E.g. “ain’t many guys that travel round together,’ he mused don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the world is scared of each other.”
Slim seems to wish for a companion. I think that slim understands the importance of companionship.
E.g. ” Ain’t many guys travel around together,’ he mused.”
When slim say’s this it seems to suggest that slim may want a companion himself.
Because George was new at the ranch slim began to talk to him. I think it was so that he could become a friend with George and he wouldn’t be so lonely. Slim starts of by asking George a small question and George gives short answers so that he doesn’t tell him something that he will regret. But then slim starts asking George personal Question’s.
E.g. “you guys travel round together?”
Slim is trustworthy and friendly. I think maybe its so that if he does make a friend they will be able to trust him.
E.g. “his tone was friendly it invited confidence without demanding it”
Slim trusts George and Lennie. He is not very suspicious. He does all he can to make sure that no one on the ranch thinks that he’s a formidable person. Again I think he’s like this so that he can get a friend. This suggests extreme loneliness.
E.g. “ain’t many guys travel round together…”
Slim also, like all of the other men on the ranch, needs and wants sex. To get sex he goes to Suzy’s place. I think that sex is not the only reason that he goes, I think he goes there for companionship.
E.g.” ever’body went into town,’ he said. ‘Slim an’ ever’body.”
Slim also plays the horseshoe game. I think he does this so that he can have a laugh and maintain his roll as prince of the ranch.
E.g. “ All the guys got a horseshoe tenement goin’on.”
It doesn’t show that Slim has any dreams in the novel, but I think that he has one dream as do all of the ranch workers and that is to have a companion, a friend or a wife.
E.g. “Slim looked through George and beyond him. ‘Ain’t many travel around together,’ he mused.”
All of the ranch workers are lonely. The horseshoe game is the prime example that we have got that tells us that the ranch workers are lonely. I think that they play the horseshoe game to try and earn respect from one another. This suggests extreme loneliness.
E.g. “ All the guys got a horseshoe tenement goin’on.”
All of the ranch workers want and need sex. So much so, that they are willing to pay for it if they have to. All of the men go to susy’s on a Saturday night. Most go for sex but not everyone does. Whit say’s that you don’t have to go there and have sex. You can go and just talk to susy.
E.g. “old susy’s a laugh-always crackin’ jokes.”
This means that they don’t mind going for a laugh. They like having someone to talk too. It also portrays real loneliness.
They go to susy's place for companionship this means they are lonely. They also go because it’s clean from decease. They also say that she’s got nice chairs.
E.g. “ but susy’s place is clean and she got nice chairs. Don’t let no goo-goos in, neither.”
The bunkhouse is lacking in homely comforts and indicates the loneliness of the room when it is described in the novel. The bunkhouse is very plane.
E.g. “the bunkhouse was long, rectangular building.”
The bunk house lacks in homely comforts and it is not how it would be if they had there own ranch and it also has very little room for belongings. All they have is a little apple box.
E.g. “Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for the personal belongings of the occupant of the bunk.”
All of the ranch workers had the same dream. This was to own their own ranch with a family. They would have western magazines with pictures and they would look at them and get excited when they read them.
E.g. “that’s him,’ whit cried. ‘ that’s the guy!”
Whit plays a very important part in John Steinbeck’s plan to show us how big a dream having their ranch is to all of the workers. He gets so excited over him having a magazine which one of his friends letters are in.
E.g. ”Whit found the place again, but he did not surrender his hold on it.”
In the novel Crooks say’s that they all want a piece of land and that he’s read loads of books on it.
E.g.” ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here.”
George is one of the loneliest characters in the novel. At the beginning of the novel George appears lonely as him and Lennie (George’s companion) walk one behind the other, even in the open space. This suggests that their relationship is unfulfilling.
E.g. ”They walked single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other.”
In the novel there are lots of things that point to George’s loneliness. A strong one is at the beginning of the novel when he sits back and starts to whistle to himself. The reason for him doing this maybe that it reminds him of something he heard as a child or maybe his mother sang it to him when he was a little angelic boy.
E.g. “George lay where he was and whistled softly himself.”
Another clue that we get to his loneliness is a card game called solitaire. George plays solitaire because Lennie is unable to play cards with George.
E.g. “George stared at his solitaire lay, and then he flounced the cards together and turned around to Lennie.”
E.g. “George stacked the scattered cards and began to lay out his solitaire hand.”
George admits that he’s lonely when he says that he’s not as lonely as most people. This means that he is lonely but he’s not as lonely as most men because at least he has a companion.
E.g. “But you get use to going round with a guy.”
George is a ranch worker and as most ranch workers he wants a ranch of his own with a wife and some children maybe. He talks about his dream all of the time.
E.g.” gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and…”
George blames it on Lennie that he hasn’t got a ranch of his own with a women and children. He tells Lennie how easy he could live without him.
E.g. “I could live so easy and maybe have a girl.”
George wants a women but he wouldn’t spend money on a women until he had the money for his own ranch.
E.g. “ I might go in an’ set and a have a shot, but I ain’t puttin’ on no two and a half.”
There is a section of the novel where George really gets into his dream.
E.g. “ ‘an’ it’d be our own, an’ nobody could can us.”
George wants his own ranch as soon as possible. He wants it so much that he would be willing to share it with an old man with one hand who will not be much help. But he is still willing. If it would mean him getting the ranch sooner. He wants independence and a better way of life.
E.g. “ I’m gon’ta write to them old people that owns the place that we’ll take it.”
In the novel one of the characters that I feel most sorry for is Lennie. Just because Lennie is mentally retarded it doesn’t mean that he can not be lonely. A mammoth clue that I found was that Lennie was an attention seeker.
E.g. “look George look what I did.”
In the beginning of the novel Lennie has a mouse. This shows a huge proportion of loneliness. He needs companionship as much as George but in the non-sexual sense. He also wants it to smooth because it is so soft.
E.g. “ I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along.”
Lennie is so desperate to keep the mouse.
E.g. “ give you what George.”
Lennie is trying to get more and more attention. He is sly in how he tries to get it. He gets attention by saying that he’ll go of into the mountains. He tries to get George to say that he wants him to stay, and he does.
E.g. “ if you don’t want me, you only jus’ got to say so.”
Lennie wants a pup because he’s lonely and he wants companionship.
E.g. “ A brown and white one, Lennie cried excitedly.”
Lennie is lonely in spite of having George. It is not enough for Lennie. Lennie loves his new pup so much it hard to describe. He tries to sneak him into the bunkhouse and past George.
E.g. “ What pup George I ain’t got no pup George.”
Lennie is intrigued by Crook’s light and he goes into Crook’s room to see it.
E.g.” And I seen your light.”
Lennie’s dream is to tend the rabbit’s on the ranch that him and George are going to get. He gets so excited when him and George talk about the ranch and the rabbits.
E.g. “go on… George. How I get to tend the rabbits.”
Again Lennie gets excited when he talks about the rabbits. He also gets extremely excited when he talks to George about what colours their going to be.
E.g. “ Lets have different colour rabbits, George.
Lennie wants to let everyone now that he’s going to tend rabbits on his own ranch with candy and George. He tells crooks what its going to be like.
E.g.” the rabbits we’re gonna get, and I get to tend ‘ em, cut grass an’ give ‘em water, and like that.”
Curly, crook’s and Carlson are very different but they all use the same tactic to get popular, this is bullying. Curly bullies Lennie because Lennie is not mouthy or he’s not like curly. Curly hits Lennie in order to be popular with the boys.
E.g. “an’ you won’t let the big guy talk is that it.”
Crook’s also picks on Lennie when Lennie goes into crook’s room. Crooks use’s George to get to Lennie and he tells Lennie that George might not come back.
E.g. “ His face lighted with pleasure in his torture.”
As a result of this Lennie gets aggressive then Crook’s backs off. He is scared because of the damage he caused to Curley’s hand
E.g. “ I didn’t mean to scare you. He’ll come back.”
Unlike curly and crook’s, Carlson picks on Candy. The tool that Carlson use’s is Candy’s old dog. Candy loves the dog so much and he tries to stop Carlson from shooting him but Carlson is so lonely that he feels that he has to do it.
E.g. “well, you ain’t bein’ kind to him keepin’ him alive,”
Curly, Crooks and Carlson all have different dreams. Curly’s dream is to become a boxer. His dream is revealed to George and Lennie by Candy. The old gossip jumped at the chance to talk about someone behind their back.
E.g. “ He done quite a bit in the ring.”
Crook’s dream is merle to be accepted in the world. He hates being black. Being black means having no friends and being told horrid thing like he stinks
E.g. “Cause I’m black. They say I stink.”
I think that Carlson’s loneliness is down to not being popular. I think that he feels as if he has to some how prove himself to the guys. Also this is his dream. He dream is to be one of the guys and be popular. He thinks that he can do this by killing Candy’s only friend.
E.g. “ The way I’d shoot him,”
Curly’s wife is extremely lonely. She talks to Lennie because she knows that she can get him to talk to her. She takes advantage of Lennie in the sense that he isn’t that bright and she knows that if she tries hard enough she can get him to talk to her. She tries to get him to talk to her by changing the subject when Lennie starts to say what George told him about talking to her.
E.g.” Don’t worry about talkin’ to me.”
E.g.” what kinda harm am I doin’ to you.”
Curly’s wife has the dream of being in films. A man once said to her that she had a talent and that she could go somewhere and be the best that they can be and they think that means being somebody somebody. I think that John Steinbeck wrote that part of the novel so that the reader would know that the man that told her this was a fake and a phoney.
E.g. “ Because this guy said that I was a natural.”
Whit helped me a lot to understand how important it was to be admired by the other men. Also how important companionship is. The way in Whit told Slim about bill his old friend who came to work on the ranch for a while.
E.g.” I know it. Bill and me was in here one day.”
In the book there are not many indications that Whit has dreams but there this quote helped me greatly in understanding that his dream is to be famous like his friend Bill. He wants to be in the western magazine like Bill.
E.g. “ an’ that’s just what they done. There it is.”
Conclusion
I agree that the novel of “mice and men” is set around loneliness and dreams. I think that the novel was supposed to be set around the themes of loneliness and dreams because of the deep content of information that is presented in the novel. Evan though I think that loneliness and dreams are the two main themes they are not the only ones. There is also the theme of bitterness. John Steinbeck captures this mostly in the characters of Curly, Curly’s wife and Carlson. Also the theme of friendship, this is related to loneliness but it is represented by characters that are less lonely than others in the novel. The characters that represent friendship are slim and whit. Slim because he tries so hard to be friends with George and Whit because when he talks about Bill he says that he talked to Bill about things. Such as Bill writing to the western magazine.