Also when everyone was playing horse shoe tournament which left him to be left on his own in the ranch that then resulted killing the puppy probably as he is not used into joking with people or spend time with people except George, so he doesn’t know how to behave with people or to control his temper as it resulted in killing the puppy and Curley’s wife. Although Lennie could not behave or think like adult but he did have sexual feelings as when he touched and straight away got attracted to Curley’s wife, “let me go!” as Curley’s wife got fed up of Lennie touching her.
Candy is alienated because he is oldest in the ranch with no one his age nearby, which makes the younger workers to stay away from him, as he is not any good for them. He was quite happy until his dog was alive but when Carlson shot his dog he was so lonely that “he lay back on his bunk and crossed his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling.” Probably his dog was his only friend with some similarities, such as they both were fit when they were young and worked very hard in the ranch. When they got older and older they didn’t get the praised that they used to get for hard working.
Curley’s alienated wife because she is the only woman in the whole ranch. In addition to this Curley does not want her to have any kind of relationship with any men in the ranch also Curley treats her like a child. “Any of you seen my wife?” However as Curley is thief in his heart he thinks he wife has an affair with the other men in the ranch. Curley’s wife wears a lot of makeup “hand full rouged lip and heavily made up face,” described by Steinbeck. However, as she hangs around the bunkhouse heavily make up face looking for men attention so Curley had to be a bit insecure. Another reason is that every man in the ranch is sexist; they only interact with women when they go to the whorehouse. Due to loneliness and not satisfying her husband sexually she is always looking attention from the other men by using the excuse of “have you seen Curly around”. Surprisingly, when Curley does appear to be around then he walks around the ranch saying, “anybody seen my wife”. That’s due to he doubts his wife has an illegal relation with Slim, which makes him angry, very insecure and protective about his wife. Others think that she wants some sexual pleasure from them and they do not dare to speak to her as they can get the “can”. That’s because Curley is the only son of the owner of the ranch. We can tell from the language of John Steinbeck that inequalities towards women were a lot as he didn’t even give her a name and also most time described her as a whore. “Baloney,” now this really sound as if she is a whore.
Friendship is the only between Lennie and George and Candy and his old dog. In the ranch no one else has close friends even Slim whom interacts with everyone including Crooks but still he doesn’t have a close friend that he can talk to without any worries etc. We know this as slim tells George that “Ain’t many guys travel around together, May be ever’ body in the whole damn world is scared of each other”. These words that came from Slim’s mouth indicates that there is no friendship and every one is for himself and scared of each other. Man cant trust another man in the ranch their life is worse then animals, without family or friends no wonder the men in the ranch behaves wildly.
Friendship between Lennie and George surprises every one in the ranch, as it must have being their first time seeing friends or guys travelling together. Some people might think that George feels pity for Lennie so that’s why he hangs around with him but there are many proof in the book which shows that George really cares for Lennie and doesn’t want to lose him and George doesn’t have anyone else in life except Lennie so he must stay with Lennie so that he doesn’t feel lonely. “I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’t have no fun.” This tells us that he supports friendship and would be quite hard for him to live without friends.
On the other hand he respects Lennie’s feelings but when he gets harsh towards him it’s only so that Lennie doesn’t get into trouble or trouble anyone else. When George told Slim that he has beaten the hell out of Lennie but Lennie didn’t point a finger back this means that Lennie trusts George with blinded eye and whatever George says it must be right for him. George also treats Lennie as if he is his big Brother “OK,’ “An’ you ain’t gonna do bad things like you done in weed, neither.” He said it if Lennie is younger than him and the way he said it was so polite and sweet. Lennie also thinks as George is his big brother “Ain’t we gonna have no supper?” Another reason of their friendship is aunt Clara because of whom George is keen to stay with Lennie and look after him like a big brother that he would have done for his little brother if he had any.
Another example of friendship in the ranch is Candy and his old dog, as both of them used to be very active and now too old to do anything in addition to that the dog has being blinded somehow. They both have being very loyal to the ranch for number of years but now they know that once they are old with not being able to do any labour then soon will get the can.
His relation with his dog is more like father and son. He makes food for his dog and feeds the dog himself. After work he might speak to the dog and all the things that two friends or father and son would do or say. There can be number of reasons for Candy to only have a friend which is a dog first one can be that there is no one else of candy’s age whom he can interact and the guys younger than him are not interested.
Both Candy and George have being very good and loyal to
their friends but Steinbeck most of the time compare Lennie to an animal for example Lennie “dabbled his paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in splashes”. There are many other similarities between Lennie and Candy’s dog as they both are naïve, don’t know what they are doing also they die as well before their friends.
Alternatively there is one big difference and that is that Candy’s dog was shot by Carlson but Lennie was shot by George. That can be because when Carlson shot Candy’s dog due to it being useless and smelly. However, later on Candy was also angry that it would have being better if he had the right to shoot his dog himself. This went into George’s mind and when he realised that Lennie will get a hard death by Curley so he decided to shoot Lennie himself so that Lennie can have an easy death without suffering.
On the other hand, there was a lot of hatred in the bunkhouse, Curley as good example “You seen a girl around here?” “he demanded angrily”. That showed how he spoke to people. Curley didn’t like George and Lennie and most other men in the bunkhouse but no one could do anything about it, as he was the boss’s son. He specially hated big guys like Lennie “let the big guy speak” Curley said when his blood was hot and steaming to have a go on Lennie. As he was a short little fella he hated people bigger than him or stronger than him as even though he was quite “handy.”
First of all America is well known for its dreams and the dream is that “any one can make it if they work for it”. It can be their day tomorrow if not today, so it’s possible to become anything you want.
There were loads of dreams in peoples mind in ranch. Those dreams came to their mind and shattered as it made it’s way out. Steinbeck focused on one main dream that was Lennie and George’s.
Since the start of the book there was a dream was in Lennie and Georges mind.
George knew a place where they can get cheap land for their dream. The dream was as George described it many times, “Well, it’s ten acres ” a chicken run, got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, “cots, nuts, got a few berries. They’s a place for alfalfa and plenty water to flood it. They’s a pig-pen…”
Then there was more added to the dream by Lennie saying “An rabbits, George.” Their dream went on and as they were discussing their dream when Candy was in the same room facing the wall because his dog tragic death. As soon as he heard the dream he started to think and shivering that the only way he could stay happy and get out of this place is to join the dream and hope to turn the dream into reality as soon as possible. At first George hesitated about having Candy is their dream place but later on as Candy said “I got sum cash saved up, Geroge.” George had a thought about Candy’s cash, so he decided that at the end of the month as soon as they get their salary they will get their “fatta” which is the name for their dream land.
When everyone went to the whore house except the misfits, then Lennie spoke to Crooks about the dream whom also decided for a while only to join the dream and “0’ help out in the land that they will be getting”. Then Crooks dream was the first, whose dream was broken as he realised that it won’t work out because of his colour, so he intentionally stepped back.
Steinbeck didn’t concentrate in telling us about anyone else’s dream but he did tell us quite a lot about Curley’s wife dream. Her dream was to leave the ranch and go to the “pictures.” She was quite confident about her dream as before marrying Curley she did get a positive contact from a Hollywood star.
Curley’s wife dream shattered as mentally sub-normal Lennie accidentally, strangled her to death with his big hands. In couple of moments her dream was shattered into pieces and she was left dead with broken neck. This also destroyed the dream of Lennie, George and Candy as Lennie had to die with no alternatives. George didn’t want others to torture Lennie so he had to shoot Lennie himself. This shattered their dream as George only wanted Lennie to be in his “fatta” land dream but as he is gone, Candy will have to bear all the problems in the ranch in his old age and soon perhaps get kicked out of the ranch. Sadly, after Lennie’s death George will have to wait for his fifty bucks every month and spend it all on girls just like the other men in the ranch.
Conclusion
John Steinbeck told us clearly in this story about how America was in 1930’s after the great depression. He told us about how people lived under poor quality of life standards. Then he told us how hard it was to find jobs and the condition of jobs in which people had to work. Through Slim he told us if anything happened in ranch was right or wrong all by whatever Slim said. As some people might be sad about Lennie dieing, he knew that people will be sad to he made Slim say “you had to do it” to George which meant George you did the right thing.
Lennie, Candy, Curly’s wife and Crooks were all misfits in the ranch but they could have being fit if: Lennie goes to an institution for disables he would not be a misfit because there will be more people like him there so he will not be an outsider. Candy will not have being a misfit if he goes to old people’s home. Also Curly’s wife could not have being a misfit if there were more women in the ranch. Crooks will not have being a misfit if there were more black people. So technically they can be taken away from the misfits category.