Preview

Of Mice And Men Loneliness Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
868 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Of Mice And Men Loneliness Essay
6. Loneliness is a dominate theme in Of Mice and Men. Most of the characters are lonely and searching for companion or just as an audience. The examples of character discuss the example of character loneliness, the efforts of the characters in search of companionship and their varying degree of success.
Of Mice and Men’ is a novella written by John Steinbeck in the 1937, with Loneliness being one of the primary themes. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck shows the enormous effect that loneliness has on the characters. He 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
…show more content…

He could abandon him, but he carries the responsibility. Having the care of an individual with a disability has restricted George's life, opportunity to establish relationships, and forced him to move whenever something went wrong. The life style of a single migrant worker gives way to a lonely life. For example, Candy is a typical aged out ranch hand. He sits by himself often, is left behind when the others go to town, and is alleviated from the income and social environment. If George continues to work as a ranch handle will eventually become like Candy. Lennie has George and he knows George won't leave him. He gets mad when Crooks implies that George might leave someday. Lennie is a very naive character. He doesn't worry about making new friends because the only person he cares about is George, the only way in which Lennie is lonely is that he can't have mice or rabbits without hurting them. Lennie is frequently off in his own dream world and is constantly preoccupied with dreams of the farm which he and George someday hope to buy. As a result, Lennie is unable to face reality at times, a fact which puts him even more out of touch with the real world and with other workers. Lennie is just like a big baby. He refuses to defend himself and often cannot be held responsible for his actions. This irresponsibility, combined with Lennie's abnormal size and strength, causes many of the other ranch hands to shy away and fear

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Loneliness is presented in ‘of mice and men,’ in many ubiquitous forms. 2 characters, who are overly dominant in the world of loneliness, are George and Crooks. ‘We are the loneliest guys in the world.’ As this statement is said, the audience is under realisation of the true meaning behind the novella. As well as personal loneliness, there are forms of physical loneliness, such as the setting of the book, which takes place in a town, known as ‘Soledad,’ which ironically enough, is the Spanish word for ‘Solitude.’ The existence of loneliness outlines the engagements of the assorted characters in the book.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 1702 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George and Lennie are the best of friends. They travel around together, although I think George gets lonely sometimes because even though Lennie is with him, George cannot have a proper conversation with Lennie`or talk to him about how he feels because Lennie won't understand. George gets frustrated at Lennie very easily because when George tells Lennie something, it doesn't sink into Lennies brain, therefore he forgets almost everything George tells him, Lennie also forgets right from wrong. Lennie is described as a dort of pet of George, like he is George's property. When Lennie and George arrive at the ranch, George makes a real friend, Slim. Slim acts as an audience for George and he confides in Slim about the Weed incident and how hatd it is to care for Lennie.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine living in complete solitude with no one to talk to or interact with. Would you go insane from not being able to share your thoughts, emotions and ideas, or will you be accepting of your situation? In the novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie, two men travelling together in order to realize their dream of owning land, meet several workers at a ranch they have just arrived at. Several of the characters they meet, including an old man with a hand injury, an African-American with a crooked back, and a housewife who desperately wishes to become an actress, admit to having a lonely lifestyle as a consequence of living in various circumstances of solitude. Set during the Great Depression, Steinbeck uses the fictional characters, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife, to show the common emotion and feeling of loneliness people experienced during the trying times.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel ‘‘ Of Mice and Men’’ loneliness is present troughtout th novel.Many of the characters amit suffering from it. Early in the novel George says, : ``Life working as a hand ranch is on the loneliness of life.As the story develops George,Crooks and Curley’s wife all confess their loneliness.Each of these character searches for a friend to talk to.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Loneliness is a key theme in Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck for many characters in the novel were isolated and secluded. Curley’s wife had a dream of making it in the movies but after marrying Curley she was stuck on the ranch and not allowed to talk to anybody. The stable-buck Crooks was discriminated against for he was black and this caused some severe problems because he was isolated from everyone. Guys who travel around looking for work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world for they have no permanent home and nothing to look forward to.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Of Mice and Men" essay on Loneliness is a basic part of human life. Every one becomes lonely once in a while but in Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men", he illustrates the loneliness of ranch life in the early 1930's and shows how people are driven to try and find friendship in order to escape from loneliness. Steinbeck creates a lonely and blue atmosphere at many times in the book. He uses names and words such as the town near the ranch called "Soledad", which means loneliness and the card game "Solitaire" Which means by ones self. He makes it clear that all the men on the ranch are lonely, with particular people lonelier than others. In the opening chapter, Steinbeck introduces the idea of loneliness and men who work on ranches living temporary lives, with no aim in life. Steinbeck uses the setting to convey these ideas. As they were walking along the path, it is described as " a path beaten by hard boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water" (p.18) This creates a setting and shows how men who work on the ranch have had temporary, isolated and lonely lives. He also writes "an ash-pile made by many fires" (p.18) This shows that many men must have walked through this road to enter a lonely and miserable life, moving from ranch to ranch finding useless work. I think all the people living in the ranch are lonely. This proves this where Steinbeck describes the bunk house where all the workers sleep. "Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for personal belongings of the occupant of the bunk." (p38) The way Steinbeck describes the bunkhouse indicates their lonely lives. Also by only having two shelves for their personal belongings shows their lonely insecure lives.…

    • 2148 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Curley's Wifes Loneliness

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Almost everyone is lonely at some point in their life. Whether you want to hang out with friends and no one is available, or you're just sitting in your bedroom by yourself isolated from everyone else with nothing to do. Throughout your life you are going to want to be surrounded by people you enjoy and are loved by. In John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men" loneliness and the need for companionship is shown in ways such as Crooks with discrimination, Curley's wife, and conflict.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck uses the theme of loneliness throughout the entirety of the novel. When people feel lonely their way of life is different than that of someone's who isn't lonely or them if they were not lonely. They may act differently than they would if they weren't experiencing loneliness, they may even change their way of life. The effects of loneliness on people are displayed in the novel Of Mice and Men through the characters of Curley's Wife, Candy, and Crooks.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Loneliness is the theme of the novel Of Mice and Men. The shadow of loneliness follows the majority of the characters. Loneliness is the meaning of the and the end of the novel. Everyone seems to deal with their loneliness is different ways. Loneliness can be the beginning of people having serious problems. Everyone in life needs and deserves to have someone to talk with, that’s just how life is. How could you possibly live being an extremely lonely person?…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Steinbeck Loneliness

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The famous country music singer/songwriter, musician, and actor Waylon Jennings said, “This world that I live in is empty and cold, the loneliness cuts me and tortures my soul.” Loneliness is one of the fundamental themes of the novel, Of Mice and Men in which John Steinbeck wrote in the midst of the Great Depression. In this essay, I am going to show who loneliness impacts the three characters, Crooks, Lennie, and Candy.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Loneliness is the feeling of isolation and no hope or dreams in your life-which is what Steinbeck achieves by portraying this theme effectively through key fictional characters in Of Mice and Men. By living in the town of ‘Soledad’ (Spanish for loneliness), the audience gets an overwhelming sense of the depressing environment that the migrant farmers are living through by their repetitive lifestyle and the consequences they face through the Great Depression and the Dustbowl. Yet another aspect of loneliness which is exposed vulnerably through several characters is the idea of the American Dream, for Steinbeck teaches us that even through hard work and prosperity, it is unattainable which is represented by Curley’s wife, Crooks, Candy and George + Lennie. These personas are left in isolation for as George says that ‘Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They don’t belong no place…’ which is to say that these characters have lost all hope in their lives, which Steinbeck conveys effectively, and the fact that despite this, they still believe there is hope to come for them, which leaves me to sympathise for them more.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    An example in Of Mice and Men is “A guy needs somebody… A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is… a guy gets too lonely… he gets sick” (Steinbeck, (Crooks) 72-73). This just shows that a solitary person will do anything in order for them to be able to socialize with someone. Crooks is probably the best example of the theme “loneliness”. Since Of Mice and Men is predicated on the Great Depression, people conspicuously had slaves. Crooks was a slave and is a great example because slaves never had any friends because no one would interact with an African American. Isolation is virtually disease-like. It infects a person and can make them seem introverted when in truth, all they really want is a…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are several themes present in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, among them powerlessness and the impossibility of the American dream. Although these two themes definitely make up a fair portion of the story, they are not the subject of this paper. Nay, for standing prominently alongside these themes is loneliness, which is indisputably one of the most major concepts explored in the duration of the story. The theme of loneliness is thoroughly fleshed out through both characters – specifically Lennie and Curley's wife – and the involvement of migrant workers in general.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of Mice and Men

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, utilises a Middle American setting during the Great Depression, to display the hardships centred characters experience in their companionships with one another. It expresses loneliness for those who do not fit the social standards and are outcasts from the main group on the ranch. The unique relationship between George and Lennie, Candy and his dog plus the loneliness of Curley’s wife, combine to illustrate how friendships do not last forever and even the best of friends can end up lonely.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays