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Isolation And Of Mice And Men By James Joyce

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Explore the ways in which the theme of isolation is presented in Dubliners and Of Mice and Men.

Isolation - a complete, or near-complete lack of contact with people or society. People can either ostracise you, deliberately shunning you out, which is mainly the type which can be found in the books which we have studied, or it can be very accidental. From The Dubliners, a collection of short stories, I have selected two that I feel can be related to themes of isolation and withdrawal: First, The Dead, written by James Joyce, set in Edwardian Dublin, and like Of Mice and Men, it contains strong themes of isolation, primarily between the two main characters, Gretta and Gabriel Conroy. Joyce presents Gabriel as being very out of control of the situation, and although in close proximity to his wife, they are both in very different worlds; very apart. In Eveline, she doesn’t have any say on what she does with her life, often she finds herself isolated from her family, and is limited by the moral contexts restricting women at the time. The book Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, and set in rural southern California during the depression, follows the hopes of both Lennie Small and George Milton, towards their dream of owning a ranch together; a unique aspiration in a book full of insecurity and isolation. Most of the characters in this book are very isolated: by gender, for example there is only one woman, by race, for example there is only one black character, or even

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