Of Mice and Men is one of Steinbeck's best novels. John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, CA he goes back to that setting for this novel. There are five to six characters that Steinbeck develops and opens up to the reader through the novel. Although George, Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curly's wife all seek a place to belong and someone to love as a cure to there loneliness, all their dreams for a better future are destroyed in the novel. George and Lennie are an unlikely pair of friends who are introduced in the beginning. George is "small and quick, dark...
for being a flirt, none of the farmhands wants to talk to her, but no matter how hard she tries, she can never fit in.

George, Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curly's wife all feel in some way a type of alienation. They all strive to be on there own and do something more meaningful with their lives. Lennie kills Curly's wife and now she will not have to worry about being lonely ever again but her death carries burdens onto other people. Lennie's child-like state of mind brings forth the downfalls of the dreams and aspirations of many others.