Of Mice and Men - Explanation of key themes

Main Themes...

1. Loneliness

2. Responsibility

3. Animals

4. Racism

5. Dreams

6. Segregation

Everyone on the ranch is lonely.

Geoge says ranch guys 'are the loneliest in the world'.

Curley - he is still lonely even though he is married and his marrige has failed miserably.

Curley's Wife - she feels she has missed opportunities of becoming a film star by living with curley on the ranch.

Crooks - he lives all alone as he is exiled from all the others mainly because he is black.

People on the ranch are going nowhere.

George and Lennie dream of a better life.

• Steinbeck implys from the beginning that their dream will never happen.
• George says 'I go to thinking maybe we would'.
• The American Dream is only a dream - there is a very small chance things will actually happen.

George's dream dies with Lennie.

• When George kills Lennie, George is resigned to the life of a single man.