Loneliness In Of Mice And Men, By John Steinbeck

Loneliness is one of the primary themes in Of Mice and Men. Throughout the novel, John Steinbeck shows the enormous effect that loneliness has on the characters. Steinbeck most clearly illustrates this theme through Crooks, Candy, and Curley 's wife. Ranch hands are ideal types of people to portray as being lonely, because their constant travel leaves them without someone to talk to or share things with. Steinbeck also shows how important it is for every human being to have a companion. Companionship is necessary in order for someone to live an enjoyable life. Although loneliness affects each one of the characters in Of Mice and Men differently, they all experience negative feelings from their lack of

Thirdly, age differences are another factor that can lead to loneliness. Candy is the oldest man at the farm, his best friend, and only friend for the matter is his dog, which gets shot in the middle of the novella. Whilst Candy is friendly and helps out the other guys think he is a little strange. As the text states, “Candy interrupted him, "I'd make a will an' leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain't got no relatives or nothing….” This quote shows that Candy does not have any other friends or relatives to give anything

Would you like to know where and how loneliness can occur through characters in novels and in reality? Well, in the book Of Mice and Men, by Jerry Steinback a commonly occurring central problem is based off of many forms of loneliness occurring through many, if not every character besides sub characters where we do not get a deep enough of an insight to create ideas or inferences about them. Of Mice and Men, is a story mainly focused on two characters, one named Lennie who’s mentally ill and who’s incapable of anything except the needs of physical strength. And another named George, who is smart but caught in the guilt of Lennie’s needs. Meaning, he was and got stuck with Lennie because Lennie ‘s guardian who was George’s friend died so Lennie had no one except his friend George. They together travel as poor migrant workers, and what makes things worse is that Lennie doesn’t know how to stay out of trouble. George works hard in trying to keep a steady life with Lennie, but it’s literally impossible with a man like Lennie. George can’t always be with Lennie to keep him from doing things he isn’t supposed to do. Eventually they get going on a new ranch after an incident with Lennie, and Lennie 's troubles bring him to killing the Master’s son’s wife of their new ranch, where George is later forced to kill Lennie. Loneliness is displayed throughout the book through certain characters who experience it

In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck utilizes loneliness as an overarching theme, there is however one character that is noticeably longer than the others in Steinbeck's novella. This character is Crooks, a bitter and aloof man, he used to have a family with brothers and a 10 acre chicken ranch. Now he lives the life of a stable buck isolated by his race (he is the only African American on the ranch) among other things (Steinbeck,2002). This loneliness truly characterises him and causes no end to his bitterness. John Steinbeck Portrays Crooks as the loneliest character because, he is isolated by race, disability, location and a lack of companionship.

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.

The first example of a character who experiences loneliness is Crooks. Crooks is an African American stable buck. He is the lowest at the ranch because of his race. Crooks lives alone in his own bunkhouse because he is not allowed in the bunkhouse where the white workers live. He has no one to talk to because he is different than the rest of the group. Later in the novela, Crooks confides in Lennie. “A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody” (Steinbeck 72). Lennie is the only person on the ranch willing to listen to Crooks. Crooks is telling Lennie that it drives him mad that he doesn't have anyone to talk to. He sits alone in his bunkhouse reading books.

Isolation and loneliness can plague even those who socialize with others the most. Although all the main characters in this novel live in such close quarters, and socialize with each other on a daily basis, they are still isolated in their own ways. There are many factors that can lead to loneliness, such as race, intelligence and general appearance. The constant fear of being lonely, can also lead a person to be even more isolated. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, isolation and loneliness are evident through several key characters; Crooks, George, and Candy.

Loneliness is present throughout this novel. For example, this isolation is shown when the ranch hands go into town on Saturday night to ease their loneliness with alcohol and women. Similarly, Lennie goes into Crook's room to find someone to talk, and later Curley's wife comes for the same reason. 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”. (72) Even Slim mentions, “I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean.” (41) George’s taking care of Lennie and the dream of the farm are attempts to break the pattern of loneliness which is part of the human condition. Lennie's desire to pet soft things comes from his need to feel safe and secure, to touch something that gives him that feeling of not being alone in the world. For Lennie, the dream of the farm parallels that security. However, George and Lennie are not the only characters who struggle against loneliness, the theme of loneliness is most notably present in Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife. They all fight against their isolation in whatever way they can. For example, until its death, Candy's dog stopped Candy from being alone in the world. After its death, Candy struggles against loneliness by sharing in George and Lennie's dream. Curley's wife is also lonely

Loneliness is a revolving topic throughout the book. Many characters are impacted by it and this changes the outcome of the book. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, he develops the concept of loneliness through Candy's disability, Crooks unable to fit in, and Curley's wife in order to demonstrate that loneliness impacts people by causing anger and depression.

Another character that is very lonely is Candy. Candy is the oldest mentioned worker in the story. He has worked on ranches for many years of his life, and along the way, he even lost one of his hands. Candy had an old farm dog that was just like a best friend to him at the beginning of the story. Since the dog was having trouble getting around and smelled nasty, Carlson(Another worker on the ranch) convinced Candy to let him shoot the dog. This made Candy terribly sad, lonely and scared. He was scared that since he was old and wouldn't be able to work eventually that the men would do the same thing to him. That isn't how he wanted to go; Candy wanted to be able to go peacefully. He wanted to be in his own place and not have someone bossing him

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

I’m tired of getting my hopes up for things I know will never happen. So in John Steinbeck OF Mice and Men, three of the main characters Candy, Cruley’s wife, and Crooks show how loneliness can affect a person. The characters in Of Mice and Men show that loneliness is a problem that must be overcome in order to live a happy, fulfilled life. Candy shows how loneliness can affect a person when they lose an animal. “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you guys in case I kickoff, ‘cause I ain’t got no relatives no nothing”(Steinbeck59).

Without argument, loneliness is a very large theme in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Throughout this novella loneliness has affected every character. The ones that it has affected the most are Crooks, Candy, Lennie, George, and Curley’s wife. Out of all of the characters I believe that Crooks has faced the most loneliness.

The book Of Mice And Men is set a few miles south of Soledad, which

Many characters acknowledge suffering from some form of loneliness. Candy is lonely once his dog is killed. Crooks is lonely because he feels segregated from everybody else. Curley’s wife is lonely because she is the only woman on the ranch. The only two people who do not suffer from loneliness is George and Lennie because they accompany each other until the end of the story.