Why is Slim in Of Mice and Men interested but also jealous of George and Lennie traveling together? And how is this a microcosm of the rest of...

Slim has worked on this particular farm for a long time and he's seen transient workers come and go. For him, the average worker shows up, gets his bed, works for a month, gets paid and leaves. Slim is therefore interested in finding out about George and Lennie because them traveling together has never been seen before. For example, Slim says, "Funny how you an' him string along together" (39). There is no textual evidence, though,...

Slim has worked on this particular farm for a long time and he's seen transient workers come and go. For him, the average worker shows up, gets his bed, works for a month, gets paid and leaves. Slim is therefore interested in finding out about George and Lennie because them traveling together has never been seen before. For example, Slim says, "Funny how you an' him string along together" (39). There is no textual evidence, though, to suggest that Slim is jealous of them. The only thing that comes close to that is when George says that the workers who travel alone don't have any fun and "they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time" (41). Slim responds affirmatively by saying, "They get so they don't want to talk to nobody" (41). This conversation brings up the fact that loneliness is a major part of the bindle life, and George and Lennie do have companionship which helps keep that at bay.

Loneliness is a microcosm for the rest of America at this time because of the effects of the Great Depression. Jobs were so scarce that people had to migrate around to find work. Of Mice and Men addresses the poverty, loneliness and hard life that millions lead at this time. Men probably traveled from job to job alone because of how dangerous life was at that time, too. While traveling by foot, they could have been robbed or killed by desperate people at any time. Many young teens at the time were forced out of their homes because their parents couldn't afford them, so they hopped trains and looked for work all over the country. Many of those kids got run over by the trains or robbed and beat up. It was a very dangerous and desperate time in America.