Of Mice And Men Symbolism Essay

“Leave me ALONE!” Do we really mean that? There will be a time in your life where you come to the realization there really is know one to talk, laugh, argue, or just spend time with. “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” - Mother Teresa. According to Google Dictionary loneliness is defined as “a sadness because one has no friends or company.” In the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, it follows a pair of migrant field workers, George Milton and Lennie Smalls, in California as they move South from Weed to work in a ranch in Soledad, which not so coincidently may stand for “solitude” or “alone”. George and Lennie are the best of friends, all though they are opposites. After they find jobs on the ranch,
In order to unfold the theme of anyone being able to suffer from the emotional pain of loneliness Steinbeck’s uses the technique of symbolism to create a symbolic meaning to attribute to the ideas and qualities of a person, place, or object. Although present in all characters to some extent, the message of loneliness is especially present in Candy. Candy is an old ranch worker “swamper”. He has spent the finest years of his life working on someone else’s ranch, only to cause him more harm than good leaving him with little money for himself. Candy’s dog was once a very productive sheepherder, but with old age he lost his usefulness, and has had a so called “target on his back” bringing know help to the ranch. Candy in a way, has a more damaged life than his own dog, he has almost emotionally destroyed himself. This emotional hardship causes him discomfort even when talking about what may have to happen to his