Disrupted Dreams in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

The novel of mice and men by John Steinbeck is a heartwarming story about two men George and Lennie. George is a small stocky man who prides himself on his ability to be independent, and often taunts Lennie by saying "God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want.” (pg12). Lennie on the other hand is a very large childlike man who is very dependent of George. These two have stuck together for a long time and over that time have developed a dream of owning their own ranch. Steinbeck uses a variety of techniques to display the theme “even the best laid themes can go wrong” the setting of the novel is in the 1930’s in the midst of the great depression where money and work was hard to come by. Most people turned to manual labor since is always needed somewhere, but it never payed well.
“Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a

Couldn't swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him.”. in this environment the strong characters attack the weak an example would be when Carlson bullied candy in to killing his dog "I'll put the old devil out of his misery right now," (p.47) and the weak ones attack the weaker, like when crooks picks on Lennie "jus' s'pose he don't come back," (p.72) Lennie is by far the most venerable because of his mental disability, making him easy to manipulate. Candy and his dog reflect George and lennie, George being candy and lennie being the dog, this is because much like the dog lennie depends greatly on George, and just like the dog lennie gets shot in the back of the head with the same gun that was used to kill the