George and Lennie have a dream and this is to own their own ranch which is commonly known as the American Dream. They will have a house, a couple of acres; they will have rabbits, chickens, pigs and other livestock’s; they will have a garden with a big vegetable patch and live off the fat on the land. The loneliness makes both George and Lennie have a dream that motivates them to work. In the novel they are met by different characters on the farm that all have a dream. Most of the characters in the novel are lonely and the only thing that keeps them alive is their dreams. Some of the loneliest characters they meet are Candy, an old man with only one hand, who lost his dog that he took care since it was a pup; Candy then joins George and Lennie’s dream. Crooks, a negro who dreams to be accepted by the other men. And Curley’s Wife, she is lonely even though she is married as she doesn’t love the man she married and she doesn’t have any friends, she dreams to be an actress but her dream has already past.
Lennie’s favourite part of the dream was that he gets to tend the rabbits as he likes to pet soft things. On their way to the ranch he had a little dead mouse in his pocket but Lennie doesn’t know his own strength so it usually leads to a tragic death. His love for soft things is important to the plot because it conspires against him, mostly because he doesn't know his own strength; this is a foreshadowing of event that something will happen later in the novel.
George’s instructions is a another foreshadowing of event that will happen later in the novel, the fact that George tells Lennie to not talk implies that he's worried that they will get in trouble again, and at the end of the first chapter George tells Lennie to go back to the camp site and hide in the bushes until George comes for him, if he gets in trouble. This shows that George is sort of the dominant one in the relationship and Lennie is like a child that needs looking after and George acts as a fatherly figure towards Lennie, telling him not to say anything or speak to anyone. This suggests that Lennie relies on George. George obviously cares about Lennie but is easily frustrated about Lennie’s behaviour, in Chapter 1 he said that his life would be better without Lennie but when Lennie says he will leave him; George then takes back what he said. And that the truth is that George enjoys having Lennie, as a way out of the loneliness that all the ranch hands felt. George cautioning Lennie introduces the idea to the reader that something bad could happen, or has happened before.
The chapter concludes with a description of the sunset.
“The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun.”
This quotation symbolises that we have reach the end of the book. And that George and Lennie’s relationship is also reaching an end.
In this novel friendship is discussed. The friendship between George and Lennie is incomparable. They trust and rely on each other. Through all the hardships that they’ve been through, they still managed to pull through it all, that is, until it came to the very end.
