Friendship

The novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ is a novel full of hidden themes and symbols, and one of the most prevalent ones is Friendship. The novella is situated in Soledad, meaning ‘loneliness’ in Spanish. Loneliness and Friendship go hand in hand in the novella, as those who desire friendship often have loneliness in common. The novella mainly focuses on the two main characters, George and Lennie – the two protagonists who share a friendship of reliance and dependence. Their friendship is also dependent upon the joy they share towards the American Dream. This is in contrast of many of the characters who have to face the harsh economic times of the Great Depression alone – which was the norm. In this novella, the characters are lonely even though they are surrounded by other people – but the other characters are also lonely themselves. For example, Lennie is with George all the time but Lennie always feels on his own and is scared that George will leave him and is always seeking his approval as a child would seek the approval of a parent. George and Lennie do not see themselves as lonely as the other characters because they have each other and a dream to go away one day together. However, the importance is companionship is evident throughout for the novella. Candy had his dog who was almost a part of him and when he died, Candy’s true colours was shown and the ‘sweetness’ was gone. Crooks was a strange character, who had no one but said ‘A guy needs somebody’, making it evident that even though he had no one he accepted the concept that he did need someone. Even Curley, who was a bitter, impulsive character used the excuse of trying to find his wife as a way of socialising with the other men. The final character who was known as the ‘prince of the ranch’, was Slim who everyone wanted to befriend and he also was understand, trustworthy character who helped other people’s lives.
‘…because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.’ In this...