Those who read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men will very easily point out the fact that the characters in the novella lack relationships with each other. In the very first chapter in Of Mice and Men, George makes the statement, “With us it [blowing their money and going from ranch to ranch] ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us” (Steinbeck, 14). The lack of these relationships allow the storyline to progress. Whereas, if the characters built relationships with each other, then the story could not progress and climax in the way that it did. The lack of substantive relationships in Of Mice and Men leads to the job hopping scenarios George describes, isolation among the characters, and the climatic point that makes Of Mice and Men a tragedy. First, the lack of relationships leads to the job hopping situations that George describes. In the the first chapter, George states:
Guys like us, that work ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. (Stienbeck, 13)
George is showing that no one bothers to stay at a ranch for ranch. It is no coincidence that the man who has been at the ranch
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The rising action that leads to the climax come to a head when Curly wants to fight Lennie. Had Curly built a substantive relationship with Lennie, then the tragedy of Lennie may have not happened. Curly would not have been so quick in finding Lennie guilty in the murder of his wife, and certainly not felt capital punishment be the justice to be sought in the crime. Had Curly built a substantive relationship with Lennie then the climatic point that makes Of Mice and Men a tragedy would not have