Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Everyone becomes lonely due to hard conditions. Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, illustrates the feeling of loneliness on a ranch in the early 1930’s. This book shows how people are driven to try and find friendships in order to escape from loneliness. Steinbeck creates an isolated and blue atmosphere at many times in the book. He uses place names to give the setting a sense of desolation right from the start, and reinforces it with the characters readers meet throughout the book. Curley’s wife and Crooks are clear examples of what loneliness can drive people to do. Steinbeck’s book shows the importance of friendships in overcoming loneliness.

Although Crook, Curley's Wife, and George are lonely, ultimately you need to have someone in life.

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

“‘Guys like us that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to’”

Loneliness is sadness because one has no friends or company. In Of Mice and Men there are tons of lonely characters but, the top three loneliest characters are Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife. The most lonely character is Crooks because he is black and all the ranch workers stay away from him. The second lonesome character in the novel is Candy because he has no family left and he had a dog but then his dog was killed. Finally, the last character is Curley's wife because she is the only girl near the ranch so she has nobody to talk to.

Loneliness is common among most of the ranchmen in Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck displays many examples of loneliness among minor and major characters. Many characters are lonely due to the fact that they are different from the ranchmen. Having companionship or a close friend is rare among the ranchmen. Candy is an old man who has one arm.

The book "Of Mice and Men", is an example of friendship and loneliness. The main characters, George and Lennie, are two men that go on an adventure together out looking for new jobs. They have really good friendship on everything they encounter throughout their trip. Loneliness, because the reason why they stick together is because they're lonely. And without each other they don't know what they would do.

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.” This quote, written by Jodi Picoult, explains the true meaning of how people can become lonely. Sometimes people’s differences can cause others to push them away. In the fictional novella, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, he displays this notion through the diversity of his characters.

In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck explored the ideas of loneliness and how it affects a person; he showed us through the characters actions how having someone to talk to in your life can make such a difference. Crooks was a man that was “sick” from loneliness, nobody ever talked to him because the color of his skin. Lennie was free from this “sickness” because he had George to talk to and share his feelings with. Lastly, George dodged this feeling of loneliness because he had Lennie and was socially accepted at the ranch. George and Lennie were able to avoid the feeling of loneliness because they had each other, Crooks on the other hand was sick because he completely lonely.

Although Of Mice and Men appears to be a novel that centers on the ideas of friendship and camaraderie, it can also be skewed the other way. These men who work on ranches live short, lonely lives. To them, friendship is much more of a luxury, per se, than a necessity. They work for a month, get paid, and move on. Their lifestyle isn't designed to make long-term friendships. They know nothing else. Almost every character has something to say about being lonely, making it a key point in this novel.

Loneliness is a trait of human nature that everyone has experienced in their lifetime and John Steinbeck makes a point of it in his novel. In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck includes the theme of loneliness because no matter the situation that people are in, loneliness is inevitable. In John Steinbeck's novel there are, many instances of characters portraying their loneliness, isolation, and their search to escape from it. When the story first begins George, one of the main characters makes a long speech that is essentially about how he would prefer to be lonely and not have to always have Lennie depending on him, he states “...if I was alone I could live so easy.

Sometimes the loneliest people are the ones surrounded by loved ones. We usually pin loneliness on the people who are by themselves. In Of Mice and Men Curly, Crooks, and the workers on the ranch were some of the loneliness people in the book while also being surrounded by a ton of people. They all in their own way dealt with some sense of loneliness or isolated. In Of Mice and Men, The hopes and dreams of Curly, Crooks and the other workers help them fight through the struggles of life while also relating back to the theme.

Candy was not the first person that we meet in the story that shows their feelings of loneliness. They all did. I saw Candy’s loneliness when we first met him when he walked in on George and Lennie and said “I ain’t interested in nothing you was sayin’. A guy on a ranch don’t ever listen nor don’t ast no questions.” pp. 22-23. The next time I saw Candy’s loneliness was when we saw his old and nasty smelling dog and learned its story. Candy said, “I had ‘im since he was a pup, god he was a good sheepdog when he was younger.” pp.23 The dog was all he had all day since he was a younger man. Candy was a swamper because of his disability. He didn’t hang out with the other men that were on the ranch all day. It was and had always been Candy and

Have you ever been so lonely that you get grumpy? Well Crooks in Of Mice And Men gets grumpy all the time because he gets so lonely. He is the only black worker on the ranch so he has to stay and sleep in a different room then everyone else. It is even worse because he has no family there or even close so he has no one to talk to. Crooks is faced with loneliness and he copes with it by accumulating possessions, remembering past times when he wasn't lonely and hoping for someone to talk to, which helps him maintain his spirit .

At some point in one’s life there is not only contentment or grief, but a state of loneliness. Loneliness is a part of human life, although some suffer from isolation more than others. Being lonely can lead to depression or create a different persona in oneself. Struggling through isolation can eventually kill one’s soul, expecting no hope or ending up in dangerous situations. The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays the theme of loneliness especially through two characters. Crooks and Curley’s wife experience the state of isolation as they crave for a friend or someone they can talk with. Steinbeck urges readers to feel pathos when analyzing Crooks and Curley’s wife through the nature of their isolation, their actions and