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The Side Effect Of Loneliness

Decent Essays

Charmi Patel Barrett English 208 17 December 2014 Codependency: The Side Effect of Loneliness Sam Keen once wrote, “There are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is 'Where am I going? ' and the second is 'Who will go with me? ' If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble" (Keen 12). It is the time of Great Depression and it is every man for himself. In this society it is typical to live and travel alone but some are unable to handle this life of loneliness and develop a reliance on codependency. Codependency is a psychological condition in which someone is in an unhealthy relationship that involves living with and providing care for another person with a pathological condition. Whether it is George codependent on Lennie or Candy dependent on his companions, the characters form a codependent relationship to avoid a life of misery. Analyzing Of Mice and Men through a psychoanalytic lens, Steinbeck elucidates the characters’ formation of unhealthy relationships, through their ego and superego, in order to satisfy their loneliness. Loneliness causes an individual to seek the company of another. George and Lennie became aware of this early on in their lives leading them to form a mutual dependence on each other. At the ranch, after being asked by Slim, George opens up about the incident in Weed, "[George] 'Well, that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie" (Steinbeck 44). In

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