Find evidences for these themes: The American Dream, Utopia, friendship, loneliness, discrimination and social protest. Some suggested themes in...

You have asked a massive question here, and I am not going
to respond to every single theme you have referred to. I will tackle the theme of
friendship that you have mentioned and how it is dealt with in the novel. Hopefully that
will give you some ideas of how to approach other themes in the novel and write an essay
about them.

To think about friendship and how it is
presented is to think about the tragedy of the novel. The memory of the tragic
friendship between George and Lennie lingers on long after the close of the novel
because the friends have lost a hope or a dream that is bigger than their friendship.
Consider how the dream of the farm operates in this novel, and how it compels and
sustains not only George and Lennie through difficult times, but how it also attracts
like a magnet other lonely characters. Consider how Crooks is drawn to the idea and
likewise Candy. Although Crooks is cynical and has seen many other men with the same
dream, he still is seduced by it and wants "in" on this dream with Lennie and
George. Friendship, therefore, centred on this "dream", shows how the men in this novel
crave companionship and fellowship that would defeat the loneliness that rules their
lives. To have someone that they can share life with means that they have someone who
will protect them and look out for them in a very harsh and brutal
world.

However, and very depressingly, the world that
Steinbeck paints is too brutal and too harsh to form and continue such an idealised
friendship. This is of course symbolised tragically in how the friendship between Lennie
and George ends. This tragedy is made all the more poignant by the repeated reference to
their dream of living in harmony which is given enough credibility to make it
achievable. However, with Lennie´s death, a true example of friendship and brotherhood
ends, but what makes it more tragic is the lack of understanding that some of the
characters have when they come upon George and Lennie - they do not recognise the
world-ending significance of what has happened to George. Not only is such a friendship
impossible in our brutal world, Steinbeck seems to be saying, but others are unable to
recognise it even when it does occur.