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Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Have you ever felt like you were alone in a room of a hundred people? John Steinbeck, the author of Of Mice and Men, wrote a heartfelt story of two migrant workers, George and Lennie, on their journey to reach the American Dream. After they are chased from their job in Weed they move on to a new job. As they start working in Soledad, California, they meet Candy, the old man with a missing hand, Slim, the skinner, Curley, the boss’s son, Curley’s wife, Crooks, the stable hand with a crooked back and some other workers. Lennie has special needs but George is determined to keep that a secret. This secret eventually ends in Lennie’s and Curley’s wife’s untimely deaths. Steinbeck includes dialogue and conflict between characters in his writing to prove that isolation and loneliness are caused by social barriers as well as personal choices. …show more content…

Soon after George and Lennie meet Slim, he shares his thoughts on traveling with someone. “Slim looked through George and beyond him. ‘Ain’t many guys travel around together,’ he mused. ‘I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.’” (Page 35). This quote proves that isolation can be caused only by personal choice because people aren’t traveling with others by their own decisions and not social barriers. Even if loneliness is caused sometimes by purely personal choice, it can be caused by social barriers as

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