Isolation is crushing in Of Mice and Men

Yes, mice and men oft have schemes that go awry, but Of Mice and Men makes the case that they’re also both social creatures in need of companionship and reassurance. Maybe not coincidentally, the narrator of Robert Burns’s poem is a man connecting with a mouse, empathizing with the destruction of his home, and reassuring the mouse that he means it no harm.

The story is of George and Lennie travelling together as itinerant workers. Lennie is mentally disabled and they have a parent/child relationship. The story establishes the unusual nature of their travelling together. The first to comment on it is the boss they meet:

“I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin’ his pay away from him?”
“No, ‘course I ain’t. Why ya think I’m selling him out?”
“Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.”

Then, Slim, the respected ranch hand:

“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.”

This idea of fear as the reason for isolation is repeated later by Curley’s wife:

“Funny thing,” she said. “If I catch any one man, and he’s alone, I get along fine with him. But just let two of the guys get together an’ you won’t talk. Jus’ nothing but mad…You’re all scared of each other, that’s what. Ever’one of you’s scared the rest is goin’ to get something on you.”

The story draws clearly one of the positive effects of companionship. The most notable one is that the men who come together form a hope for the future. At first, George seems to be giving Lennie the picture of the rabbits and the “fatta the land”. But over the course of the story, it becomes clear that Lennie’s repeated requests are giving George purpose and hope for the future. When George realizes that Lennie is going away, he gives up on the dream at that same moment.

Beyond George and Lennie, the story contains two dyads that are coping with their isolation. The first dyad is Candy, the disabled ranch hand who fears that he will soon be out of work, and Crooks, the black ranch hand who is made to live in the barn and suffers humiliations and abuse. Both make an effort to join George and Lennie’s plan. This would seem a healthier effort at connection, even though it ultimately fails for both.

The second dyad copes in self-destructive ways. This is Curley and Curley’s wife, who represent hate and love both as unhealthy connections. Curley fights everyone and Curley’s wife creates an uncomfortable flirtatious atmosphere when Curley’s not around. While it might seem like Steinbeck was being sexist in not naming Curley’s wife (and he really might have), he may also have been drawing clearly this dual expression of a single problem. Put more simply, Curley and his wife represent a single concept.

Early on, the story foreshadows Lennie’s death when Carlson kills Candy’s dog. That difficult moment draws out the pain of Candy’s isolation, ostensibly eased by his pet. It also shows that the whole group of ranch hands cannot conceive why Candy keeps his dog, even though it is old and “stinks”. This scene indicates a philosophy that the isolation of men is a cultural dynamic, one that men perpetuate.

The story’s resolution is shocking because of the killing of a mentally disabled person, but it has emotional resonance because the story has framed the special and unusual nature of male companionship.