Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Finally, loneliness is predominant through many of the actions and words of Curley’s wife. Being the

The Loneliness of Curley’s Wife Thesis Statement: In the book, Of Mice And Men, Curley’s wife is the most lonely person in the book. In the book, Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife makes it clear through her conversations with other characters that she is the most lonely in the story. She is a lonely girl that has no friends at all.

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, it is about two friends. One friend was large but had a mental disability, Lennie, and the other friend is intelligent and average, George. The two friends can't stay and work at a place for too long because Lennie always gets into trouble and they have to find another job. When George and Lennie finally found a ranch to work at, Lennie kills Curley's wife, the boss's son's wife, accidentally so George kills Lennie. Although George is better off without Lennie, now he is going to be as lonely as the other characters. Loneliness can affect a character's actions and choices, by causing them to be mean, isolated, and seeking for someone's attention.

In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, he illustrates the journey George and Lennie have throughout a significant part of their lifetime. Throughout the novel, many characters, including George and Lennie, are facing lonesome and they struggle to deal with it the right way. Most of the men are all alone because they have no family left or they isolate themselves from their peers. Loneliness touches each character at some point in the novel and it really emphasizes the impact it can have on an individual. Steinbeck uses the characters Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy to develop the theme that containing loneliness will make someone’s desperation deepen.

Lennie and George end up employed on a ranch and begin to realize that every man is for himself and that nobody is truly happy. They come to know a character referenced throughout the entire book as “Curley’s wife”. Being the sole female on the ranch, she is often referred to in derogatory terms because of her flirtatious personality (Steinbeck 28). She approaches the other men and “stirs up trouble” (77) which in the end leads to Lennie’s death. Being the wife of an arrogant and egocentric man, Curley’s wife tries to cure her loneliness by finding solace in other men. Knowing her future is bleak, Curley’s wife risks the dangers of the other men’s lives by trying to find someone like her. She lures Lennie into her world, telling him about how lonely she is and the future she could’ve had as an actress (86). Her solitary life drives her to put Lennie in danger and ultimately end her and his life. Curley’s wife and another one of the ranch hands talk about how “maybe people are just afraid of each other” (35). The fear of missing out (FOMO) drives people to make irrational decisions when feeling lonely which happened to both Daisy and Curley’s wife..

     "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.

One example of a characters conflict with loneliness is crooks. Crooks struggles with being alone every day, he has his own bunk house that he stays in because he is not allowed in the other one with the rest of the men because he is black. He gets hope when Lennie and candy tell him about their plan to buy their own land and move there but then he soon realizes they don’t want him to go and he returns to being lonely again. He is also

Curley’s wife was so lonely that no matter what, she would talk to Lennie and push him, inevitably leading to a tragedy. In the novel Curley’s wife says, “‘I get lonely,” she said. ‘You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (Steinbeck 87). She is so lonely that she is extremely desperate to talk to someone. Instead of finding a good way to deal with her loneliness she keeps pushing and pushing Lennie until eventually something bad did happen. Lennie kills Curley’s wife because she kept pushing him and he didn’t know what to do, then Lennie inevitably gets killed for her actions. The second example for this reason is when Curley’s wife says, “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely”’ (Steinbeck 86). This again shows how lonely she was and how much she wanted to talk to someone. Her loneliness led to backlash from Lennie. After what he had done, he was killed. Curley’s wife’s loneliness killed

In Of Mice and Men, the three most present motifs were belonging, sacrifice, and brotherhood. Each character in Of Mice and Men suffered because they constantly were battling with their inner loneliness. They all felt isolated to a point that when George and Lennie arrived at the ranch together, everyone was shocked. All of the characters were used to fending for themselves, which made Lennie and George’s bond so unusual. Curley’s wife exhibited the greatest degree of loneliness, especially when she opened up to Lennie at the end of the book.

When a person is lonely and does not feel a sense of belonging, they disregard societal expectations and search for a sense of belonging anyway they can. The character of Curley’s wife, who is a lonely ranch wife, demonstrates this throughout Of Mice and Men. Curley’s wife is ostracized from the men working on the ranch by, her husband, Curley. She, therefore, has no one to talk to except Curley who does not make his companionship meaningful to her. So, when Curley is away from the ranch she takes advantage and

Curley 's wife 's loneliness has altered her demeanor towards others tremendously, making her overtly insecure and excessively flirtatious. Curley 's wife has become virtually another person because of loneliness. Her insecurity is evident by the way she dresses and utilizes her make-up. She uses her appearance to receive attention like when

“Loneliness was an unsatisfied thirst for illusion.” KOBO ABE. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows the desperateness from Curley’s wife to be accompanied or be acknowledged for her existence. Curley’s wife says “What kinda harm am I doin' to you? Seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live (43).” When Curley’s wife said this it shows that she feels that nobody cares how she is doing or how she is living. When she mentions this in the novel, it introduces her feelings and how she feels deserted. In addition, Curley's wife also says “I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself (43).” The narrator introduces the high expectations she hoped for. Steinbeck shows her forlorn life by her actions,

Within Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck makes loneliness and companionship an apparent theme within the novel. Almost all the characters within the novel experience some sort of loneliness; not to mention that the town of which this story takes place is called Soledad, which literally means alone or solitude. Although they are married, Curley and his wife seem to be the loneliest. The never spend any time together because they are too busy searching for one another. Curley’s wife is the only female on the ranch and often attempts to counter her loneliness by being flirtatious with the other men on the ranch even though Curly strictly prohibits her from doing so.

Many of the characters do suffer from loneliness in the novel Of Mice and Men. George lets everybody know early on in the novel that he is lonely. When George reminds Lennie that "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world” (Steinbeck Section 1). Men like George who travel from farm to farm usually never have anyone to look to for companionship and protection. As the story goes on, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife all state their deep loneliness. Crooks says, “A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" (80). In a world with no friends to confide in, random people will have to do. Each of the characters search for a friend, someone to confide in and be able to talk to on an everyday basis, as Crooks says. In the end, however, companionship of Curley’s kind seems impossible to find. For George, when Lennie dies, George’s dreams and hopes of finding a companion disappears.

One of the main treasures of life is getting to share it with others. The laborers on the farm feel the need to keep their distance from Curley’s wife, consequently, she does not get the joy of empathizing with others. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife represents regret and loneliness.