Theme Of Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In a world of loneliness and labor, one rare friendship blooms and grows until one is shot dead and the other left in misery, grief, and pain. Of Mice and Men shows us this as John Steinbeck ties the reality and hardship of The Great Depression with a rare bond of friendship represented by George and Lenny in this novella. You can always find a friend, no matter how lonely this world gets is the theme of this book because George and Lenny made everyone see that their friendship was strong and that they were loyal towards each other. Lenny is the main symbol of a savior for he saw everyone as a friend, regardless of sex, race, age, or their disabilities. To me, friendship is a gift that should always be kept and never lost even though at the end, we may lose them.

In this world, everyone gets lonely which leads them to a sour, unfriendly behavior. An example of this is quoted from Candy, "A guy on a ranch don't never listen nor he don't ast no questions." Candy meant that no one here came to make friends but to work, get their pay, and leave. This shows that everyone on the ranch never talked about their true feelings, and dreams, unlike George and Lenny. Another example comes from the black stable buck, Crooks, "I ain't wanted in the bunk house,

John Steinbeck is indirectly telling us to be like Lenny. When I mean being like Lenny, I don't mean by killing animals by petting them too hard, I mean just befriending people based on how they act and not by their race or gender or by what society looks at them. In this world of loneliness, there is a friendship just waiting to happen but you need to find it. As I conclude this, I want to quote from Dr. Martin Luther King himself on how we should find our friends,"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their