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Curley himself is lonely. His recent wife hates him as well as all the workers at the ranch who despise him for his cowardice.
“Page 125, paragraph 2, lines 1-2, Curley’s wife says,”
“Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I oughtn’ to. I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.”
He has married in an attempt to overcome his loneliness, but has blindly chosen a wife totally impropriated for the kind of life he leads. His feelings are all channelled into aggressive behaviour which further isolates his wife.
Crooks is another character who is isolated because he is different. He copes with it by keeping a distance between himself and the other hands at the ranch.
“Page 80, paragraph 3-4, line 1-8, Crook says,”
"S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick"
Dreams are one of the ways in which characters combat their loneliness and the hopelessness of their individual lives. Main characters in, “John Steinbeck’s novel have a dream to achieve.
The most obvious example is the dream farm. A dream originally initiated by George and Lennie, but later on spreads to include Candy and Crooks. Crooks mention that having an own piece of land (no matter how small), was the dream of all men, but unfortunately all stayed in dreams.
“Page 106, paragraph 2-3, line 1-5, Crook says,”
"I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.”
This is a powerful dream, and even the cynical Crook falls under its spell for a short time.
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“Page 109, paragraph 3, line 5-7, Crook says,”
“You say you got the money?. ….If you….guys would want a hand to work for nothing – just his keep, why I’d come an’lend a hand.
To Lennie, the dream its what frequently keeps him out of trouble and loneliness. He often asks George to recite the description of their illusionary farm.
“Page 146, paragraph 1-3, lines 1-5, Lennie says,”
“Tell how it’s gonna be. Go on, how its gonna be. We gonna get a little place…”
Curley’s wife is another character with dreams in mind. Her fantasy of taking part in movies and having a life of luxury covers part of her illusions.
“Page 124, paragraph 3, line 1-7, Curley’s wife says,”
“I went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.”
Friendship is another important theme in the novel.
From the beginning of the novel we immediately perceive George and Lennie’s friendship. The two men are not unique for wanting a place and a life of their own, but they are unique because they both have each other.
“Page 145, paragraph 4, line 1-4, says,”
“Because I got you an’….
‘An’ I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us, Lennie cried in triumph.”
We, as readers become curious about George and Lennie’s friendship. But, can we actually call it friendship? Lennie would call George a friend, but sadly George would perhaps find difficulties to admit the same of Lennie. George actually tells Slim, he has simply become so used to having Lennie around that he "can't get rid of him".
George also demonstrates protectiveness and arrogance when it comes to Lennie. He is perhaps motivated to stay with Lennie by a sense of guilt, responsibility, pity or just with the excuse to not be alone himself.
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George is not blind to the fact that life would be easier without Lennie, and he often advises Lennie, creating a major tension in the novel.
“Page 28-29, paragraph 4-5, line 1-6, George says,”
“Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want”.
Unfortunately this companionship between George and Lennie breaks up. It culminates in the tragic ending, where George has to make the terrible decision of killing his companion, Lennie.
Slim is one of the few friendly characters in the novel. He is friendly towards everyone and a decent person. Is the only character who demonstrates friendliness to George and Lennie.
“Page 57, paragraph 1, line 3-4, Slim says,”
“You guys travel around together? His tone was friendly. It invited confidence without demanding.”
Steinbeck describes Slim as the “leader” of all the hands at the ranch. For this reason he is the only worker with the authority and respect over every single worker.
To conclude my essay im going to discuss the theme of discrimination or inequality.
Crooks is a coloured character from the novel, often recognised as the nigger or stable buck. He is being discriminated against, and has lost his human rights for being black.
“Page 99-100, paragraph 6-7, line 1-4, Crook says,”
“Maybe you guys better go. I ain't sure I want you in here no more. A colored man got to have some rights even if he don't like 'em"
This demonstrates how racist and unfair people were in the 1930’s against coloured people.
Have already used Candy as an example of loneliness, one can also consider him to be discriminated against. As a result of him losing his hand and being old he is discriminated. Candy fears that when he can’t sweep the floors any longer he will get sacked.
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“Page 88, paragraph 2, line 2-3, Candy says,”
“They ‘ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk-houses they’ll put me on the county.”
There is also discrimination towards Curley’s wife, who in the novel is given no name, and is just known as “Curley’s wife”. This illustrates discrimination against sex.
“Page 50, paragraph 3, line 2-4, Candy says,”
“Know what I think? George did not answer. Well, I think Curley’s married…a tart!”
Lennie is caught in the trap of discrimination. He is discriminated against for having mental health difficulties. Curley discriminates Lennie for his size. As a result of this Curley is always picking on Lennie.
“Page 90, paragraph 6, line 1-4, says,”
“ Lennie looked blankly at him. ’Huh?’
Then Curley’s rage exploded. ‘ Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is ganna laugh at me. I’ll show ya who’s yella.”
Lot of the discrimination at the ranch is due to the harshness of the time of the American Great Depression.
Antonio Ferrer Sarrias
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