George H. Smith

The fragile relationship bonding the unlikely couple of George Milton and Lennie Small in John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, is one solidified by the pursuit of a common goal: the American Dream. Their contrasting personalities are united by the mere notion that one day, they will, as George illustrates: “get the jack together and . . . have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs . . .” However, despite this fellowship, there is an underlying mood in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men that reflects the inevitable coming of a gruesome fate for its two protagonists. From the moment George and Lennie are run out of Weed in the opening of the story, to the tragic climax in which George must shoot his best friend, the cards are stacked against them. Given the fact that George’s dream depends on the presence and support of his friend Lennie, this character’s death eliminates the possibility of their dream ever becoming a reality. Steinbeck’s themes outline the impossibility of George’s ability to achieve the American Dream following the death of his best friend, as ultimately, the dream cannot survive in isolation, and can only thrive in the presence of a community or a companion.

One of the major themes in Steinbeck’s novella is the crippling effect that loneliness has on people and their hopes for the future. The story is filled with characters who are never able to attain what they want because they are alone. George mentions this in his speech to Lennie, regarding their future dream, stating that “guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. . .They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to” (13). Here, George is reminding Lennie that their future depends on them being together, because without that, they are just like everybody else. When George says that other people have “nothing to look ahead to” (13), he is saying that other people cannot get their version of the dream because they don’t have someone to work towards it with. With Lennie gone at the end of the novel, George has become one of the people he previously described, a loner with nothing to look ahead to.

This idea of false hope manifests itself in some of the characters that the two later encounter. The stable buck, Crooks, is black, and has a damaged back, and is therefore secluded to his own room away from everyone else. Crooks is perhaps the loneliest character in the book, because unlike some of the others, he had a good childhood. While describing his past experiences to Lennie, he describes his siblings, stating “[I] Had two brothers. They was always near me, always there. Used to sleep right in the same room, right in the same bed- all three” (73). Again, Steinbeck reinforces the theme that happiness comes from friendship and family, and not from being alone in Crooks’s nostalgic, and wishful renditioning of his distant past. Curley’s wife also had a future to look forward to once. One evening, she describes the glamorous life she might have had to Lennie: “[I] Coulda been in the movies, and’ had nice clothes- all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, and had pitchers took of me.” Curley’s wife’s dismal state is brought on by the way the men of the ranch ignore her, and refuse to include her in what they do. These examples illustrate Steinbeck’s theme of the impossibility of success without people who care for and about you. This impossibility is why, by the end of the story, George knows he cannot attain his dream: the loss of Lennie deprives him of his will to attempt such a lofty ambition alone.

However, loneliness does not leave these characters sympathetic to those who suffer equally. It has the opposite effect. A similar theme of the novella is that loneliness stimulates the predatory nature of humans. This concept alone proves the dream impossible, because it suggests that the world is too predacious for such a perfect scenario. Slim, the voice of reason and justice on the farm, illustrates this point while pondering what holds Lennie and George together. He says, “Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other” (35).  Steinbeck uses Slim to restate his belief that the world is hostile, and that is what keeps people, specifically George and Lennie, away from their dream. Crooks is also reduced to a mean and cruel state by his isolation. He questions the validity of George and Lennie’s dream, while Lennie is alone, proposing an idea to Lennie that he had never considered. He wonders “s’pose George went into town tonight and you never heard of him no more” (71). This thought distresses Lennie, not just because he depends on George for guidance, but because without George, his dream means nothing. Crooks savors Lennie’s discomfort at this idea. He does this because he has power over almost nothing in his daily life, but here, he has someone out on a thread, toying with them. Curley’s wife also demonstrates Steinbeck’s idea of brutality amongst lonely people when she threatens to lynch Crooks. Curley’s wife, being a woman in a patriarchal world, knows that she is talked down to by everyone, including her husband. The only possible person that she can threaten, is Crooks, because he is black and physically disabled. The hostile behaviors of each member of this broken community, implies that there is no genuine bonding between them. Although they play horseshoes and go to the cathouse, they are ignorant as to each others emotions and true selves.  Only later, when George mentions perhaps taking Crooks and Candy along with him and Lennie, is any fellowship seen. These two cannot dream on their own because they have no one to share their ideas and plans with, but when they are offered the chance of a real family that could share a dream with them, they open up, and become sympathetic, and even hopeful. Without this idea of comradery, they cannot understand, and therefore chose to prey on, each other. These incidents in which people change their personality due to loneliness might be expected to happen to George once he moves on after Lennie’s death.

The end of the novella sees George walking away from Lennie’s body alongside Slim. Some would argue that this action of moving on with another companion foreshadows a new dream for George, but this is not true. George’s dream is one founded on his relationship with one person: an irreplaceable friend. In addition, when Slim says “Me an’ you’ll go in an’ get a drink” (107), his question reminds the reader of the way George described lonely men in the start of the novella, as sorrowful people who squander their money on alcohol. Now alone in the world and with no dream to thrive for, Steinbeck illustrates how George could end up like any one of the sad, lonely characters in the story.

As the novella draws to a close, there is an intentional use of parallelism as Steinbeck once again describes the pond that George and Lennie gathered by in the first chapter. However, in this instance, he describes a snake being swiftly snatched up by a bird nearby. Not only does this use of imagery foreshadow a violent end for Lennie, but it hints at the dangers of loneliness. Lennie and George’s dream is like the snake, something moving along well until destroyed by an opposing force, in this case, the predatory tendencies of lonely people. Without Lennie, George can no longer achieve his dream, because, as the French novelist Honoré de Balzac notes, “Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.”