Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is book of many themes; one that is very prominent is loneliness. Loneliness is common in many people's lives and that is also true for the lives of the characters of the book. Almost all characters in the book are lonely in one way or the other.

Curley is very possessive of her, as if she is something that belongs to him but that everyone else desires. Curley wants the men on the ranch to know that he has something valuable that they aren’t allowed to have. Because Curley’s wife is so lonely, she is always seeking attention and putting a lot of effort into her appearance. Steinbeck writes, “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.” (31) Her over the top looks portrays her desperation to be noticed. Curley also restricts her from from socializing with the other ranch men, which makes her have no friends. She is unable to make any connections with the men on the ranch because everyone knows that if they talk to her, it will end up causing trouble with Curley, something every rancher is desperate to avoid. Since nobody seems to want to talk to Curley’s wife the loneliness makes her doubtful about herself. “What’s the matter with me? Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?” (Steinbeck 85). Steinbeck wants us to acknowledge loneliness and realize that sometimes people can be together and yet still be

The motif loneliness is explored throughout John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, not only with the main characters, but the secondary characters as well. Crooks, the stable hand, is a colored, which makes all the others on the ranch want to have nothing to do with him. Similarly, Candy is outed since he is an old cripple. Curley’s wife is given similar treatment since, she is a women. Of Mice and Men has many examples of discrimination.

One reason why Curley's wife is lonely is because her newlywed husband never pays attention to her and is always out of town or working. He eaves her in the house and she doesn't have anyone to talk to. “Well, I ain't giving you no trouble. Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever’ once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house all the time?”

In the chapter where she is talking to Lennie about all the fame she could've had and what she could've made out of herself she says, “Well, I ain’t told nobody this before..”(Steinbeck 88.) This quote shows that Curley’s wife never expresses her feelings. People who are often lonely tend to not share their feelings with others but when they do they make it clear. As I was reading the article Psychology Today I saw two quotes that made me think of Curley’s wife. The first one was, “What makes us happiest in life? Some people may point to fabulous fame and fortune. You could have people around you throughout the day or even be in a lifelong marriage and still experience deep, pervasive loneliness.”("Psychology Today." Loneliness. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.) This shows how Curley's wife is lonely because she is married to Curley but she still wants to be around the other guys. She wants to be noticed. As it says in the quote a person could be married for a long time and still feel loneliness. Also, Curley’s wife always wanted to be an actress and be famous. Like the quote says she wants fame and fortune. She craves that because she is

During the height of the American economic collapse many people became depressed during this era which is bound to loneliness. In John Steinbeck’s “of Mice and Men”, two men, George and Lennie are faced with the challenge of finding a job during the Great Depression. George has to look after Lennie due to Lennie’s mental disabilities. Lennie ends up creating many problems throughout the story in which George has to get out of himself. In the novel we run into three immensely different characters plagued by loneliness because of discrimination.

“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world…” (Steinbeck 13). In the novel Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck writes about two guys named Lennie and George but he also writes through his characters about loneliness and what it can do to people. Loneliness is a powerful emotion because people need people to keep on going in life; loneliness is shown by the characters of Candy, an elderly man; crooks, the only African American on the ranch and Curley’s wife; the only female on the ranch.

In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, many of the characters are overtaken by loneliness. This story takes place around the 1930s in a time where it was very difficult to make a living, let alone have a social life. Curley’s wife, Crooks, and George are all faced with this loneliness mentioned inside this fiction tragedy, and continually seek new friendships and acceptance among each other. As described Curley’s wife was, “heavily made up.

The World of Abandonment Loneliness is as dangerous as cigarette smoking. Scientists have concluded that given the ways loneliness impacts our bodies, it represents as great of a risk to our long-term health as smoking cigarettes. Also, studies have concluded that chronic loneliness increases our risk of an early death by 14% (Winch). Given this statement, it’s understandable of how the characters Of Mice and Men had reacted to being lonely.

John Steinbeck; the author of the realistic fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, creates an example of what Salina, North Carolina, along with the rest of the United States is like in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Steinbeck shows the hardships that men had to go through, and what woman and people of color had to endure. Lennie, a clueless man, has made some mistakes in his past and each timer George, his friend, who is more like his guardian has gotten him out of trouble. They have a fresh start and all Lennie has to do is keep out of trouble. At their new job there is Curley, the owner’s son, and his wife. There’s also Crooks, a black man, Slim, and Candy. Lennie and George have each other, but Curley’s wife, Candy, and Crooks feel lonely, and they lead towards desperate measures to avoid loneliness.

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.

Loneliness: A Desolate Hill It should not be possible for two people to be as close as brothers yet both be completely alone, however, in the novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie and George are two very close friends who are practically each in their own world. Lennie and George have been traveling together for a very long time and have always were always there for each other. Lennie is shown throughout the book as having a severe mental illness that makes him have the mind of a young child.

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.

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men explores the struggles of the Great Depression and its many impacts on the characters of the book, concluded to isolation. The novella greatly emphasises loneliness as also presented by the metaphorical title: extracted from a dark poem by Robert Burns, referring to tragedy and despair. Even the setting of the book is illustrated in a similar manner. The possession of loneliness is portrayed by the impacts of the Great Depression on Crooks and the misinterpreted presence of Curley’s Wife at the ranch with the men, resulting both characters accompanied by rejection. Conversely, Steinbeck’s promotion of Lennie and George’s exquisite friendship contradicts the concept of loneliness.

The intriguing and tragic novella Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck was written about America in the height of the Great Depression of the twentieth century. It is set in California, and tells the tale of the friendship between two characters, George Milton and Lennie Small, who are chasing their own version of the American dream. Over the course of the novel, the author explores themes of loneliness and friendship, the power and impossibility of dreams, the predatory nature of humanity, and social righteousness. John Steinbeck demonstrates how dreams give purpose when there is no other aim in life, and as such, are essential, and also how the American dream is an impossibility, and instead something to strive for and never achieve. This theme is expressed through Steinbeck’s use of narrative technique, such as animal