Underlying Themes In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck takes place near Soledad, California, 1937, during the Great Depression on a ranch. The novel is about two men who share a dream of raising enough money to own a plot of land named Lennie, a mentally challenged giant who was wrongly accused of rape at their old job, and George, a small man who looks after him. This parable has many themes, but the main one would be what it means to be human. What it means to be human has several underlying themes, like the nature of dreams, the nature of loneliness, man's tendency for cruelty, powerlessness and economic injustices, and the uncertainty of the future. It starts off with the duo walking to their new job at a ranch. They stop to rest at a small pond for the night,

While they’re talking, Curley’s wife enters, and after Crooks tells her to leave his room, she threatens him with lynching. George returns and tells her to shoo. Crooks then dejectedly rejects his offer.
The next day Lennie is in the barn with a dead puppy. While he thinks about how to explain this to George, Curley’s wife comes into the barn, and they talk about how they like soft things. She offers him to touch her hair, and he does. But when he messes up her hair, she gets angry, making him latch onto her hair. She starts to scream, and he holds her so close and tightly that he breaks her neck. He knows he did something wrong and runs away to the pond.
Candy goes into the barn and finds Curley’s wife before going to get George; they both know what happened. George goes back to the bunkhouse to steal Carlson’s gun before going to get the others. When Curley sees his dead wife, he decides to hunt down and lynch Lennie. The whole group goes out to find him, but George finds him first. Lennie pleads to George to scold him, but George is so overcome with emotion that he must save him from Curley. George distracts Lennie by talking to him about the plot of land, before shooting him in the back of the