Who says guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world they got no family they dont belong no place?

Friendship 1: Despite George's impatience and annoyance with Lennie, and his remarks about how easy his life would be without him, he still believes that:

"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place....With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us." Chapter 1, pg. 13-14.

And Lennie finishes:

"An' why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why." Chapter 1, pg. 14.

The kind of life these men lead, moving all over the country, never knowing anyone very long, and having very little to call their own, is intensely lonely. Even if Lennie is not very bright, he still listens to George, and he remains the one constant in George's transient life. For this George is grateful.

Friendship 2: Slim comes across very differently than the other men. Friendly and understanding, he invites George into conversation. When discussing how George and Lennie travel together, Slim remarks:

"'Ain't many guys travel around together,' he mused. 'I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.'" Chapter 2, pg. 35.

Slim is much more open than most of the men on the ranch, and a marked contrast to Curley, whose can only communicate with fighting. Curley will push his wife away, choosing to go visit prostitutes rather than work on their marriage, whereas Slim attempts to construct a relationship with George the first chance he gets. The men have a deep respect for Slim, and his opinion is the final word on any subject.

Friendship 3: When George tells Slim how he used to play tricks on Lennie, beat him up, and generally abuse him for his own amusement, we get a very different picture of Lennie and George's friendship. George admits one reason why he behaved such:

"Made me seem God damn smart alongside of him." Chapter 3, pg. 40.

George takes very good care of Lennie, but he often feels anger at this burden, an anger which he takes out on Lennie. This fuels Lennie's greatest fear--that he might have to live without George.

Friendship 4: Candy's sheepdog is old, arthritic, and blind--his life is not a pleasant one. Carlson and Slim feel these are adequate reasons to kill the dog. Carlson tells Candy:

"Well, you ain't bein' kind to him keepin' him alive." Chapter 3, pg. 45.

And Slim responds:

"Carl's right, Candy. That dog ain't no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple." Chapter 3, pg. 45.

The argument the men use to convince Candy it is okay to euthanize his old friend will come up again at the end of the novel when George must kill Lennie. The dog and Lennie have parallel stories, with parallel fates, except Lennie has someone who cares enough about him to put him out of his misery, whereas Candy wouldn't get rid of his dog if he wasn't forced. Lennie has what Slim wishes for--someone who loves him enough to know when he life would be better for him if it were over.

Friendship 5: Candy tells George:

"I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog." Chapter 3, pg. 61.

Candy feels that friends should look out for each other, and he knows he failed his old companion.

Friendship 6: Crooks is so desperate for companionship that he is appreciative of someone who cannot understand him or converse with him. He understands now that this is the reason why George keeps Lennie around him.

Friendship 7: Crooks reveals how easy it is to feel crazy when you are alone. With no one to confirm his reality, he begins to call it into question:

"'A guy needs somebody-to be near him.' He whined, 'A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.'" Chapter 4, pg. 72.

Crooks' lonely present is very different from his childhood, when he had his two brothers to keep him company, even sleeping in the same bed.

Friendship 8: Curley's wife tries repeatedly to assure Lennie that it's okay for him to talk to her. Like most of the characters in the book, she also feels a need for companionship. Her self-centered and aggressive husband does not fill this need.

Friendship 9: When George suggests they find Lennie and lock him up instead of shooting him, Slim has to remind George how terrible it would be if Lennie were locked in a cage, or strapped to a bed. Like the painful life of Candy's arthritic sheepdog, life in prison or an asylum would be no better for Lennie. Just as Candy had to realize that his sheepdog would be better off dead than alive, so must George with Lennie.

Friendship 10: After Lennie killed Curley's wife, George was faced with a terrible choice-let Curley find Lennie and kill him, or kill Lennie himself. Unlike Candy, he will not let someone else shoot his best friend. He also will not subject his best friend to unnecessary pain. Slim's sympathetic response is best:

"'Never you mind,' said Slim. 'A guy got to sometimes.'" Chapter 6, pg. 107.

George lets Lennie die believing in their dream, though he himself must continue, knowing they will never reach it.

Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world, They got no family, they don’t belong no place. Discuss the theme of loneliness portrayed in of Mice and Men. “Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world, They got no family, they don’t belong no place” Discuss the theme of loneliness portrayed in “of Mice and Men” “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is the story of two farm hands, Lennie and George working up a stake on a ranch so maybe they can buy a place of their own “An’ live off the fatta the lan’.” George is smart and small where as Lennie is a massively strong giant of a man yet as innocent and simple minded as a young child who relies on George as a protector and mentor. There is a theme of loneliness running through the book which comes from John Steinbecks own experiences of working the land. When George starts his story about what life will be like when they get a plot of land he starts it “guys like us.” He’s talking about Ranch hands and labourers like him and Lennie probably forced to search for jobs because of the economic recession at the time the book was set. The labourers were nearly always single men who have very unstable jobs and would have had to move on once the job was done (once the harvest was collected for example). Their hard itinerant lifestyle was very lonely as the men were separated from any friends they’d made as soon as their job was finished. So the ranch hands often blew all the money they’d just earned on whisky and prostitutes to drown their sorrows and forget their problems and as the men usually travelled away from their home they “don’t belong no place.” Because Steinbeck had experienced this way of life he really captures the atmosphere and loneliness of the ranch with details that make you feel like you are there. Like in the bunkhouse, not only does he describe it like he’s lived in it and knows just what it looks like, he includes details of the behaviour of its inhabitants to hint at the atmosphere of the place and bring it to life. For example “western Magazines ranch men love to read and scoff at and secretly believe” the word secretly shows how the men have to keep their real feelings hidden from the others to appear strong and survive, like any weakness would leave them vulnerable to attack. Most of the men are guarded from each other like this, Curley’s wife draws the readers attention

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"Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world, They got no family, they don't belong no place" Discuss the theme of loneliness portrayed in "of Mice and Men" "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is the story of two farm hands, Lennie and George working up a stake on a ranch so maybe they can buy a place of their own "An' live off the fatta the lan'." George is smart and small where as Lennie is a massively strong giant of a man yet as innocent and simple minded as a young child who relies on George as a protector and mentor. There is a theme of loneliness running through the book which comes from John Steinbecks own experiences of working the land. When George starts his story about what life will be like when they get a plot of land he starts it "guys like us." He's talking about Ranch hands and labourers like him and Lennie probably forced to search for jobs because of the economic recession at the time the book was set. The labourers were nearly always single men who have very unstable jobs and would have had to move on once the job was done (once the harvest was collected for example). Their hard itinerant lifestyle was very lonely as the men were separated from any friends they'd made as soon as their job was finished. ...read more.

The fact that George puts up with this "crazy son of a b***h" who loses both of them their jobs and "does bad things" which keeps him running around the country shows that even though he is wistful about what his life might be like, he needs Lennie. I think George loves him, not as an equal but as he would love an animal or maybe even a child and Lennie loves George completely, he is tirelessly devoted to him. The uniqueness of their friendship captures and interests the reader and makes the loneliness seem worse at the end of the book without Lennie. Most of the people that live and work on the ranch have been crippled by the harsh lonely environment that they live in. I think that Steinbeck uses physical crippling to symbolise how the people have big emotional problems most of them to do with loneliness. Candy whose physical crippling is that he has no hand is terrified of what will happen to him when they "can" him because he's too old and useless, he's got no one now that his dog was shot because it "ain't no good to anyone." Physically Crooks' back is twisted after a kick from a horse and he's bitter and angry at his lonely, helpless status as a black outcast. ...read more.

George tells him their dream even though he knows it's over "Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world....." and then he shoots him "right back of head" George now has no one and is left to lead the life he was trying to escape from with no hope of anything better. Working on the plains in the 1930s was a very lonely place be and through "Of Mice and Men" Steinbeck pours into the reader the atmosphere and life of the place showing them how it was. Loneliness is a basic human emotion which I think everyone feels at some point in their lives and so people now as well as when Steinbeck first published the book in the 1930s can relate to the characters. I think the book is a tragedy because Lennie was kind of doomed from the start by his huge strength and weak mind to do "bad things." The book has a structure of patterns and parallels that suggest that events are going to happen before they do, building the tension and keeping the reader gripped. When George kills Lennie the happiness and the hope in the book breaks down but before that, for a little while George, Lennie and Candy can really believe that they might do it, and live their dream. Lennie dies happy because he believes they are going to get the place with the rabbits right then. So even though they never accomplished their dreams they were worth having. ...read more.

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