In ‘Of Mice and Men’, continuously moving from one job to another has meant that the characters, George and Lennie, have not yet settled down and had a long lasting relationship with someone else other than the friendship they share between one another. What is more, we can see that it is impossible to follow the ‘American Dream’. George, Lennie and Curley’s wife all dream of a different life that they wish to lead, but secretly realise that this is never going be possible (with the exception of Lennie). The harsh reality that they face is the squalid conditions of the ranch and long hours of manual labour. Due to the itinerant lifestyle the ranch workers lead, they are subject to loneliness and long for true companionship.

The condition of their accommodation at the ranch makes the difficulties and harshness of their lives starkly apparent. The cramped conditions of ‘eight bunk beds’ are also the home to ‘lice, roaches and other scourges’.  The ranchmen have few belongings that it can fit in an ‘apple box’ and what they have are the bare necessities ‘soap, talcum powder, razors and those Western magazines’. There are few luxuries; they sleep on ‘burlap’ mattresses, in a dusty room with ‘small windows’- lack of ventilation. They live in a problematic society where there are all kinds of worry, on edge, struggling on the farm already by getting the boss ‘sore as hell’. What is more, George and Lennie feel threatened by Curley’s presence. The fact that he is a ‘lightweight’ implies that he is capable of physical violence.

The ranchmen lead a harsh lifestyle, lacking in camaraderie and a family. George confesses that the life that ‘guys like us (George and Lennie), are the loneliest guys in the world’. These men move to different ranches with no company and have to ‘blow their stake’ on alcohol and whorehouses. Their form of entertainment is to fight with the ‘nigger’ and ‘raise hell’ in town. All of which imply that their life is not a loving and caring one but full of danger, violence and racism. Law and order does not exist in vast land America so that the ranchmen are allowed to do anything they want, whilst up to their neck in the ‘gallon of whisky’, which the boss gave to them. The fact they can drink so much emphasizes that their lives are full of misery and isolation that drinking is their only escape from their harsh world- especially in ‘Christmas’, where it is usually the time to celebrate with you friends and family, they ‘had fun’ with the ‘whole gallon’.

To conclude, we can see that the ranchman lead a harsh and cruel life on the farm. It is not just from the violence and danger from the ranch itself, but the fact that they keep moving from farm to farm for work. This means that they can no longer have a stable relationship with anyone else. Therefore, have to seek entertainment at brothels and poker games losing, what little money they have, on poker and alcohol.