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.
In the first chapter Steinbeck sets a scene of tranquillity which when inferred has a sense of loneliness. Its set “a few miles south of Soledad”, which is in western California, he chooses this city
…show more content…
The tranquillity disappears when the two men come into the scene; they are travelling to the ranch where the theme of loneliness carries on.
The ranch is the main setting of the book and the home of all loneliness. Ranchmen “are the loneliest men in the world” this is because “they got no family” and “don’t belong no place”. Steinbeck describes ranch life for the average man through George and Lennie. They are telling themselves this to make them feel that they have “got a future” men during the great depression lives to work they would move from city to city just to find work, no time for a family. The ranch is also very separate having different rooms for everything and the men being very reserved. All they have are “articles, soap and talcum powder, razors and western magazines”. All these items are very impersonal and lonely. They don’t have photos or letters from loved ones. The ranch men had “apple boxes” as shelves “big square table” for them to play “solitaire” on. Also everybody is very separate and never share anything they have. What also make the ranch even lonelier are all the characters.
Each character has a sense of loneliness about them and some more than others. George and Lennie are strangely looked at by the other characters in the Of Mice and Men. This is because they travel around together. For example when the boss greets them for the first time he think that George is pulling the wool over Lennie’s
Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being isolated or abandoned. Being lonely is almost always directly connected to relations between people, or the lack there of. Mother Teresa once said “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” In John Steinbecks classic novel, Of Mice And Men, the three characters, Crooks, Curley’s wife and Candy struggle with loneliness in different forms because of characteristics that they can’t control. All three characters deal with their loneliness by searching for companionship with others on the ranch and this works out differently for each of them.
Loneliness is one of the primary themes in Of Mice and Men. Throughout the novel, John Steinbeck shows the enormous effect that loneliness has on the characters. Steinbeck 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 with. Steinbeck also shows how important it is for every human being to have a companion. Companionship is necessary in order for someone to live an enjoyable life. Although loneliness affects each one of the characters in Of Mice and Men differently, they all experience negative feelings from their lack of
Most of the characters suffer from profound loneliness. As George says “The life of a ranch-hand is among the loneliest of lives.”(Website). George and Lennie look to each other for companionship and protection therefor they do not have to go through the same loneliness as most of the other characters. Crooks, Candy, and Curly’s wife, confess their loneliness. These characters are all searching for companionship to deal with their loneliness which works out differently for each of them. We are all alone in the end despite our
Another way Steinbeck effectively conveys the feeling of loneliness throughout his novel is by having only slight changes in the setting of the story The very beginning and the very end take place in the brush- the place George told Lennie to go if he did anything wrong. However, the rest of the book is set at the ranch, where Lennie and George work picking barley. This limited setting change gives Steinbeck a solid foundation, from which he can build upon to effectively portray
Are you really as lonely as you think you are? In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the two main characters Steinbeck focuses on, are George and Lennie. Lennie is very childish and cannot do things without someone to help him. George is very independent, but he looks after Lennie, and is like a father figure to Lennie. Lennie gets in trouble in there old town, so him and George leave town and go to find a new job. When they arrive at their new job, George tells lennie not to speak, so he doesn't blow their opportunity at this new job. After the ranchmen see Lennie work, they are very interested in having Lennie and George work on the ranch. Lennie later in the book, kills one of the worker's wives and runs away and hides. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the book focuses on the idea of loneliness, 3 characters that portray loneliness are George, Crooks, and Candy.
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world” (Steinbeck 13). This is said by George Milton in the novella Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men takes place in California during the Great Depression. Loneliness reoccurs several times because people do not stay at a work place long enough to make friends and usually travel alone. Loneliness is the main theme of Of Mice and Men because many characters deal with being lonely in different ways. It affects people who are looked down on because of their gender, race, and ability.
Loneliness is where somebody is sad because they have no company or friends. Loneliness is demonstrated by many characters in the story “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. These characters include George, Lennie, Curley’s Wife, Candy, and more. These characters show loneliness by always crying about no company, looking after one another during the smallest of moments, and lastly telling each other about each and everything that goes on. George is lonely and wants to take care of Lennie.
Everyone has been lonely in their life before. But in the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck illustrates how in the 1930s workers George and Lennie two guys desperate for work and poor come upon the ranch Soledad, California. Most of the characters are lonely and are searching for companionship. He calls the ranch Soledad because it means lonely.
In the novel “Of Mice and Men”, John Steinbeck demonstrates the incapability and isolation for ranch workers to endure and survive with loneliness and how they handle it.
When Lennie and George appeared on the farm together everyone was weirded out, no one ever travels in twos back then, it was . Lennie and George probably don't even know how loneliness feels because they’re always together. It doesn’t matter if they never felt loneliness it matters that they have someone to express their feelings to. Curley’s wife for instance had no one to talk to, her husband is always gone starting fights with every big person he sees. So she jumps at every opportunity to talk to new men on the ranch, hoping they would take the void
Chapter 3: “George half-closed his eyes.”I gotta think about that. We was always gonna do it by ourselves." Candy interrupted him, "I 'd make a will an ' leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain 't got no relatives or nothing"”
Loneliness, a feeling of sadness because one has no friends or company, a feeling of depression and solitude. A theme which Steinbeck used many times throughout the novella. Steinbeck used these techniques to portray many of his characters in his book, of Mice and Men. Curley’s wife, crooks, and candy were mainly the three which had expressed loneliness several times in the story. Everybody does tend to get lonely once in a while but in this case Steinbeck highlights life on the ranch in the early 1930’s.
‘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
Loneliness is an emotion of isolation and no hope or dreams in life, which is what John Steinbeck achieves by portraying this through the characters in his novella Of Mice and Men. The main characters are affected by loneliness in their own different way throughout the novella. rf
In the 1920s it was the most brutal time period for men workers trying to keep and find jobs. They were always trying to get jobs that they can keep for a long period of time. They were also finding jobs by themselves with nobody to help them. It was very rare to find two men who are trying to find jobs stay together. In the book Of Mice and Men, the main characters George and Lennie are traveling together to find a job that both of them can have together. George is the one finding the job and Lennie is traveling with him. The both of them had a job in Weed where they worked on a farm. But a incident caused them to leave that area entirely. Making them quit their only job they had and search for another job that they would be able to work together. The only thing that keeps them together is that they don’t want to be lonely. The author John Steinbeck shows throughout the book that none of the characters want to be lonely. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck develops the concept of Loneliness through Candy’s age, Crooks different skin color, and Curley’s Wife’s gender to demonstrate how loneliness leads to sadness.