He can never hold down a job and develops a kleptomania habit. He dreams of working on a ranch, but he sees that dream as unacceptable because it is not the life his father wants for him. For much of his life, he blames his father for his failures while simultaneously trying to live up to his expectations. Because
He knew that he is not good enough with human relations but he did not try to work on it or develop it and we can see that clearly reflected in his work. Spencer's lack of effective communication skills led him to many conflicts with his colleagues at work. He was not listening to the people he was working with. Another source of conflict was that he got involved in the financial issues of the organization even though he knew he is not good in accounting. Furthermore, at the start of his new job as plant manager at Modrow, Spencer was faced with some extensive challenges in management.
How does Steinbeck use dreams and dreaming in the novel? Why are they important? In Of Mice and Men, the hopes and dreams of the men on the ranch are a continuous focus and theme throughout the novel. Dreams and reality is one of the major themes in this book and Steinbeck uses the concept of dreams to show hope and aspiration, and show the difficulties of survival with unrealistic dreams. In the beginning of the chapter, we meet two migrant workers called George and Lennie who are different than most men during this time, simply because they have each other and they both share the same dream.
George is the dominant male in the relationship , because of Lennie’s disability it causes they both very much trouble back in Weed and on the ranch they arrive too after escaping. Also Lennie’s disability causes himself to be put aside from others on big events. While all the other ranch hands go to town, Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s Wife are left behind. They’re left behind because to all the other strong and healthy men they’re outsiders. Lennie is considered as an outsider because of his mental disability.
Lennie is he’s responsibility. And since Lennie is he’s responsibility, it’s been getting him in trouble. Like running away from town and getting in to trouble in the ranch. Life is rough with Lennie. He always says how it’d be so much easier without Lennie in his life but he obviously knows he would do anything to protect him.
The loneliest person on the ranch has to be Crooks, who suffers from extreme loneliness because he is black and he is living in a ranch and the surrounding area which is very racist. He lives by himself, because the other men do not like him. He does not take part in any of the social activities in the ranch and is left out completely. He is so lonely that he turns to books, which soon becomes boring and
As the book progresses we come to learn that Lennie wouldn’t be able to live without George due to the constant reminder of things and the need to be reminded to stay out of trouble. George is also harsh, mean and very stern towards Lennie, however, it is also very evident that George never left Lennie despite his life would have mean much easier without him. When Lennie and George arrive in the brush, we straight away gather that there is a leader, follower relationship that occurs between the two. However as we read further we get to understand the relationship between the two and how much of an impact George has on Lennie and even the other way around. It becomes clear that Lennie is very childlike and needs constant supervision.
Everyone on the ranch is lonely; George says ranch guys ‘are the loneliest in the world.’ Crooks says ‘A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long as he’s with you.’ This implies that everyone in the ranch is lonely since all the bunk house men are single so they have no one to comfort them. They have no family to go to or to speak to, they have nothing to look forward to except work for the rest of their lives. George even plays solitaire which is a one player game which implies that even though he has Lennie he still feels alone since Lennie is so immature that he cannot speak to him about the real problems he has. He could feel like he’s in unequal marriage, where George has all the responsibilities.
Due to his lack of friends he tries to create a bond with Sam and it makes it even more valuable due to Hally’s loneliness. He would always “try out a few ideas but sooner or later” he’d “end up in there with” Sam and Willie. He would always look for something to do and always wonder what he should do and think of some ideas but in the end he knew that they would always be there and he would never be let down by them. Hally feels a strong sense of humiliation and all of it because of his crippled and alcoholic father whom made him feel a constant let down in his life. When Hally was young his father “was dead drunk on the floor of the Central Hotel Bar” and Sam helped Hally bring him home.
The genre of this story is a comedy about a man who spends much of his time running errands for his wife and daydreaming about issues in his life among dealing with his nagging wife and others that he come in contact with everyday. Mitty appears to be a coy individual who requires guidance from Mrs. Mitty to assist him with day to day living. “Remember to get those overshoes while I’m having my hair done, she said” (Clugston, 2010, p.17). I am using the formalist approach to analyze this short story. In his first daydream, Mr. Mitty was driving his wife into the city to her hair dresser appointment when he started daydreaming that he was a commander in an 8 engine Navy hydroplane.