Analyzing Loneliness Loneliness, a state of sadness due to no friends or company. Causing isolation, neglect, it results in lack of friends. All around the world there are people who suffer with loneliness, for they have no one to call theirs. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George, a very short yet sharp man and his companion Lennie, a very large, shapeless man with intellectual disabilities work from farm to farm in California during the time of the Great Depression. George and Lennie both dream of having a small ranch of their own, but Lennie always does something wrong which forces them to run away until . When they settle on one ranch specifically, no troubles occur until Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Because George wants Lennie to be at peace, he finds that he must kill him rather than make Lennie suffer with the guilt and consequences of what he did. In the story, many characters feel lonely. They are the outcasts of the ranch who want nothing more than company and someone that will talk to them. However, as hard as some try, none of them succeed. Crooks wants to talk to the men on the ranch, but his black complexion results in them avoid making eye contact with him. …show more content…
Curley’s wife could not talk to any of the men on the ranch due to Curley’s belief the men want something more than a conversation, Crooks always stays in his room alone unless someone unexpectedly visits, Candy tries to hide his loneliness, but when he hears about George and Lennie’s dream, he begs to be a part of it. Curley’s wife constantly attempts having a conversation with any one on the ranch, but none of the men do, for they fear Curley will hurt them. Of all these characters, none of them have success in leaving their loneliness in the past. Even in the world around them, there is no hope for loneliness in most
An additional character who portrays loneliness throughout the book is Curley 's Wife. She feels lonely and isolated because nobody wants to be around her in fear of Curley seeing them with her, so she thinks that she has no one to talk to; this leads to a deep, fathomless feeling of loneliness. When she finally does find someone she can talk to, she mainly talks about how she hates the ranch because nobody ever talks to her. Another favorite topic of hers is to talk about how lonely she is all of the time. “—Sat 'day night. Ever 'body out doin ' som 'pin. Ever 'body! An ' what am I doin '? Standin ' here talkin ' to a bunch of bindle stiffs—a nigger an ' a dum-dum and a lousy ol ' sheep—an ' likin ' it because they ain 't nobody else” (Steinbeck 78). This is the part of the novella when the reader stops thinking of Curley 's Wife as a “tart” (Steinbeck 28) who “gives the eye” (Steinbeck 28) to every man she sees; rather,
Friends are needed in a person’s life for emotional stability whom without would lead to a life of loneliness and solitude. In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the characters Crooks, Candy and Curly’s wife exhibit a form of loneliness. They are driven to George and Lennie’s friendship because they lack support and that emotional stability in their own lives."A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick" (Steinbeck, 13). Throughout his novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows that victims of isolation crave to fulfill a companionship to fill in that void of loneliness.
Loneliness is one of many central themes in John Steinbeck’s classic novella, Of Mice and Men. Throughout the story many characters sought after the company and attention of others. Each character has a certain barrier that keeps them isolated from the outside world. Three characters who portray this loneliness throughout the novella are Crooks, Curly’s wife, and Candy. Each having a different wall between them and society.
People are considered to be social beings, yet, again and again, they seek to falsify the claims of civility, and show themselves as the detached individuals they tend to be. In his novella, “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck designed several faulty pairings that display the true disparity and detachment that are proven to be a part of every relationship in the story. Through the associations of the main characters, Lennie and George, along with several other characters within the narrative, Steinbeck exposes the root of 1930’s relationships in promises, loneliness, and a basic need for companionship, rather than any true fondness- a junction that can easily be nullified.
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 the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, it is about two friends. One friend was large but had a mental disability, Lennie, and the other friend is intelligent and average, George. The two friends can't stay and work at a place for too long because Lennie always gets into trouble and they have to find another job. When George and Lennie finally found a ranch to work at, Lennie kills Curley's wife, the boss's son's wife, accidentally so George kills Lennie. Although George is better off without Lennie, now he is going to be as lonely as the other characters. Loneliness can affect a character's actions and choices, by causing them to be mean, isolated, and seeking for someone's attention.
Curley is very possessive of her, as if she is something that belongs to him but that everyone else desires. Curley wants the men on the ranch to know that he has something valuable that they aren’t allowed to have. Because Curley’s wife is so lonely, she is always seeking attention and putting a lot of effort into her appearance. Steinbeck writes, “She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.” (31) Her over the top looks portrays her desperation to be noticed. Curley also restricts her from from socializing with the other ranch men, which makes her have no friends. She is unable to make any connections with the men on the ranch because everyone knows that if they talk to her, it will end up causing trouble with Curley, something every rancher is desperate to avoid. Since nobody seems to want to talk to Curley’s wife the loneliness makes her doubtful about herself. “What’s the matter with me? Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?” (Steinbeck 85). Steinbeck wants us to acknowledge loneliness and realize that sometimes people can be together and yet still be
Loneliness is the feeling of isolation and no hope or dreams in your life which is what Steinbeck achieves by portraying this theme effectively using key characters and settings in Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck writes about the Great Depression and how two friends, Lennie and George, stay together through this tough time. They go from town to town and work on ranches, always staying together. This new haven in California they stumble upon seems like a good fit, however Lennie creates problems and terminates their chances of survival there.
Throughout the novel, Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck), loneliness is the major underlying theme of the novel. You could almost say that the book has hormonal' up's and down's. Most of the characters are very lonely because they have no family. However, George and Lennie are the contradiction to this. George and Lennie's bond towards each other are so- strong that you can almost see it as you are reading the book. Candy the old crippled man wants to be part of George and Lennie's dream to own a farm and "live off the fatta the land". Curley and his dog are like the metaphor in the book for George and Lennie. Candy has to take care of his dog and George of Lennie. The other two
Curley and his wife live on the ranch, but she is not aloud to go anywhere and does not have any female friends, as she is the only female on the ranch. Curley’s wife tries making friends with the workers, but they all ignore her and never listen to what she has to say. However, the men do this on purpose so they do not get into a fight with Curley. Although none of the men listened to her, she talked to Lennie about how her future could have been and she said, “‘Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes… An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels and had pitchers taken of me’”
In Of Mice and Men, the three most present motifs were belonging, sacrifice, and brotherhood. Each character in Of Mice and Men suffered because they constantly were battling with their inner loneliness. They all felt isolated to a point that when George and Lennie arrived at the ranch together, everyone was shocked. All of the characters were used to fending for themselves, which made Lennie and George’s bond so unusual. Curley’s wife exhibited the greatest degree of loneliness, especially when she opened up to Lennie at the end of the book.
Loneliness plays an important role in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. He illustrates how people are driven to companionship through Candy, Curley's Wife and Crooks. Candy, the disabled and aged man, is devastated after his lifelong companion's death. Curley's Wife, ignored by her husband and seen as a troublemaker to the other ranch hands, seeks attention. Crooks, denies friendship because of the color of his skin and wastes away alone in his room as loneliness eats away the human soul.
In the story, Curley’s wife is very lonely. She is the only woman on the ranch; She has no one to converse with. At one point, she is talking to Lennie. “I get lonely,” she said. “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley.” “How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (87). She has nobody other than Curley and when he is mad , he doesn’t talk to
“I think cruelty is loneliness disguised in bitterness” (Thomas W. Hiddleston). This quote expounds how the lack of company and friends can potentially lead you down a path of heartlessness, and despair. In the story Of Mice and Men, you follow the duo George and Lennie in their quest to achieve the American dream. John Steinbeck utilizes his story Of Mice and Men to show how the loneliness of the characters leads to their cruel actions, he exposes this through the characters Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife.
‘Of mice and men’ is a tale of loneliness and hardship felt by the people living in America during the 1930 's. Written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, it tells the heartbreaking story of two ranch workers during the depression; George Milton and Lennie Small. At the time America was very poor, with a shortage of jobs so people had to travel in search of new jobs. As many people were constantly moving, lasting friendships or relationships were hard to come across. People became scared to have friendships, scared of each other making them lonely and isolated. Most of the characters lived by ‘every man for himself’; only having to care for themselves, not having to worry about others and therefore