If one theme can be thought of as defining the symbolism Of Mice and Men, that theme is loneliness. In many ways, from the honest to the subtle the presence of loneliness defines the actions of the various characters in the book. The itinerant farm worker found it nearly impossible to establish a fixed home. These men were forced to wander from ranch to ranch seeking temporary employment, to live in bunk houses with strangers, and to suffer the abuses of random bosses. George sums up the sadness of this situation at several points when he speaks to Lennie “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place". Of course, as George puts it, "With (George and Lennie) it ain't
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And beyond that, they have a dream of finding a fixed place they could call home, a farm of their own. They are doing what they can to resist sinking into miserable loneliness, which seems to be the same as many other itinerant workers. This dream, of course, does not come to realisation, and indeed Steinbeck seems to have designed his miserable world to stop the possibility of escape from the cycles of loneliness and strong friendship (whether found in drink, in prostitutes, in gambling) that come with financial hardship and upsets.
And it's not just the workers most of the characters in Mice and Men show signs of desperate isolation, including those who can be said to have settled into a permanent situation. Candy, the only other character (aside from Lennie and George) who has an …show more content…
These passages are rich in many different reasons. It's worth singling out the first of the novel's many mentions to ‘The Rabbits’. Steinbeck writes that the rabbits happily "sit on the sand," and are then disturbed by the arrival of George and Lennie, they "hurry noiselessly for cover". Not until later does this little detail take on a richer significance - rabbits, we learn, represent for Lennie (and George, to a lesser extent) the dream of obtaining a farm of their own and living "off the fatta the lan'. The scattering of the rabbits at the beginning suggests already that this dream will prove subtle. Because Lennie thinks in real terms of his own pleasure, he equates the tending of rabbits, whose soft fur he wishes to pet, with the accomplishment of absolute happiness. Therefore, he has developed a script for referring to the plan George and he share to start a farm of their own, “I remember about the rabbits". Lennie takes deep pride in the notion that he would be trusted to raise the rabbits, to protect them, to feed them out of their patch. He places the entirety of his future happiness on this one image of caring for rabbits. This dream of the rabbits becomes literally a dream at the end of the novel, when Lennie hallucinates a giant rabbit who tells him that he will never be allowed to tend rabbits. This highlights the extent to which Lennie bases his entire life
And beyond that, they have a dream of finding a fixed place they could call home, a farm of their own. They are doing what they can to resist sinking into miserable loneliness, which seems to be the same as many other itinerant workers. This dream, of course, does not come to realisation, and indeed Steinbeck seems to have designed his miserable world to stop the possibility of escape from the cycles of loneliness and strong friendship (whether found in drink, in prostitutes, in gambling) that come with financial hardship and upsets.
And it's not just the workers most of the characters in Mice and Men show signs of desperate isolation, including those who can be said to have settled into a permanent situation. Candy, the only other character (aside from Lennie and George) who has an …show more content…
These passages are rich in many different reasons. It's worth singling out the first of the novel's many mentions to ‘The Rabbits’. Steinbeck writes that the rabbits happily "sit on the sand," and are then disturbed by the arrival of George and Lennie, they "hurry noiselessly for cover". Not until later does this little detail take on a richer significance - rabbits, we learn, represent for Lennie (and George, to a lesser extent) the dream of obtaining a farm of their own and living "off the fatta the lan'. The scattering of the rabbits at the beginning suggests already that this dream will prove subtle. Because Lennie thinks in real terms of his own pleasure, he equates the tending of rabbits, whose soft fur he wishes to pet, with the accomplishment of absolute happiness. Therefore, he has developed a script for referring to the plan George and he share to start a farm of their own, “I remember about the rabbits". Lennie takes deep pride in the notion that he would be trusted to raise the rabbits, to protect them, to feed them out of their patch. He places the entirety of his future happiness on this one image of caring for rabbits. This dream of the rabbits becomes literally a dream at the end of the novel, when Lennie hallucinates a giant rabbit who tells him that he will never be allowed to tend rabbits. This highlights the extent to which Lennie bases his entire life