Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

The story called "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is dealing with a rather big variety of different problems that took place at the time of the Great Depression. The issues that are being focused on here is loneliness, companionship and an individuals own American Dream.

The people who would usually strive for their dream are self-reliant enough and hard working enough to be able to achieve their dream. It's a competitive time for the ranch workers at this time and people have lost their hopes and dreams and are mainly only focusing on surviving. The people that are like this are ironically enough also the people who are lonely in some sort of way. George and Lennie however are not lonely – they have each other. They share a dream together. But will this be enough to overcome the time of the Great Depression's struggles? And will the friendship of George and Lennie last in their surroundings of lonely people?

To find the answers to that it is very significant to know that this story is set in the time of the Great Depression. It was a time where the ranch workers especially had to work hard so that they were able to get something to eat in the middle of the day. It was a very competitive time because they had to be the best so that they could survive through this time. It was also why it prevented people from living the life that they desired and it made them feel very lonely since they only could rely on themselves when it came to doing their job the best way they possibly could. It was a time of desperation and loneliness. However in this story we are introduced to two men that are standing out from the crowd of hard workers – these two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, are friends:

"They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coasts with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders." (P. 8, ll. 2 – 6)

This is the first introduction we get of George and Lennie. Already by this introduction we know that although the two men might be friends then it doesn't necessarily make them just as equal hence why one man is walking behind another instead of next to the man. However it is also rather noticeable that they are dressed identically. We can therefore see that there's some sort of companionship between George and Lennie. In the time of the Great Depression this makes them rather unique – to be introduced as two friends and to be able to have each others backs to lean on. This companionship that they have is what contrasts the loneliness that surrounds them in the time of the Great Depression by all the people that they meet throughout the whole story. The fact that George is the one that is walking in the front makes George look like the most responsible one. Throughout the story we learn that this is true, George is the responsible one while Lennie is the one that is mentally retarded and highly dependent on George.

As a reader you start to get an insight on how George is as a person and how Lennie is as a person. Lennie is the one that suffers from a child's mentality within a giant's body, which is basically being shown in the text by the way he acts innocently and is just as forgetful as any child can be. Lennie is very attracted to small and soft things because of his child-like and gentle nature. But because he's such a huge man with heavy arms and powerful hands he often ends up harming the things that he loves accidentally. Lennie is simply not aware of his strength nor does he understand it.

George is however not as strongly built as Lennie is. The reader gets the feeling from the very beginning that George is the responsible, patient and the most understanding man out of the two of them. Although Lennie may get into trouble George would always help Lennie out in the best possible way he could. He's faithfully watching out for Lennie. Not only does George look out for Lennie, he also seems to know that he must discipline Lennie in order to help him – as a reader you often get to see George telling Lennie what he has done wrong and what Lennie must do to improve. By all these actions that we, as readers, get to hear about we know that George cares for Lennie a lot.

Usually a person goes through a development based on different situations that occurs in their life. The person would usually change for the better or for the worse because of these situations. A person's actions are a part of their life experiences. These actions may be able to show a person whether they should do this action again or that the decision of making this action was completely wrong and therefore becomes a life lesson – you basically become a wiser person throughout the years because of your actions and you're therefore able to make wiser decisions in the near future. This is not in the case of Lennie and his life lessons however.

"Lennie went back and looked at the dead girl. The puppy lay close to her. Lennie picked it up. "I'll throw him away," he said. "It's bad enough like it is."" (P. 76, ll. 35 – 38)

You can clearly see that Lennie knows that he has done "a bad thing" but yet, because he's so innocent, he somehow thinks of just not having the puppy next to Curley's wife because it'll make it look better that way. Because of Lennie's childish-like mentality he thinks that if the puppy was there it would definitely be much worse – although as readers we know that the bigger problem is that he actually killed a human being, Curley's wife. As readers we know that Lennie's childish ways always causes the biggest troubles, especially when it comes to women – we already know that Lennie likes petting soft things and that he already once had gotten into trouble for petting a girl's hair. We as readers know the strength that Lennie has but Lennie is not aware of this and that is the problem. Not only are the readers aware of the fact that he is capable of killing, we also seem to notice that Lennie keeps getting into trouble because of the same exact reasons as before and although George keeps trying to discipline Lennie it does not seem to help at all and in the end Lennie ends up killing Curley's wife. Lennie is therefore not developing as a person throughout this story; he keeps making mistakes and doesn't learn from them. Because of Lennie's childish mentality he is simply just a man in this story that plays out a role but does not develop when it comes to his own personality throughout this story. George, on the other hand, is the one that is going through a rather big development when it comes to his character throughout the story mostly because of Lennie's actions and also because of the different situations that occurs.

The American dream is one of the most important themes in this story. The American dream is not just about one dream that everyone has about America. There are different opinions about what dream they have about America and this depends a lot on the person and also on their situation and personality. In this story we're however being told about the dream that Lennie and George share together.

""Well," said George, "we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof..."" (P. 17, ll. 30 – 34)

You can clearly see what Lennie's and George's dream is all about. They want a farm, a piece of land, and having their own crops and animals. It is a rather simple American dream that George and Lennie are sharing but it is also very difficult to achieve especially because of the time that they're setting and the fact that they're both ranch workers. Workers like Lennie and George do not have a family or a home, and barely any food nor do they have any control over their own lives. They have to do what the boss tells them to do and they barely get to be free in this kind of matter. This idea of having such power over their very own lives is a strong motivation for them – Lennie and George are seeking individual freedom by having this dream.

The dream that George and Lennie are sharing throughout the