are quite similar because they have low status. Also they both want people to talk to them because they are lonely. Lennie doesn’t realise the difference because he is mentally immature. Curley’s wife had already had a bad life before she met Curley, she did not get on well with her mother and she lived in a small town where she did not get very much attention. Once a man offered her a job in the movies, he said he would send her a letter but she never got it, so either he didn’t send it or she thinks her mother stole it. She says ‘I never got that letter , I always thought my old lady stole it’.
This shows us that she didn’t have a very good relationship with her mum because she was suspicious and didn’t trust her. Then she says how she just married the first man that came along. Even though she is portrayed as a tart, she has had a bad life and deserves some sympathy.
The biggest bond is between George and Lennie. George looks after Lennie as he feels he has duty to Lennie. I think that this duty comes from when they were young and George use to lead Lennie on, telling him to do things he couldn’t, like telling Lennie to jump into a river just to impress some guys. Lennie jumped straight in, although he couldn’t swim. Lennie nearly drowned but was very grateful to George for pulling him out. I think the duty come from this because George felt guilty but from that day he tried to improve his manner towards Lennie. Then the more time he spent with Lennie the more he liked him. George treats Lennie like a son. He has an uncommon bond with Lennie which I don’t think anybody can break. George is like a parent because he looks after Lennie and if Lennie gets into any trouble he will have to sort it out. George does dream of a life without Lennie and when George gets angry he tells Lennie ‘if I was alone, I could live so easy’ but he knows he can’t leave Lennie because Lennie could get into so much trouble and probably couldn’t survive.
Throughout this novel, Steinbeck compares Lennie to animals, for example: ‘the way a bear drags his paws’ is used to explain how he walks. Then there is another which is about the way he drinks ‘snorting into the water like a horse’. Also there are similarities between Candy’s dog death and Lennie’s death. Even though George has Lennie, he can still get lonely because he cannot have a proper conversation with Lennie as Lennie forgets most things and doesn’t understand because he has the mentality of a child.
All of the men and Curley’s wife are lonely but George and Lennie are not as lonely as they have each other. Curley’s wife and Crooks are the loneliest because they both have low status due to differences. I don’t think that life could be different in the 1930s, they needed to travel around to find work otherwise they could not support themselves or any family they had. The paradox ‘you have to be cruel to be kind’ happens twice on the ranch, the first is when Candy’s dog is shot, its cruel to shot a dog but you are being kind because you are stopping the dog from suffering, till it dies. The second is when George shoots Lennie, even though George doesn’t want to Lennie can be shot or be locked up because he killed Curley’s wife.
Steinbeck is trying to make two points throughout the novel. The first is that in the 1930s things were very different white men were the highest class, then white women and lowest black people. In the 1930s there was a lot of racism and sexism, which we still have today but not as much. The second is that even the best well layed-out plans never go exactly accordingly to plan and most go completely wrong. Also Steinbeck shows us in this novel how lonely the people in the 1930s were.
