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John Steinbeck 's Of Mice And Men

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Loneliness is an emotion of isolation and no hope or dreams in life, which is what John Steinbeck achieves by portraying this through the characters in his novella Of Mice and Men. The main characters are affected by loneliness in their own different way throughout the novella. rf The loneliness is maintained by the challenges that the characters have to face, and they sustain those challenges of being inhumane towards each other. Crook, a figure in the story who experiences discrimination encounters the challenge of race, due to the book’s setting in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Crook is a black American man who is excluded from activities and has to occupy a room in a stable, and he is not allowed in the bunkhouse for it is only for the white men. Crooks tries to defend himself by saying “You got no rights comin ' in a colored man 's room. You got no rights messing around in here at all” (Steinbeck 4.80). but Curley 's wife replies: “Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy, it ain 't even funny" (Steinbeck 4.81). At this point, he resorts to backing down and replying “Yes, ma’am" (Steinbeck 4.81). He acknowledges the fact he will be and always has been discriminated against because of the certain colour of his skin. Equally important, Candy who is described as "a tall, stoop-shouldered old man … He was dressed in blue jeans and carried a big push-broom in his left hand" (Steinbeck 1.18). His right hand is simply a

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