Of Mice and Men - in What Ways Could This Novel Be Seen as Tragic?
Of Mice and Men: Loneliness
In what ways could this novel be seen as tragic?
In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck illustrates the loneliness of the characters and the isolation of the characters in the Ranch and how they are driven to try and find friendship and escape loneliness.
Steinbeck makes it clear that most the workers on the ranch are lonely, as working in a ranch is hard work and no one really wants to work really hard every day just to eat and survive, so you can say that the people working in the ranch have no aim in life, living temporary lives, “A path beaten by hard boys down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps”. Also as Lennie and George had to walk a long way to the ranch or to work this may have been the case for lots of people in the ‘30s as that was the time of the Great Depression and the Wall Street Crash in where the economy of the USA fell and everyone was out of jobs and money, you can say that this is tragic in some way as it shows how hard people tried just to find work and how the Depression bought loneliness onto the people of the USA.
Some people in the ranch live more lonely lives than others. One of the loneliest persons on the ranch has to be Curly’s wife. As she is the only women on the ranch she feels isolated and left out from the men and feels different. Also no one really wants to talk to her as she is the wife of the boss’s son and no one talks to her out of fear of getting into a fight with Curly who has power upon the ranch to fire people as he is the boss’s son and the workers did not want to get fired as there were no jobs around. This can be seen as tragic as if a worker is accidentally seen communicating with Curly’s wife Curly will want him fired or will want to fight him as Curly is seen as a character as aggressive. Also Curly’s wife is seen as a “flirt” or just wants attention as she is the only female on the ranch, but Curly doesn’t want her to talk to anyone. As
In what ways could this novel be seen as tragic?
In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck illustrates the loneliness of the characters and the isolation of the characters in the Ranch and how they are driven to try and find friendship and escape loneliness.
Steinbeck makes it clear that most the workers on the ranch are lonely, as working in a ranch is hard work and no one really wants to work really hard every day just to eat and survive, so you can say that the people working in the ranch have no aim in life, living temporary lives, “A path beaten by hard boys down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps”. Also as Lennie and George had to walk a long way to the ranch or to work this may have been the case for lots of people in the ‘30s as that was the time of the Great Depression and the Wall Street Crash in where the economy of the USA fell and everyone was out of jobs and money, you can say that this is tragic in some way as it shows how hard people tried just to find work and how the Depression bought loneliness onto the people of the USA.
Some people in the ranch live more lonely lives than others. One of the loneliest persons on the ranch has to be Curly’s wife. As she is the only women on the ranch she feels isolated and left out from the men and feels different. Also no one really wants to talk to her as she is the wife of the boss’s son and no one talks to her out of fear of getting into a fight with Curly who has power upon the ranch to fire people as he is the boss’s son and the workers did not want to get fired as there were no jobs around. This can be seen as tragic as if a worker is accidentally seen communicating with Curly’s wife Curly will want him fired or will want to fight him as Curly is seen as a character as aggressive. Also Curly’s wife is seen as a “flirt” or just wants attention as she is the only female on the ranch, but Curly doesn’t want her to talk to anyone. As