of mice and men

Of Mice and Men







"Of Mice and Men", by John Steinbeck, is composed of four major themes.


These themes are the value of dreams and goals, moral responsibility, social injustice,


and the bond of friendship and loyalty.



The value of dreams and goals are that they provide hope and the desire to keep


going in life, rather than laying down to die. When Lennie is feeling depressed in the


woods he asks George to tell him about the "dream farm" again. This is the farm that


Geore and Lennie hope to own someday. Even though this dream seems almost


impossible at the time it still generates enough hope to keep Lennie and George going.


When George starts talking bout it Lennie gets all excited and happy and so does


George. Another example of the power of dreams is when Candy over hears George


and Lennie's "dream farm" and becomes a part of the dream. Candy goes from a


depressed sad additude to a cheerful excited one. He now has hope of doing something


and it came from the "dream farm". A final example of the value of dreams and goals is


when Crooks hears of the farm. Crooks is a lonely black man who has no future, but


when he starts to think of how he can be a part of the dream he also gets happy and


excited, until his dream is crushed.



Many people of good character have to honor certin moral responibilites.


George is bond by his own moral to take care care of Lennie. No one makes him do it,


he just does it because it feel like the right thing to do. Candy felt like he neglected his


moral responibility to shoot his own dog. Candy felt real bad inside because it was his


job to shoot his dog but instead Carlson shot him. This shows that when a person goes


against what is moraly right to them , they hate themselves for it. At the end of the


story George is forced, out of moral, to shoot Lennie. It was the right thing to do, and


even though it almost killed George inside to kill his best friend, he still did it.



Social injustice is when a person or a goup of people feel they are better than


people who are different by race, inteligence, age, sex, or other differences. Curley is


rude and mean toward Lennie for the sole reason that Lennie is a big guy. Curely


dosn't like big guys so he singles out Lennie and attacks him. Another good example of


social injustice is Crooks. Crooks has to be alone all the time because he is black.


When Crooks tells Miss Curley to leave his room Miss Curley threatens that she can


get him linched. This reduces Crooks to a big pile of nothing and crushes Crooks


dreams of going to the "dream farm". Crooks only responds with a series of "yes


mam" 's then becomes beyond depressed. The power that one person can end another's


life with a single lie without and evidence is a prime example of social injustice. A final


example of social injustice is Candy being old. He is treated old and useless, if he stuck


up for Crooks about the Miss Curley lie no one would believe him. Miss Curley laughs


at Lennie, Crooks, and Candy because to her they are all below her.



The bond of friendship and loyalty is a force that keep people looking out for


each other, rather than themselves. When Lennie is getting beat up by Curley and


Lennie, Lennie wasn't fighting back because he was being loyal to George's request for


him not to make trouble. George sees lennie getting beat up and tells Lennie to fight


back out of friendship. When Crooks starts telling Lennie that George might die or get


hurt Lennie gets mad. He feel that someone, Crooks, might hurt his friend and almost


fights Crooks to defend his friend. Candy shows loyalty when he tells Miss Curley that


he would stick up on Crooks behalf if she tried to lie and yell rape.



Steinbeck used these four themes to show what problems America was faceing


at the time. A time of racial injustice, loss morals, tainted loyalties, lost hope and


smashed dreams. The people needed their eyes opened to what is important to


everyone as a whole rather than to one. In the battle to rise up in the world, people


rarely care who is on the bottom and why they are there.