In this paragraph, I’m going to write about Crooks. Crooks, the stable-buck, lives all alone. He’s exiled from the others, mainly because he’s black. When Lennie pays him a surprise visit, Crooks doesn’t seem to want his company. He’s used to loneliness and even prefers it. Crooks isn’t allowed to stay in the bunkhouse with the other ranch hands because of his ethnic group. He doesn’t have the same status as the other white workers. He is being treated differently because he’s black.
Crooks was also excluded because he suffered an injury and so is not as capable as the other ranch hands. His possessions show that he is lonely. Everyone can see that because he loves to read his books. Crooks doesn’t like when Lennie tries to talk to him.
Crooks get angry every time he tells Lennie to go away from him. But after that, he admits that he is lonely. Lennie will also get lonely and even sick when no one is with him. He is used to being with someone and needs to always talk for his comfort. We can see this because everywhere Lennie goes, he tries to talk to anyone.
Lennie needs someone beside him all the time so that he feels supported. For this, he always wants George. Because he is used to George more than anyone else and knows that he can trust him.
Crooks has skills at work that no one else has (He’s best at the horseshoe game). Years ago, Crooks was kicked and crippled by a horse. He has been racially abused all the time and he’s excluded from almost everything. Crooks certainly wasn’t born with, and doesn’t have any power. He tries to stand up to Curley’s wife but fails. She could have him lynched. In 1937 when this book was published, America was a very racist place during this time. Crook’s life probably represents the experience of many black men in America then. In this paragraph, I have looked at how Crooks appears to other people and how he’s been treated.
I will now write about Candy. He’s an old man who wants to join up with George and Lennie and get a place where they can live. Candy provides a parallel to George and Lennie in that he relies on his dog.
He loves to be with his dog because he had him since he was a puppy. It was the best sheepdog he had ever had. The other workers didn’t realise the relationship between Candy and his dog. It meant nothing to everyone except for Candy. They’ve been together for all of Candy’s life, caring for it from when it was a pup.
Candy cleans out the farm buildings, and shows George and Lennie the bunkhouse.
Candy lost his hand whilst working on the farm, and was allowed to stay on in this lowly position as a cleaner. Candy soon asks George and Lennie if he can come in with them. George said ‘We weren’t thinking of a third person. Cause we was gonna do it on our own’.
George knew that it was owned by old people who might be willing to sell it for $600 or so. Candy confesses he has $350 saved up and asks if he can come in with them. George really begins to believe that his dream might become a reality. George, Lennie and Candy all get excited about the bunkhouse, and said to keep it between us, nobody else.
He needs to work for another month or two and not spend anything so that they will have the stake to buy the farm. This will be good for Candy because then he can live a happy life and avoid the loneliness in the life of a ranch worker.
He’s worked here for so long and wants to change his miserable life and make it peaceful. Candy was moaning that he just let a stranger shoot his dog. By the look of him, he could see that Carlson didn’t like the smell of Candy’s old dog.
Carlson asks Slim to give Candy one of the other pups so that the old dog can be shot. Once the dog has been shot, Candy feels strong pressure towards his mind because he had him since he was a pup and now suddenly he’s just been killed. It feels like the dog is a brother to Candy.
When George and Lennie were talking about their dream, Candy steps in and instead of being sad, George and Lennie gives pride and gives Candy more confidence.
In this paragraph I have explained Candy’s life and the way he lives.
I am now going to write about Curley’s wife. She’s not happy living in her father-in-law’s house. She thinks she has missed opportunities by living with Curley and this band of lonely men. She tries to get a bit of companionship by flirting with them and talking to them. Curley’s wife doesn’t like Curley very much and wants to go elsewhere but cannot because of Curley. The other ranch workers avoid Curley’s wife as they know that if they befriend her, they will get into trouble. She also said that she could have Crooks hung at anytime if she felt like it (Trying to be strong as well as the other men).
She also visits the bunkhouse a lot, she wanted company, but had to ask where Curley was. On Saturday nights she is left at the ranch alone. When she is left alone at the ranch, she tells everyone about her life and story. It’s very miserable for Curley’s wife. She tells everyone the truth… that she doesn’t really like Curley. Everyone else has names except for her. She has to be called Curley’s wife. That is why she doesn’t appear much in the story. She’s being treated like an object. Slim’s dog name is ‘Loulou’. We have looked at the character of Curley’s wife and how she got on.
George and Lennie are different to the other ranch hands. The way they respond to each other shows very close friendship. They act as best friends. George could of lived on his own and blow his money every month on women and whisky, but Lennie always get into trouble and George had to always be there to get him out of it. After Lennie’s Aunt Clara’s death, George adopted his friend Lennie. Lennie couldn’t survive on his own. He has none of the independence or practical skills of most adults. He wouldn’t be able to sort out food and shelter for himself. George is the only person who stimulates his mind, and is able to deal with someone like this. George and Lennie both share a dream together of working and then getting a lot of money so that they can live comfortably in the place that there going to get. Every time George says ‘We’re gonna get the place’. Lennie gets very excited and says ‘I get to tend the rabbits’. Every time Lennie gets into trouble or is about to start trouble, Lennie always says he can go off and live in a cave by himself. George wanted Lennie to be with him, but sometimes Lennie gets on peoples nerves with his non-sense.
When George is about to shoot Lennie, he keeps saying that they both will have there own place and Lennie gets to tend the rabbits. George said this so that Lennie would concentrate on the place and him tending the rabbits fully in his mind. George made him look straight imagining the place and shot him in the head. It was related to the shooting of Candy’s dog too which gave George more confidence in shooting Lennie because he heard that Carlson shot Candy’s dog. George shot Lennie like an animal.
The bunkhouse guys no longer wanted Lennie alive, just like Candy’s poor old dog. Lennie was shot like Candy’s dog, in the back of the head. George became more braver to shoot. But at the end, it is George who will feel guilty. George often insults Lennie and 'gives him hell', but he doesn't really mean it. Although he often talks about how well off he could be without Lennie he secretly doesn't want Lennie to leave, and when Lennie offers to do so in the first chapter, George virtually pleads with him to stay.
This is because George also depends on Lennie to a certain extent for his unconditional friendship. I didn’t think that Steinbeck would make George shoot Lennie. At first, those two was best friends, but George was supported and he didn’t want to shoot Lennie, but everyone came onto him and kept saying that Lennie needs to go; he’s done too much damage.
It ended in a bad way. It made the readers / watchers feel shocked and feel that his life has ended with just one shot. George always gets annoyed of Lennie and Lennie says that he will go up to the hills. George knows that he’s the only one who has to get him out of trouble. But then decides if Lennie’s gone, then he can have total freedom and do anything he wants. At the end, it might of been a mistake to shoot Lennie.
The first paragraph tells us about the introduction of John Steinbeck. It also tells the readers what is going to happen. Paragraph two describes the setting and ranch workers. It’s the setting of the story and the ranch workers. Paragraph number three let’s the readers understand Crooks. It also describes his ethnic group and his rights. The fourth paragraph tells us about Candy. It tells the readers about his loving dog and his dreams towards the ranch. The fifth paragraph also describes Curley’s Wife. The way she acts in the story, and how lonely she is. Finally, the last paragraph tells the readers about the friendship of George and Lennie. It tells us how George and Lennie travel together, live together and the trouble that they get into. It also summarises George and Lennie’s dream.
John Steinbeck is trying to say that life in the 1930s in California was lonely. He doesn’t just write it down, because that will just give the point away. He wants the readers to imagine it for themselves.
