The Key to Living a Happy Life
The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, is about two migrant workers, Lennie and George, who go to work on a ranch in California and learn how special and important their friendship is. Migrant workers are workers that move from place to place leaving their friends behind. They are not able to maintain friendships and often don’t want to even try and start a friendship. At the ranch, Lennie and George meet many people that help them decide their future and help them realize that friendship is a very unique exclusive thing. Throughout the novel, many characters experience loneliness longing for a friend or someone to talk to while others, with friends, learn the importance of having a friend at your side.
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Crooks is the only african american on the ranch, so none of the white men want to share a cabin with him. Crooks has a cabin by the stable which smells and is very uncomfortable, and so he is the one that works the stables and does all of the dirty work. Since Crooks has his own cabin he can spread out and “...Crooks could leave his things about and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more possessions than he could carry on his back.” (67) Since Crooks wasn’t really able to work hard because of his back, he was one of the men that was permanently on the ranch, and not really a migrant worker. Crooks slept in a cabin on his own and didn’t have to care for anyone, being very lonely. When Lennie comes to visit him Crooks is caught off guard since after all who would want to speak with a black man? Crooks gets pretty comfortable with Lennie and finally confides in him about his loneliness. He starts telling Lennie that, “The white kids come to play at our place, an’ sometimes I went to play with them, and some of them was pretty nice. My ol’ man didn’t like that.” (70) Crooks used to have friends when he was younger who were white, because they were children and didn't know anything about difference of race until their parents taught them. Now on the ranch there are no white men willing …show more content…
On the ranch, George and Lennie recognize how special it is for them to be buddies and travel from place to place together. While George and Lennie were coming to the ranch, trying to get the job of bucking barley bags, the boss was interested in the fact that George was caring so much for Lennie and that he spoke for him. The boss has “never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.” (22) George and Lennie walk right up to the ranch getting ready to start their new job, and are asked a few questions by the boss. When George is the only one that speaks the boss is a little suspicious and wonders why Lennie hasn’t spoken. George and Lennie have a conversation and understand that they are lucky, “because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.” (14)George and Lennie have a conversation before coming to the ranch about the dream life they want to live, and about how they live verses how regular men of The Great Depression live. George and Lennie realise that they have eachothers back, but they don’t realize how rare their relationship actually is. George and Lennie are constantly reminded that it is not normal for men to travel for so long together, and to care for each other as much as George did for
Crooks also feels a great deal of loneliness, as he is an outcast on the ranch. He lives in his own room where hardly anybody ever bothers him. He is never invited to play cards or do anything fun with the other guys. One day a curious Lenny asked, “Why ain’t you wanted?” Crooks replies “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They think I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me” (pg. ). Crooks’ attitude towards this is shown when he saw Lennie playing with his puppy outside of Crooks’ quarters. Crooks states that “if me, as a black man, is not allowed in the white quarters, then white men are not allowed in mine” (pg. ). However this is merely a front as the more open side of Crooks is shown later on in the book.
To begin with, according to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, “One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood”. Even this quote explains that true friendship is when an individual stands for another individual. In the novel Of Mice and Men, author John Steinbeck examine the idea of friendship between two migrant ranch worker even when there was difficulties. Through the character of Slim and George, author Steinbeck illustrates friendship and reveals that friendships stand up for each other even when is difficult time.
Steinbeck believed that friendship was important. Lennie knows that George will always have his back, although Lennie cannot really protect George he feels like he can (Steinbeck 14). Even though George says, he does not want Lennie with him, he does not want to leave him by himself (Steinbeck 13). When Lennie and George first get to the ranch, the boss starts to ask them questions. George answers all of them even if they were asking Lennie. He knows that if Lennie talks, he might say what happened in Weed (Steinbeck 22). The boss, at the new farm, thinks that George only wants to take Lennie money. But George tells him that he only wants to take care of Lennie. The boss tells George that he had never seen two men traveling together like him and Lennie (22).
Imagine being discriminated against because of your ethnicity; or being the only woman on a ranch, stuck in a loveless marriage, when all you really want is someone to talk to. What about having to kill that friend, and bury all chances of breaking free from the life of the average migrant worker? How would you feel? These scenarios in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men illustrate the need and desire for companionship in life. There's Crooks, the negro stable buck; Curley's wife, whose marriage to Curley hasn't exactly been lively; and George and Lennie, whose friendship is strong enough to get them to a better life and out of the negetive cycle that the average migrant worker became trapped in during the Great Depression.
In terms of emotional stability, there is only one thing in life that is really needed and that is friends. Without friends, people would suffer from loneliness and solitude. Loneliness leads to low self-esteem and deprivation. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife all exhibit some form of loneliness. They are driven towards the curiosity of George and Lennie's friendship because they do not have that support in their life. Through his novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck demonstrates that often times, a victim of isolation will have a never-ending search to fulfill a friendship.
"Were born alone we live alone die alone. Only through love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that were not alone” Orson Welles. In this novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck focuses on the loneliness of California ranch life in the 1930’s. One of the most important things in the life is to have a friend, without friends people will suffer from loneliness like in this novel, not everyone in the novel has the same connection and special friendship like George and Lennie’s. Of Mice and Men is the story about lonely men who travel from ranch to ranch not really communicating with other ranch hands. Candy, Crooks and Curley’s wife all were lonely and dealt with their loneliness in different ways.
Crooks is isolated because of his race, his disability and his deep mistrust of others. He is physically separated from the other men and has his own room in the barn. "It's cause I'm black" (68). Crooks has been alone for a so long, making him not care about having and making new friends any more. Crooks may constantly be surrounded by the other workers, but that doesn't make him feel less alone. "You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me" (67). Crooks is quiet and weak, meaning no one in the ranch listens to him, nothing he says matters. "This is just a nigger talkin', an' a busted-back nigger. So it don't mean nothing, see?" (70). Crooks is someone a reader can easily feel sorry for, even though Crooks doesn't put much effort is making new friends. He is in a difficult situation, which he certainly doesn't what to
George and Lennie are saving up money to buy themselves a place to live in. George describes it as, “Ten acres, got a little win’mill. Got a little shack on it, an’ a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, ‘cots, nuts, got a few berries …”. Today the American Dream is still alive. People come from all over the world to the USA to work hard and have their own house with a white picket fence. Everyone in the story that had George and Lennie’s job before them had the same dream. They all had the same dream of having their own little ranch and to get it they would work and save up a little of money every payday. And by a few years they would have enough money to buy their own
In Of Mice and Men, friendship is dangerous: every time any character gets close to any other, something goes wrong. George Milton and Lennie Small are the two main characters in the novel, who are California farm workers, traveling from ranch to ranch to find work. But what makes them unique is that they travel together. Unlike the rest of the workers, George and Lennie are not alone; they have each other. Lennie and George, who come closest to achieving this ideal of brotherhood, are forced to separate tragically.With this, a rare friendship vanishes, but the rest of the world represented by Curley and Carlson, who watch George stumble away with grief from his friend’s dead body fails to acknowledge or appreciate it. All of the
The theme of friendship is explored throughout the novel “Of Mice and Men.” George and Lennie have been traveling together to every job they had. George and Lennie have something that very few people of the time have, friendship. They have each other, and that's more than many migrant workers have, even today. On page 15, it says, “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to and give a damn about us.” They have each other, and that is all they really need.
Whether it be a man and a woman or a dog and his owner everyone needs someone to love. In the book Of Mice and Men by John steinbeck a popular topic that occurs is companionship. Companionship is vital in everyone's life. Without someone to bring fill you up, you are never whole.
As made evident in many aspects of life, there are both good and bad relationships. This can also be seen in a variety of literary works, especially Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men demonstrates that relationships often are composed of a strong and a weak person. However, this does not mean that all relationships are negative.
“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”---Hubert H, Humphrey. The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck has a reoccurring theme of friendship. George and Lennie are two migrant farmers trying to find work in the 1930’s around Salinas, California. George Milton and Lennie Small are trying to unite with friendship that puts them over all others.
In a world of loneliness and labor, one rare friendship blooms and grows until one is shot dead and the other left in misery, grief, and pain. Of Mice and Men shows us this as John Steinbeck ties the reality and hardship of The Great Depression with a rare bond of friendship represented by George and Lenny in this novella. You can always find a friend, no matter how lonely this world gets is the theme of this book because George and Lenny made everyone see that their friendship was strong and that they were loyal towards each other. Lenny is the main symbol of a savior for he saw everyone as a friend, regardless of sex, race, age, or their disabilities. To me, friendship is a gift that should always be kept and never lost even though at the end, we may lose them.
Over the years my class had read and learned about many novels. My class has their favorites but personally my favorite was “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. This book made me realize what true friendship really is. Friendship is having a companion to stand by your side and be present when needed. George and Lennie are friends who vision a farm they will own together. Lennie has a mental disability and depends on George for guidance and protection. George cares for Lennie but knows life would be easier without having to care for Lennie. Lennie looks up to George, he wears the same clothes and imitates his gestures. One of the most important things in life is friendship, without a friend people become lonely. Everyone at one point in life