Another big issue on the ranch that affected the workers was racism and prejudice. In the novel we see two different forms of this one against Crooks the black stable worker. He is disfigured and is an outcast. Crooks is forced to live in the stable on his own and is not allowed in the bunkhouse. We get a good impression of how crooks is treated when Candy is showing Lennie and George around the ranch he says “The boss sure was burned when you wasn’t here this morning … gave the stable buck hell … ya see the stable buck’s a nigger.” So this shows how people treat Crooks differently to everyone else just because he is black. The second kind of prejudice featured in the novel is sexism and is aimed towards Curley’s wife. The majority of the ranch workers wouldn’t know any other women other than the women in the whore houses they visit every month so Curley’s wife living on the ranch is strange to them. “Jesus what a tramp,” says George referring to Curley’s wife. But all she really wants to do is talk and have companionship but they call her a tart and they think she always brings trouble with her. But Crooks is treated much worse than Curley’s wife as we know when Lennie, Crooks and Candy are all talking and she enters the room “, Well you keep in your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up so easy on a tree it ain’t even funny.” So from this we know blacks are treated worse than white women are.
I believe that the main theme of the novel is loneliness. Everybody in the novel is lonely except for Lennie and George because they have each other. As George says “, Guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world…They got no family. They don’t belong no place…With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us…” None of the workers stay in one place long enough to form permanent relationships. Candy is lonely because he is old. His only comfort was his old dog that kept him company. So when Candy’s dog is dead he clutches onto Lennie and George’s dream of being independent. Curley’s wife is also lonely; she is forbidden to talk to anyone else by Curley and becomes bored all day in the house so approaches the workers for company, which results in them seeing her as a tart. Crooks is another character in the book that is lonely due to his isolation because he is different, he longs for human company but because of difference in race he remains alone and isolated. Whit a character that features briefly in the novel tells us a lot about the loneliness of a ranch worker. He becomes terribly excited when he discovers a letter written into a magazine by someone who used to work on the ranch this demonstrates his desperation for companionship and human links. Slim sums it up perfectly when he says “, Maybe ever’body in the whole god damn world is scared of each other.”
The ranch workers lives also appear to be in one continuous cycle, they work for a month, collect their $50 and go to the brothel they do this month after month all with no progress being made and being stuck in this constant cycle. Although George always talks of how much better off he would be without Lennie and how he could collect his $50 and then go and stay in a whore house all weekend, have no problems and everything be great. He is lying we know this because when Lennie is dead George is upset and depressed because he realises the lonely future ahead of him without the company of Lennie and his true friend and companion is gone.
The ranch is also a place were no one can be trusted anyone a perfect example of this is when George and Lennie are talking to the boss for the first time and finds out about how they travel together. He automatically assumes that George is doing it for a selfish reason. He becomes suspicious of them right away and warns how he has seen wise guys before and he says nobody can get away with anything so he isn’t a very trustworthy person.
Another key theme in my opinion in the novel is needless violence. The most obvious character to point out is Curley and the way he is always looking for fight. A good example of him and his cruelty and meanness is when they begin the hunt for Lennie and rather than staying with his dead wife he goes out with the intention of “…shooting him in the guts.” This is cruel and he wants to make Lennie suffer. Carlson is another character associated with violence he is unconcerned about shooting Candy’s dog. Later on in the novel when Curley comes looking for his wife and there is a chance of a conflict between Slim and Curley “I guess maybe I’d like to see this,” says Whit and him and Carlson leave hoping for a fight seeing it as their entertainment. Carlson also shows great enthusiasm in joining the hunt for Lennie and sees it again as entertainment and doesn’t seem to understand a human life is involved. The last words of the novel also belong to Carlson “, now what the hell you suppose is eatin them two guys.” In this he reveals his total inability to understand George’s feelings about the death of Lennie.
The ranch workers are sad and lonely and they often try and think of better times and times of happiness. For Crooks this is his childhood, times when he used to play with white kids and he didn’t understand racism. Lennie remembers his Aunt Clara and how she gave him mice. So in general childhood was a happy time.
Another key theme in the novel is dreams. Everybody has a dream. Lennie and George’s dream is a simple one: to be there own bosses and be independent and live within in their means. As Crooks points it is a very common dream for a ranch worker to have but none of them get the piece of land that they want so badly. But George and Lennie have heard this dream so many times that it almost becomes believable and it is so powerful that Candy having heard it once is then captivated by it even the cynical Crooks is believes in the dream for a short time. But it is this dream that keeps them going and motivated the idea of being independent. Curley’s dream is to be able to beat everybody up and be one of the best welterweights. Even Curley’s wife has a dream: to be a Hollywood actress, which she claims nearly, came true. But it is in these dreams the characters seek joy and happiness. But it is significant that none of the characters achieve their dreams.
