The living conditions in the ranch were horrible and the workers were considered to be slaves at the ranch. They were all kept in different bunk houses. George complains as well when he says “what the hell kind of beds you giving us here, we don’t want know pants rabbits.” When he complained about the beds he meant what kind of rubbish beds are you giving us to sleep on. The working conditions of what George and Lenny had to go through were extremely difficult because of getting shifted from ranch to ranch and having to sleep on hay which would have been very uncomfortable. Also this was a great depression not only because of moving around but because you would also have to be on your own and there was no point in trying to make friends because you wouldn’t know if you were going to get transferred to a new ranch the next day.
In the story Of Mice and Men George says “we migrant workers are the loneliest guys in the world, we got no family and we don’t belong in no place.” George is implying that there is no hope of friendship or happiness for migrant workers and that those who work as migrant workers are those who have no family. How ever in most cases people would move from ranch to ranch by themselves but both George and Lenny had each other for company. When they reach there new ranch there meet an old crippled guy called Candy who had lost one of his hand he is the watcher of the ranch. Candy had an aging dog for his company who is so weak and sick that it counts on Candy to survive. Thus he lets Carlson shoot his dog after this he offers money to George and Lenny for a piece of the land that they both plan to buy. Later on in the story George and Lenny are assigned to a group leader called Slim. Slim is kind and doesn’t prejudge people we know this because he trusted Lenny to look after a puppy for him. Curley’s first judgement was that he assumed Curley’s wife was having an affair with Slim.
Throughout this whole story Curley’s wife is the only person that doesn’t have a proper name and is referred to as Curley’s wife from beginning to the end of the story. She has an ambition to become a famous Hollywood actor and to star in different pictures.
Candy is treated with lots of prejudice because there think he is the only person that doesn’t do any work and has only one hand making it impossible for him to do anything. George half-closed his eyes like why we would want him to come with us, his only got one hand he would be useless, this is a sign of George being prejudice to him. People working in ranches have to keep there patience’s because if there were prejudged and made a big deal for example got into a fight with a follow worker they might be in chance of getting fired as well.
For Lenny and George to achieve there dreams they would have to work really hard staying out of trouble but Lenny is always getting into trouble and so it would be difficult for them to go far with earning money too. Another person whose dreams would be shattered is Curley’s wife because she won’t go far and find a film director if she carries on spending her life on the ranch. People have dreams on the ranch because it is impossible for it to come true and so they have to dream and imagine what their life styles should be like. Migrant workers have lots of dreams because they have no ambitions or targets and so have to figure out how it would be like.
I would never want to work as a migrant worker because you will get lonely, sad and have no hope in life. Doing work like that would mean for you to have lots of energy and with the uncomfortable beds it would be extremely hard to get a good night’s sleep. Also hygiene was another matter because you had to share a bunkhouse with other people and not have enough places to take a wash or bath with all those other workers alongside with you. Also the fact was due to sleeping in a bunk house with about workers of five to ten you had more chances in catching a flu or illnesses and meaning there could be spreaded across the whole ranch. Even to work on a ranch for money it would be something that you have to think and decide hard about to do.
