Relationships In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the novella titled “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck, there are 3 types of relationships between the men, and throughout the story, their thoughts on each other change.The men in the book become friends, enemies, and some just stay as acquaintances. Overall in this story, the men are enemies because even though they are nice to each other occasionally, they are just trying to get ahead or gain something in their own lives.

The men in the book rarely actually like each other enough to grow real friendships. “You know how the hands are, they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then they quit and go out alone. Never seem to give a damn about nobody”(39). Slim said this to George, expressing why he thought that it was weird that he was traveling with lennie and how they were so close, even though Lennie was mentally disabled. This also shows that slim, along with almost all of the other characters in the story, thought that nobody actually cared for anyone else, and that they were just trying to get something for themselves.

“ I ought to have shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog”(60). This displays how the men really felt about each other. Candy said to george and lennie in the book that he shouldn't have let a stranger shoot his dog, and even though he’s sad about his dog getting killed, he put emphasis on how someone else killed his dog and called them a stranger. The underlying meaning of him calling Carlson (the one who shot his dog) a stranger is that they weren't friends and Carlson didn't care that Candy was about to lose the only real companion he had. Almost all of the men are like that in this book, meaning that they’re insensitive to how the other guys feel and don’t really care about each other’s