The ranch
The ranch would consist of bunkhouses for the workers, in the bunkhouses there would be a bunk bed a small box next to each bed were they can keep personal belongings like ‘letters’ and ‘magazines’. The boss would have a separate house for him and his family including all the amenities like an inside toilet, the boss would also have his own office in the house or close to it. In the novel the character Crooks has to live on his own elsewhere because of his skin colour therefore he gets treated differently and unfairly compared to all the other workers. The ranch would be quite large because of the barley fields taking up most of the space. This photo shows what a ranch looks like.
The jobs the men do
In the ranch men are ranked accordingly to who they are and what they do for example in the novel Slim is a leader of a team and is highly respected, his first appearance in the novel is described as a ‘tall’ man and his entrance is said to be only achieved by ‘royalty’ and ‘master craftsmen’. Slim is also described as the ‘prince of the ranch’ giving him a high ‘authority’ in the ranch. He is described to be an expert in his work and knows what he is doing however on the other hand the stable buck Crooks does not get any respect from anyone and his is work is not professionally done like Slims because he has a injured back and his colour adds to this as well as they consider him to be an outcast.
In the ranch your status is how hard you work and how good you get to know with the other workers so if you work hard then your status will rise but if you do not work hard then you will be ‘canned’ this is the term used for when you get sacked this links to my second paragraph when I talk about how the men use language in slang. The men used to work with their hands because they did not have any machinery back then or because it was too expensive to buy, and because men are a lot stronger than women they would use their hands to pick up heavy sacks of barley consequently men dominated.
Men’s view of women
The working men’s view of women is like to buy women like they buy a drink so even women did not have proper rights just like Crooks, men would not think of having a proper relationship with women although Curley did have a wife he also used to go out with the other men into town and so there is a possibility that he may have spent a night in a whore house with other women. In the novel Steinbeck did not give Curley’s wife a real name as all the workers referred to her as a ‘whore’, ‘slut’ or simply ‘Curley’s wife’. This shows and adds to how women were treated and seen as in society by men for the reason that they are more dominant.
How they spend their time
The men have their free time on a Saturday night into the town, the men can go to ‘whore houses’, have a horseshoe tournament and gamble money. They would spend some money on drinks and play card games, solitaire and read magazines. They would allow Crooks to play with them and join in so that he was not completely considered an outcast but they still made fun of him so Crooks spends most of his free time reading ‘books’ as this is the only way he is not discriminated and so he dreams of a being seen as an equal to everyone else, he knows his civil rights and he also remembers childhood when he played with the white children who came up to his family’s chicken ranch plus longs for a similar relationship with white people again. Most of the other workers dream about a life that they don’t have for example George and Lennie, they dream of owning a ‘little patch of land’.
Prejudice
In the novel ‘of mice and men’ prejudice plays a big part and it is shared among some of the characters like Candy, Crooks and Lennie and they were also considered as outcasts these all have some kind of disability also their positions were low in the ranch. Candy was considered an outcast in position to his job because of his hand cut of by a machine so he can not work therefore he is considered an outcast, in addition he is old so he different from other hands. Crooks is disabled because he was ‘kicked’ in the back by a horse and as a result became a cripple on top this he was black so he was racially abused as well, he was mostly abused by the boss because he seems to take it out on him. This was because the boss knew that he could not do anything for example he ‘gave the stable buck hell’ because George and Lennie were late arriving to the ranch so he took his anger out on Crooks and so Crooks could not fight for his rights. Lennie is retarded and his mind is the age of a young child, as children like to stoke soft things Lennie likes to ‘stroke’ mice because they are soft and he likes to pet them. Lennie has no physical disability so he can go out and work with the rest of the workers and to the advantage of his strong body he can ‘buck barley’ very fast in addition he can follow instructions very well.
Loneliness
Loneliness affects many of the characters, and Steinbeck seems to show that it is a natural and inevitable result of the life they are forced to follow. Steinbeck shows that the workers are caught in a trap of loneliness and they never seem to say in one place to form a permanent relationship or even think of one. Even if they did have one then it would be likely that the relationship would not stay together or even have problems by the demands of the workers life. Candy is lonely because of his old age and the only company he has is his old dog and this reminds him of the days when he was young and whole. Candy has no relatives and once his dog is shot he is totally alone and he tries to get into George and Lennie’s dream of having a piece land. George is also caught in the trap of loneliness when he is forced to shoot his companion in the back of the head, like Candy and his dog George had Lennie (who is described as an animal) he is left lonely as well at the end of the novel. Another lonely character is Curleys Wife, she is newly married and in a new strange place. Curley forbade her to talk to anyone through his jealousy and so she countered it by approaching workers to ask were Curley is in door ways therefore the men regarded her as a ‘slut’ and that became her name other than Curley’s wife. Steinbeck never gave Curleys Wife a name. Finally loneliness leads to her death as she tries to overcome Curley’s instructions by letting Lennie feel her hair; consequently Curley is now left alone because he chose a wife which was totally inappropriate for his life that he leads in an attempt to overcome his loneliness. This is because all the workers despise him for his cowardice. Crooks is another who is isolated because he is different, he tries to cope with this by keeping a distance from the other workers and reading books as these are his only companions.
Dreams
In the novel Dreams is something that some characters use to combat with loneliness of their existence. The most obvious dream in the novel is George and Lennie’s dream farm, this dream is only shared by the two at first but then later spreads to Candy and Crooks. The American dream is what people used to think that in America there is a piece of land for everyone because of its vast lands, this gave people a sense of Independence and this is what made them go on and continue to tackle the harsh realities of life most people were likely to never achieve their dreams. This is revealed in the poem by Crooks ‘seems live ever guy got land in is head’. The reason why Lennie asks George to recite the descriptions of the farm is because it is an antidote to overcome his disappointment and loneliness. Curley’s wife is another who has dreams and they were to become a movie star and the life of luxury and fame, this comes to nothing when Lennie kills her.
Conclusion
In conclusion the title to this book tells you the about the novel in a few words. The title of this book is taken from an Irish poem by Alfred Burns;
“The best laid plans of mice and men always go wrong”. Steinbeck has portrayed this in a correct way as the story deals with so many dreams from the characters point of view and so none of these were destined to come true anyway.
