What is the principal theme of Chapter 2 in Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck?

The second chapter of Steinbeck's Of Mice and
Men - where George and Lennie arrive at the ranch in the late morning and
meet some of the other major characters of the novel - functions as both a thematic
contrast and extension to chapter 1. There the two men evince a spirit of
human attachment and aspiration, especially in George's incantatory retelling of their
dream to own a piece of land. Despite George's frustration with Lennie's
limitations, both men travel together, share a common history, and are comitted to each
other, simulating a family. In contrast, chapter 2 brings two other men into the story
who are their polar opposites. One, Curley, the boss's son, is isolated from the working
men, estranged from his wife, and kept at arm's length by his father. He is the epitome
of inhumanity, irrationally hateful and aggressive toward Lennie simply because the
'bear-like' man is bigger than he is. Similarly, Carlson, insensitive and brutal, later
bullies Candy, the one-handed swamper, into shooting his old and feeble dog. This
chapter's setting also contrasts with that of the first. The reader moves indoors from
the Salinas river valley - lush, vital, full of sunlight and peace - symbolizing the
human aspiration for something better, to the ranch bunkhouse -dark (even with daylight
outside), cramped, dormitory-like - symbolizing the hardscrabble, subsistent existence
of rootless migrant workers. Yet the attachment seen in the first chapter extends even
into the dehumanizing environment of the second in the characters of Candy and Slim.
With the former, the reader encounters a man whose handicaps - age and one-handedness -
might have been embittering, but who reaches out in sympathy to the travelers. In the
latter, the reader meets the 'prince' of the ranch hands - quiet and empathetic, who,
astounded by George and Lennie's friendship, nevertheless welcomes it as a corrective to
the loneliness and isolation of the ranch hand's life: "'Ain't many guys
travel around together,' he mused. 'I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn
world is scared of each other.'"