The other characters have dreams about being safe and loved like Curley’s wife, who dreamt about making it big in the movies but all her dreams were shattered when she married. Now she does nothing but hide away in the house or stroll about getting people into trouble. She was convinced that she would have been better off in the movies. After all, she had been promised to become an actor from the age of fifteen, the only thing that had stopped her was her mother. All of the dreams have an unlikelihood of coming true, which makes them all very similar.
Another important theme of the story is loneliness. All of the characters experience loneliness at one point in the story for Crooks he sits all alone in his barn and lets no one in. He is shut off from the other workers because he is black and has a crooked back giving him his name. This leaves him to be a bitter, grumpy old man.
Candy is another of the workers who is old and crippled and left mostly on his own. His only real companion was his dog and in the end he even loses that. This leaves him completely alone.
Curley’s wife is usually alone because she does not like her husband and tries to avoid him as much as she can. This gives her the reputation as a tart because she tries to talk to as many of the workers as she can so as not to be lonely. This usually ends up getting the workers into trouble with Curley.
Lennie and George were very lucky to have each other. I think this is why George was so protective of Lennie, because if Lennie wasn’t there he would have been completely alone.
Throughout the story Lennie is referred to as huge hulking animals such as bears and horses. I think that is very ironic considering Lennie’s fondness for animals. When they talk about having their own land Lennie always has to get his bit in about the rabbits. He eventually ends up getting a puppy on the ranch but due to his ‘brute strength’ he ends up killing the poor thing. When he was fighting with Curley the book made it out to sound like Lennie picked him up like you or I would lift a feather, effortlessly with no hassle at all.
There is a connection between Candy and his dog, George and Lennie. Candy’s dog like Lennie ends up being ‘put down’ this leaves both characters lonely, I think John Steinbeck purposely meant for that to happen making a comparison between the two characters.
Overall I think this was a good short novel it was quite basic but I still enjoyed how it was written more like a play than a story.
Craig Hamilton