Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Loneliness is not only being unhappy from lack of companionship, but it has many components. For example, somebody can have many friends and still feel lonely, when another can be all alone and feel satisfied with his/her life. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men portrays loneliness throughout the novel and how it impacts the characters. Attention seeking, isolation and violence are some of the many negative behavior effects shown from seclusion.

Society isolates individuals from others because they fear the reactions they will evoke from others. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck displays isolation through Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife. Candy is isolated because of his disability and his and the death of his dog. Crook is isolated mainly due to his race. Curley’s wife suffers from solitude because she is the only women. The pervasive emotion experienced by all of the characters in Of Mice and Men is loneliness. The loneliness is also, though, profoundly existential and symbolic. The men do not want to be isolated and they do not want to be left behind by society.

Loneliness can be a very harsh emotion. Some let it take over their whole lookout on life . The way each individual deals with it is different but sometimes it bothers people to the point where they let it affect their dreams and decisions. In the book Of Mice and Men, characters make big decisions that affects their dreams that leave them unhappy.

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.” Dag Hammarskiold

John Steinbeck feels poorly about women,makes then feel unwanted in his writing. Women have a high value in life but not in Steinbeck's eyes. Loneliness is a major part of Mice and Men.Curley's wife experiences being lonely and starts to do things to get attention

Many of the characters in the novel are isolated and openly discuss their feelings of loneliness and i think that most of them feel that way because the guys travel by themselves and that's one of the reasons they may feel lonely. They also might feel lonely because they don't even have a home or a place they could call their own. The reason why I think a majority of them are lonely though is because they don't have families and just having a family and spending time with them makes you feel better and since they don't have a family is probably why most of the men spend their time at susy's place. Another one of the reasons why i think that most of the men and even the people that work at the ranch are lonely is because they have almost absolutely nothing.

In our lifetimes, we all have experienced loneliness. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, loneliness affects the characters in his story. The story takes place around the 1930 where 2 men ,George and Lennie, try to find work but struggle because of Lennie’s disability. Through the theme of “Individual fear loneliness” there are many branches that can answer the question of how and why they fear loneliness. The three characters that show loneliness in this story are George, Lennie, and Curley's wife.

Loneliness is a void in the heart which slowly consumes its host until finally it takes away any hopes or aspirations they once held. John Steinbeck ahead of his time published Of Mice and Men in 1937 to show how social discrimination was prominent during this time period. Throughout his short novel he utilizes his characters to display this ill treatment of humanity. Often times, loneliness drives its victims away from their dreams, making them to believe in things that are seemingly irrational. Steinbeck, in Of Mice and Men, created the character of Candy to give him a longing to join George and Lennie’s dream in order to illuminate the affect of society’s alienating, harsh treatment of the old and disabled.

After rushing into her relationship, she realized that Curley was not the ideal husband and ends up living on a ranch filled with men, and without friends. Without a husband that loves her and cares about her, Curley’s wife is stuck on a ranch without another woman and expected to stay away from the other men. Also, when Curley’s wife opens up to Lennie, she shows the reader that even though she has a husband, she doesn’t see him as a friend, resulting in loneliness. Just like Crooks, Curley’s wife just wants a friend; someone to confide in. Her feelings are shown when she says, “I get lonely, you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like to not talk to anybody?”(Steinbeck 71) Lastly, the cruelty of Curley’s wife is illustrated in the scene where she confronts the men in Crooks’s room and gets rejected by them. Throughout the story, Curley’s wife dresses up and tries to act fancy, to try to keep herself in the hierarchy of the ranch, but when the weaklings on the ranch reject her, she realizes that there isn’t a place for her on the ranch. This realization of her loneliness leads her to unleash her rage on Crooks when she says, “ Listen, nigger. You know what I could do to you if you open your trap?... Well keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy

Almost everyone, in the book Of Mice and Men, was lonely in some type of way. The town Soledad actually means solitude, implying that loneliness was a definite theme in the book (Leaf). For instance Crooks, the black stable hand lives alone. Being the only black person on the ranch, he often keeps his distance from the others (Steinbeck 74). He cannot work with other, because of his crooked back, taking away his opportunity to ever work with the other men (Steinbeck 66). He loved to read and because he was so lonely he liked to clean to occupy his time (Steinbeck 67). He’s not allowed to stay in the bunkhouse because the others do not like to socialize with him. Crooks feel like no one likes him because he is black. He says in the book, “Guys

The story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck takes place in the 1930s during the great depression in South of Soledad, California. When two migrant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small are on the look for work in a ranch. Lennie is mentally handicap and wherever he and George go, Lennie always gets them in trouble. At the end of the novel, Lennie kills someone and George has no other choice than to shoot Lennie and free him from living a bad life.

Most of the characters in the story show that loneliness is a big part in “Of Mice and Men.” There are three main characters that show this trait; Candy, Curley’s wife, and Crooks.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted drive one’s mental health insane. Curley’s wife was lonely mentally and emotionally. It was caused by her lack of communication and association with other people. Curley’s wife inappropriate actions with the other characters and her untimely death in the novel are driven by her loneliness.

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck written in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, a time where numerous themes in the novel depict the hopeless lives of itinerant workers and the issues that were occurring. Steinbeck conveys the issues presented in the 1930s through contrasting characters and the settings. The key themes identified are dreams and loneliness. Of Mice and Men explores how the predominance theme of the importance of dreams and loneliness affects each character.

Soledad is a place where the play Of Mice and Men mostly takes place. The definition of the term would be, “lonely place” (McMurray). Throughout the play, there are many quiet and abandoned places as well as there are people. Lennie would serve as an example. Lennie prefers someone to be with him so he will never be or feel lonely.