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John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men Essay

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"Of Mice and Men" is a play written by John Steinbeck that focuses on life during the mid 1930's. This play has many recurring themes, and one of these themes is that of loneliness. This loneliness is because of the intolerance of society on those who are different. The underlying, yet stunningly obvious, theme of loneliness can be found in many characters with many examples. This loneliness due to isolation and intolerance is found in the characters of Candy, because he is old and useless; Crooks, because he is black and crippled; and Curley's wife, because she is a beautiful woman and the only girl on and all guy ranch.
The first character which has the theme of …show more content…

The way she acts during the play shows that she is lonely. In the play she is always looking for some companionship "[She] is just looking for somebody to talk to. Don't your never just want to talk to somebody?" (p. 8) Sometimes she sneaks over to the bunkhouse under the premise of looking for somebody "I'm looking for Curley" (p. 8) The rest of the men on the ranch see Curley's Wife as a tart or slut who is constantly looking for a man "she got the eye" (p. 7), "Seems like she can't keep away from guys." (p.13). The men on the ranch are afraid of her because she is married to the son of the Boss. They figure that if they were to do anything to her that she would somehow get them fired "Get going. We don't want no trouble" (p. 15). Near the end of the play as she prepares to run away it is apparent that she is lonely and only sought a companion on the farm. She does not love Curley "I don't like Curley. He ain't a nice fella. I might a stayed…but least night [Curley] and [The Boss] both lit into me." (p. 20), and prepares to run away to go to Hollywood. Before she dies, she and Lennie become friends. She has shared some of her innermost and secret ambitions with him which signifies that she likes him, trusts him, and thinks that she can confide in him. Curley's wife is an example of isolation and intolerance of women during the 1930's and is

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