Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The Corrupting Power of Women
The portrayal of women in Of Mice and Men is
limited and unflattering. We learn early on that Lennie and George
are on the run from the previous ranch where they worked, due to
encountering trouble there with a woman. Misunderstanding Lennie’s
love of soft things, a woman accused him of rape for touching her
dress. George berates Lennie for his behavior, but is convinced
that women are always the cause of such trouble. Their enticing
sexuality, he believes, tempts men to behave in ways they would
otherwise not.
A visit to the “flophouse” (a cheap hotel, or brothel)
is enough of women for George, and he has no desire for a female
companion or wife. Curley’s wife, the only woman to appear in Of
Mice and Men, seems initially to support George’s view
of marriage. Dissatisfied with her marriage to a brutish man and
bored with life on the ranch, she is constantly looking for excitement
or trouble. In one of her more revealing moments, she threatens
to have the black stable-hand lynched if he complains about her
to the boss. Her insistence on flirting with Lennie seals her unfortunate
fate. Although Steinbeck does, finally, offer a sympathetic view
of Curley’s wife by allowing her to voice her unhappiness and her
own dream for a better life, women have no place in the author’s
idealized vision of a world structured around the brotherly bonds
of men.
Loneliness and Companionship
Many of the characters admit to suffering from
profound loneliness. George sets the tone for these confessions
early in the novella when he reminds Lennie that the life of a ranch-hand
is among the loneliest of lives. Men like George who migrate from
farm to farm rarely have anyone to look to for companionship and
protection. As the story develops, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife all
confess their deep loneliness. The fact that they admit to complete
strangers their fear of being cast off shows their desperation.
In a world without friends to confide in, strangers will have to
do. Each of these characters searches for a friend, someone to help
them measure the world, as Crooks says. In the end, however, companionship
of his kind seems unattainable. For George, the hope of such companionship
dies with Lennie, and true to his original estimation, he will go
through life alone.
Strength and Weakness
Steinbeck explores different types of strength and weakness throughout
the novella. The first, and most obvious, is physical strength. As
the story opens, Steinbeck shows how Lennie possesses physical strength
beyond his control, as when he cannot help killing the mice. Great
physical strength is, like money, quite valuable to men in George
and Lennie’s circumstances. Curley, as a symbol of authority on
the ranch and a champion boxer, makes this clear immediately by
using his brutish strength and violent temper to intimidate the
men and his wife.
Physical strength is not the only force that oppresses
the men in the book. It is the rigid, predatory human tendencies,
not Curley, that defeat Lennie and George in the end. Lennie’s physical
size and strength prove powerless; in the face of these universal
laws, he is utterly defenseless and therefore disposable.
