companionship / loneliness

• In Of Mice and Men we follow the characters Lennie and George, throughout the novella Lennie and George are shown to have a relationship that was not common at the time, as they always travelled together, helped each other, and overall were close companions.
• The other men on the ranch find Lennie and George’s relationship odd, illustrating the hard times faced by migrant workers and the strain that was then put on their relationships.
• The name of the town is in fact ‘Soledad’ which translates directly from Spanish to ‘solitude’ - immediately establishing Of Mice and Men's focus on loneliness.
• Crooks is the only black man on the ranch, and due to jim crow laws he is segregated from the other ranch workers, meaning a life of solitude and loneliness.
• “there ain’t a coloured man on this ranch an’ there’s jus’ one family in Soledad”. This shows the alienation Crooks felt, he was separated from the other men and was forced to reside in the barn - an animal enclosure, highlight how white people back in the 1930’s viewed black people - beneath them.
• This solitude leads to Crooks becoming angry and bitter when people approach him explaining his attitude towards Lennie when he joins Crooks in his room.
• Candy represents the physically disabled and old on the ranch. He feels separated from the other ranch workers due to his differences, and the other ranch workers encourage this belief.
• “Candy looked for help from face to face” Candy is isolated because of his age and disability, making him less useful on the ranch and therefore insignificant. The lack of reaction to Candy’s pleading look when Carlson wants to kill his dog represents the lack of empathy that the other men feel for those in pain.
• Candy’s need for a companion is not acknowledged because the other ranch workers are not able to form relationships themselves.
• Curley’s wife is the only women on the ranch and therefore has no company. But she ignores society’s rules and talks to the ranch workers in hopes of companionship, but she is never granted any.
• “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” Curley’s wife is the only woman on the ranch and is treated with suspicion by the men because of her flirtatious behaviour. However, she acts this way in order to get attention because of her poor relationship with her husband.
• the men on the ranch do not feel sympathy for Curley's Wife – despite knowing that Curley is unpleasant – and instead treat her with contempt and don’t speak to her, so she becomes even more desperate for acknowledgement.
• George and Lennie are the only characters in the novel who have a meaningful relationship. This makes them unique and draws attention to the loneliness of the rest of the characters in the book.
• “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place... With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.” By comparing their situation with others’, George demonstrates that they are very unusual. George uses the pronouns “they” and “we” to emphasise how different he and Lennie are from other men who work on ranches.
• Of mice and men explores companionship through -

  1. George and Lennie's commitment to each other
  2. The other men's lack of understanding of George and Lennie's friendship
  3. The way that lonely characters crave friendship