The novel is set in souldad, the inspiration for the novel comes from Robert burns poem to a mouse, “the best laid schemes o’ mice and men, gang aft agley”. This translated means “no matter how well we plan the future, things often go wrong”. The book is about 2 men George and Lennie, these guys have a very boring and lonely life.
They get so little money. The other people in the novel are also lonely such as Curly’s wife as she is the only female on the ranch this makes her very lonely.Crooks is lonely because the only black person on the ranch, he is discriminated against and has a room on his own, he has no friends and he gets treated unfairly by the white guys on the ranch. Candy is also lonely because he is an old man and only had his dog, but later on in the novel his dog gets shot so he is more lonely, as he gets older he will be no use on the ranch which makes him a lot like his dog, his dog got shot because he had nothing else to give to the ranch.
George and Lennie are best friends they have each other unlike the other people on the ranch they have no one, they make no relationships. George and Lennie go from ranch to ranch looking for jobs and are on very low pay. George is small and Lennie is tall, he is simple minded and is very strong, he doesn’t know his own strength, in the novel he is also described as an animal; he drags his feet like a bear. George and Lennie like to talk about things, they talk about getting a ranch of there own one day.
George and Lennie’s relationship is positive and negative sometimes George gets angry with Lennie. George thinks of Lennie sometimes that he is annoying and he sometimes thinks that he would be better off without him. Lennie looks up to George, he copy’s off him and thinks of him as a role modal. George is the leader and they travel together because they don’t want to be lonely, and they keep going because they have a dream of getting there own ranch one day.
Candy is an old man he does little jobs on the ranch, he is kind and makes friends with George and Lennie later on in the novel. His “friend” was his dog which eventually gets shot because it is no longer of use on the ranch. He had nothing for the future but when George and Lennie told him about the ranch he said he could help out and put some money towards and then he had something to look forward to.Crooks is a black man and he likes to read, he is smart, has a crooked back.
He lives on the ranch and has his own room away from the white guys. He describes himself as being treated unfairly all his life and he is forced to spend his time on his own with no one to talk to, he has no friends and he is bitter because he is mad about being discriminated against.Curly’s wife is trouble and she wears a red spotted dress. All the farm workers say that she is “jailbait”, all the workers are frightened to talk to her because she might get them into trouble by Curly.
She married Curly because he is strong and can stick up for hair. She feels that he is using her and she doesn’t really like him, but she has no other options. She describes her life on the ranch as very boring and she gets lonely a lot of the time with no one to talk to.She behaves in a bad way she befriends the men by listening to what there saying and might tell Curly.
In my opinion I think that she does this because she is bored. At the end of the novel she is not thought as a tart because her loneliness causes her to talk to Lennie which gets her in the end dead, then she is thought of as just a lonely young girl and she didn’t deserve it. These actions caused the dream to vanish, because now the dream will never happen.At the incident in the barn Lennie was playing with the puppy and because of his strength eventually killed it, Curly’s wife comes in and is wondering what he is doing so she starts talking to him and this leads to Lennie feeling her hair because he likes silky soft things and because Curly’s wife starts screaming “let go” he starts to panic and doesn’t let go.
He breaks her neck and she dies. This affects George, Lennie and candy’s relationship because now they will never get that ranch of there own.In my overall opinion I think that George and Lennie’s relationship was positive and George wont forget the times they have had. And I think that candy was a very nice man and he is upset about the dog being shot.
I think that crooks shouldn’t be treated unfairly I think he is a nice man and is well educated because he likes to read books. My opinion on Curly’s wife is that she was just a lonely girl on the ranch who was bored and even though she caused trouble sometimes she didn’t deserve to die. I think that that incident in the barn was a very key point in the novel, it end up spoiling the dream and shows “the best laid schemes o’ mice and men, gang aft agley”.
