Set during the 1930's in the Salinas Valley of California, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men captures the life and struggles of lonely migrant ranchhands. George and Lennie, an unlikely pair, travel together working for a subsistent living, and the only thing that keeps them going is their dream of owning a piece of land they can call their own. Juxtaposed against the friendship and dreams of George and Lennie are the tragic lives of other rootless ranchmen who have no hopes of a better future, and Candy, Crooks and Curley's wife, who although possess dreams, either have no one to share them with or have no hopes of ever reaching them. Clearly, the ability to dream is inextricably tied to having someone to share that dream with.
             Although George, a small and sharp man, complains about Lennie who is large and clumsy, he knows that the bond that exists between them is rare and valuable. Lennie's simpleminded nature, especially his love of petting soft things, constantly results in trouble for the pair, and at times George complains "...if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble...and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want...a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool"(11). Yet his attachment to Lennie remains because he ultimately knows that, while all the people that work on the various farms are free to do all these things, they are miserably "...the loneliest guys in the world. They got no fambly. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they're pounding in' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead to." In reality, George's notion of freedom and happiness, no matter how implausible, is having someone to mutually care for and to share a future dream of "livin' off the fatta the lan'"(1...