Theme Analysis Of Mice and Men Essay Example

The first theme example is the theme of friendship, which talks about the relationships people have with others in the novel.

Lennie and George had a really strong friendship, they traveled everywhere together since they were really young living with Aunt Clara, they worked together. George is watching after Lennie because his Aunt Clara asked him to. 

Another friendship example is Candy and his dog, Candy has had his dog since it was born and he was a really good friend and sheep dog. Slim wanted to get rid of the dog because it was very old, it stank really bad, and it was in pain so Slim wanted to end the hurt and misery so it wouldn’t be hurt and so it wouldn’t stink as much. 

The last example of friendship in Of Mice and Men, is George and Slim, George told Slim almost everything about Lennie and his past. Examples are when George told Slim what really happened back at weed, why he is looking after Lennie, and how dumb Lennie is. George puts a lot of trust into Slim. 

The second example of theme is Social Expectations, which is what was expected of someone or something to do. 

The first example is Curleys wife and how she was a women in the 1930’s. Assignments for women in the 1930’s are to stay in the house clean, cook, and tend the children, but Curleys wife never stayed in doors she would always go out and flirt with the guys.

The second example of social expectations is Lennie’s work ethic and how he had so much stamina that the guys had shifts working with him. Lennie was a very hard worker and could work two times harder than any guy on the ranch, all the guys expected him to be a casual normal worker like the rest of them.

The last example of social expectations is Candy only having one hand and how he wasnt expected to even be working as much as he did because he was “handicapped”. Candy was given $250 when he signed up to work from his incedent in losing his hand, and he is still a hard worker. 

The last concept of theme I chose is, the nature of dreams, the nature of dreams is what dreams the characters or other things had in the novel.

The first example is George and Lennie having the dream of owning their own land and being able to live off of it. George kills Lennie after Lennie killed Curleys wife, then George and Slim decide to get a drink and then George realizes that it is impossible to be able to complete the dream of getting their own land.

The second example is, Curley’s wife having the dream of becoming an actor. Curley’s wife doesn’t achieve this because she was a women in the 1930’s and not many women actually were able to make it in a movie, but she took the easy way out by getting married to Curley who had money so she didn’t have to work for it. 

Lastly, Crooks had the dream of being more included in the events the other guys were doing like going to town, playing cards with the guys, and being free. He never had the chance to have actual friends like George and Lennie were. Crooks was black so it was hard for him to get involved in things like playing cards and meeting new people to become friends.