FREE ESSAY ON OF MICE AND MEN THEME

OF MICE AND MEN THEME

First published in 1937, Of Mice and Men is a classic American novel by John Steinbeck.
George and Lennie are two ranch hands that travel together, with George watching over the
mentally inferior Lennie. When they start work at a new ranch, several different
characters are introduced. One affliction that seems to face several characters is
loneliness, created by factors such as the character's lifestyles and by social standards
of the time period. Steinbeck's theme that loneliness is unhealthy and dangerous to a
person's well being is emphasized throughout the novel.
This underlying theme is first introduced in the novel when George talks to Lennie about
the advantage they have over other itinerant workers of the time. George described how
other ranch hands like themselves who traveled alone had nothing to look forward to, and
no one to look after them. He told Lennie how other workers would just work up a stake
and blow it at a bar because they had no where else to go, no one else to look after
them. George explained how Lennie and himself were different from those lonely workers
when he said, "With us it ain't like that, We got a future. We got somebody to talk to
that gives a damn about us" (Steinbeck 15). Because of Lennie and George's relationship
they are able to focus on their dream of having their own farm someday, instead of
falling into a routine of moving from ranch to ranch and wastefully spending their pay at
the end of the month.
In addition, although Lennie is a burden, George accepts their 
relationship to fight his own loneliness. As he explains to Slim, "I seen the guys that
go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long
time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time" (45). George appreciates
Lennie's companionship because he knows that being alone can lead to a more negative
outlook on life. 
Candy is another character who deals with loneliness. He is the oldest man on the ranch
and is crippled. The only work he can do is cleaning out the bunkhouse and other odd
jobs. His only companion is his old dog who stays by his side. One night however, a
fellow ranch hand named Carlson convinces Candy to let himself put the dog out of its
misery. "If you want me to, I'll put the old devil out of his misery right now and get it
over with," said Carlson in persuasion to Candy (52). Candy agreed and so his only
companion was shot, leaving him sad and lonely. A few minutes later though, Candy hears
Lennie and George talking about the land which they wish to purchase. Candy, overcame
with loneliness and seeing no hope for the future, buys himself into a friendship by
offering George money to pay for the land. "S' pose I went in with you guys," Candy
stated, "Tha's three hundred an' fifty bucks I'd put in" (65). Steinbeck seems to be
implying that Candy attempted to avoid his inevitable loneliness with the death of his
dog, by buying in on a farm with his new found friends.
Crooks, a negro stable buck, also had to handle loneliness. Being 
black, he was forbidden to stay with the other guys in the bunk house, and 
was instead forced to live all alone i the barn, with only books for company. When Lennie
wandered into his room, Crooks talked to Lennie about his loneliness. He described how
upsetting it was to not be able to share your thoughts with another person. "A guy sets
alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or thinkin' or stuff like that." Crooks
explained, "Sometimes he gets thinkin', an' he got nothin to tell him what's so an' what
ain't so. Maybe he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn
to some other guy an' ask him if he sees it too. He can't tell" (80). Crooks also tried
to get Lennie to sympathize with his loneliness. "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? 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 with you" (80). The loneliness
that Crooks had to face turned him into a very sad man. Crooks last point about it not
mattering who the guy is, was illustrated perfectly in his conversation with Lennie.
Lennie hardly listened to a word Crooks said, but because of his loneliness Crooks talked
anyway. Just talking to another human being briefly comforted his pain with being alone.
Another character who experiences loneliness in the story is Curley's wife. Steinbeck
chose not to even give her a name, just to 
emphasize how isolated and lonely she was. She was unhappily married to Curley, with who
she never even spent time with. Because of this, she wandered through the ranch talking
to the workers to avoid her loneliness. At one point she addresses Crooks, Lennie, and
Candy. "Think I don't like 
to talk to somebody ever' once in a while? Think I like to sit in that house alla time"
(80)? Her habit of talkin to the ranch hands to avoid loneliness, eventually ended in her
death. She approached Lennie for conversation, and it ended in Lennie killing her in his
panicked state. If she hadn't have had all the loneliness, she probably wouldn't have
talked to Lennie at all.
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck showed the toll that loneliness takes on people and how
they try to avoid loneliness. He used George and Lennie's relationship as a contrast to
everyone else in the novel who went through life alone. He also showed the downside of
out casting people like Crooks and Candy, for race and age, because the loneliness they
would be left with was cruel. With Curley's wife, Steinbeck showed just how hurtful
loneliness can be by havin her own loneliness result in her death. After understanding
the effects of loneliness by reading the novel, Steinbeck leaves the reader wondering
whether Curley's wife was better off dead anyway. 
Bibliography
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck