Even though George and Lennie travel around together and are best friends, unlike other ranchers who have no one, they aren’t necessarily happy. George get’s mad at Lennie because he does stupid things which get’s both of them in bother. George and Lennie have always been best friends but when Lennie’s Aunt Clara was dying, she asked George to look after Lennie as he couldn’t look after himself.
This is how both men ended up travelling about together. But, now that George has to look after Lennie he has no time for himself. So this stops him finding love etc also the fact that they have to keep running to new places makes things even worse. George gets annoyed about what Lennie does and has threatened to leave him behind as he could have a happier, easier life without him. “An’ whatta I got, I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get.” This shows George talking to Lennie shortly after he has had to run away again from something that Lennie done. “When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts.” This quote shows that George wishes Lennie wasn’t with him so he could have a better life without any hassle.
At the very end of the book, George shoots Lennie. He only does this because, as usual Lennie has done something wrong – He has killed Curley’s Wife. When Curley finds he gets very angry and sets out to find Lennie and kill him. But, George gets there first. George decided to shoot Lennie only out of kindness. He doesn’t want Curley getting to him and perhaps doing something horrible to Lennie before he is killed. Or maybe that Curley won’t kill Lennie and instead make him go to prison, which won’t be good for Lennie at all as he is very stupid. Another reason might be because he thinks that as Lennie’s only best friend, he should shoot him.
Crooks is a victim of loneliness and racism. He is known at the ranch as the “Stable Buck Nigger.” He is isolated from everyone else at the ranch, both physically and mentally. He sleeps in his own room away from the other men. He get’s very lonely at night when he has to read books. “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.” What Crooks is saying in this quote is that he thinks he see’s things at night when he is on his own but he can’t ask anybody as no one talks to him. He is affected mentally because he doesn’t believe in true friendship. This is because he has never had any true friends because he has a different skin colour and people are very racist to non-whites in this era.
People were racist towards Crooks because it was what everyone else did and this is why he got called a nigger. People were very racist towards black people because they were different – They looked different, sounded different and had different beliefs etc. Candy is a lonely old man with only one hand. He gets very lonely because of his old age – He feels worthless because he is the oldest at the ranch and he only has one hand (he got it caught in a machine). This makes Candy feel isolated and as if he can’t join in with what the other men are doing.
I think the biggest reason why Candy is so lonely is because his best friend was shot – His dog. Candy’s dog was old and smelly; all the other ranchers hated the dog because it smelt so bad. Carlson offers to shoot the dog but Candy really doesn’t want this. “Maybe tomorra. Le’s wait till tomorra.” By the way candy is saying this, he sounds determined not to let Carlson kill his dog. But Carlson pushed him to change his mind and so Candy gave in. “Awight, take ‘im.” He doesn’t sound happy as his best friend is going to be shot but he just does it to keep everyone else happy.
On the other hand, Candy is keen to help work on Lennie and George’s dream farm. This makes him feel happy as he when the dream finally comes true; he has something to look forward to. “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you guys in case I kick off. You guy’s got any money?” This shows how excited he is that he finally has a good dream that may come true quickly. He is asking about money as he already has about half of what they need to buy the farm so if George and Lennie also had some saved up they could buy straight away.
But, when George and Candy find out that Lennie has killed Curley’s wife, they both know that the dream will never come true. “Then – It’s all off?” This shows that when Candy and George see Curley’s wife, Candy knows instantly that the dream will never come true. By the way he says this we can see that he is very upset and can’t believe that Lennie has done something like this. So once again, Candy feels as if he is going to be living on the ranch forever, feeling worthless and lonely.
In conclusion, “Soledad” means loneliness in Spanish. Soledad is not only the main setting for the novel, but also that major theme. Steinbeck points out issues of racism, depression etc that were common feelings for men in the 1930’s during the time of the Great Depression. I have learnt that life in this time was hard for everyone – Especially black people. Life wasn’t very fun, either. But working on ranches was the only way to get money.
It is a lot different to today’s society – Black people are part of our community even though some people are still racist towards them. Steinbeck emphasised sympathy on most of the characters but I think that Curley’s wife made me feel the least sympathetic because she married Curley and if she isn’t happy, then she should have left him instead of attention seeking off the other ranchers.
