Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

In the highly acclaimed novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the main question which is really pushed and provokes the most thought is: What does it mean to be part of a community or society? Steinbecks simple answer to this high level question is this: To be part of a community or society means having someone there who cares for you. This answer is shown in many examples scattered through the pages of the book, and seems to be the main reason that some characters are even in the book in the first place.
The first characters that Steinbeck uses to back his answer are Curley and his Wife. Curley is always very protective of his wife and gets very aggressive at those who seem interested in his wife in any way. Even though Curley is constantly acting protective of his wife, the characters relationship seems stressed and unloving. Curley’s wife is always walking around the ranch, pretending to look for her husband, but truly just looking for an excuse to talk with other people. Curley, on the other hand, spends all his time looking for his wife, and is always suspicious that she is cheating on him. Curley’s wife in fact says this to Lennie while shivling about her life, “I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I ought’n to. I don’ like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” (89) Curley’s wife admitting this to a man so obviously unintelligent that he truly won't understand, instead of trying to talk to someone who can actually help her truly shows how desperate she is to communicate her feelings to someone other than her husband. Curley’s wife is unable to form a sense of community because she has no one to care for her, she has no family near, a husband who she dislikes, and a bunch of ranch hands who ostracize her because they are afraid of making Curley angry. Because of this she becomes so desperate that she looks for anyone who will just not ignore her, even if she know the man she is talking to cannot understand.
Another example of Steinbecks thoughts on community is Crooks. Crooks is an African-American man who works as the stable hand on the ranch. Being that Crooks is black and the rest of the ranchers are white, he does not sleep in the bunkhouse. Instead, Crooks lives alone in a small room attached to the stables with all of his belongings.