The American Dream
George and Lennie have a very unique story and a very interesting American Dream. They are very different from other ranchers because instead of using all of their money on trivial things like most ranchers they will save their money so that they can buy their own ranch. They also only want a small part of land that they can call their own and most ranchers want an unrealistically huge part of land that they would never be able to afford. My initial impression of them was that I thought that they were very nice people but they were just very misunderstood. I also thought that they were very grateful for what they have and that they were very selfless. The farm in the book represents to them that they will be able to succeed at their dream if they just need to work hard at what they are doing now and save their money. Also, they would like to be able to sell the things that they harvest from their future farm, they even said they would like to "live off the fatta the lan".
Setting
In the book "Of Mice and Men" the bunkhouse is a rectangular building with eight bunks inside of it. It houses the farmhands who are just trying to make a living and get back on their feet. This is similar to the setting in the first chapter because in the first chapter George and Lennie are trying to make it on their own and they are heading to the ranch to make a living and buy the farm they have dreamed about for a long time. Life on the ranch isn't the best but it is better than not having a home. This also suggests that life on the ranch can be troubling at times because of people trying to make money but they man be conflicts between characters because of them trying to make a living. Another thing this suggests is that the boss likes things done a certain way like when the old man said "He was sore as hell when you wasn't here to go out this morning". George lies to the boss about his relationship with Lennie because he doesn't want the boss to know that they are the wanted men from Weed.
Conflict
My initial impression of Curley is that he has a vey big ego and that he tries to intimidate everybody. A quote that supports this is when he says "Well, nex' time you answer when you're spoke to." Curley picks a fight with Lennie so that he can try to show that he is the strongest guy on the ranch. Curley's presence causes tension between Lennie and George because Curley makes Lennie feel uncomfortable. George tells Lennie to try to avoid conflicts with Curley so that they don't get into trouble and Lennie doesn't get into a fight. I think this is good advice because George knows what Lennie is capable of and he also doesn't want Lennie to get them into trouble because they need the money to buy their land and farm.
Loneliness
One character that represents loneliness is Candy, the one handed ranch hand. He represents loneliness because he realizes that it is becoming harder to do his job and he may get fired soon because of his aliment and won't be able to find another job. One quote that supports this is when he says, "I won't have no place to go, an' I can;t get no more jobs." Another character that represents loneliness is Crooks, the black stable buck. He represents loneliness because he is the only black person on the ranch and during the time that the book takes place racism was still very prominent. Both these characters struggle with being lonely because they are the only ones that are different that anyone else, so they are alienated. The solutions that could possible fix this are for Crooks to try to save up money and buy his own land, and for Candy to do the deal he proposed to Lennie and George about helping pay for the farm and land.