How are Lennie and George different from other people on the farm?

andshare a firm and
lasting friendship and this state of companionship sets them apart from the other men on the
ranch. 

The job of being a ranch hand entails a considerable amount of
movement for many of the men, forcing them to travel to find work. In addition to a rather
solitary sensibility that functions almost as a (masculine) code of values, the prevailing
conditions of farm work during the Great Depression in California presented in the book serve to
isolate individuals from one another.

There is a notable lack of friendship
-- lasting or otherwise -- among the men on the ranch. Slim is admired, but holds himself
somewhat aloof. Candy is very nice and friendly, yet until George and Lennie arrived he seems to
have had no actual friendships on the ranch.

Added to the isolation produced
by migratory patterns and a stoic social code, there are also class and race differences that
keep people divided. Curley has no friends in part because he tries to maintain a class-based
distance between himself as a representative of ownership and men who labor on the
ranch.

George and Lennie defy the odds and maintain a remarkable friendship.
The fact of this friendship makes the pair different from the others on the ranch.  

"If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody
give a damn. But not us.

Lennie broke in. But not us! An why?
Because€¦because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and thats
why. He laughed delightedly. Go on now, George!

The stability of this friendship may be partly responsible for helping George and
Lennie forge a shared dream as well wherein they will have a stake in their own labor by taking
ownership of a small farm of their own. 

George and Lennie are conscious of
their special status as men with a social network, however meager it may appear to the reader.
Others are equally aware of this difference in the pair and this awareness is noted throughout
the novel by the boss, Candy, Slim and others. 

More than any other elements
of their characters, it is the friendship shared by George and Lennie that makes them different
from the others on the ranch.