How Does Steinbeck Present Loneliness In Of Mice And Men

In the novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck loneliness and broken dreams play a big part in the story. Lots of characters in OMAM portray the essence of loneliness and broken dreams showing how much they struggle throughout the story. Such as Curley's wife and her failure to become an actor. Another example may be George and how he dreams of finding a woman but can't because he is too busy taking care of Lennie. There are many more examples I will be pointing out and explaining in the text below.

George Milton is a lonely ranch worker moving from job to job, his only friend is mentally challenged, and in the end he has to kill his only friend.

Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family.

Lennie's isolation mainly comes from his mental handicap. He has a hard time expressing himself verbally and often has to communicate with others through George . Even though George often berates Lennie.

“A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is” “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.” Crooks is isolated because of his skin color. As the only black man on the ranch, he is not allowed into the bunkhouse with the others, and he does not associate with them. He combats his loneliness with books and his work. Candy is isolated because of his age and disability, making him less useful on the ranch and therefore insignificant. The lack of reaction to Candy's pleading look when Carlson wants to kill his dog represents the lack of empathy that the other men feel for those in pain. Regretting the huge mistake he makes in allowing Carlson to shoot his dog, Candy laments, “I ought to have shot that dog

George wants the independence that comes with owning his own land, and Lennie wants to have rabbits. Their dream is the central theme in the story. It is their dream that brings them to the ranch, and that dream spreads to Candy and Crooks. They ultimately lose their dream at the conclusion of the novel. George describes the dream one last time to Lennie before he shoots him. "Go on," said Lennie. "How's it gonna be. We gonna get a little place." "We'll have a cow," said George. "An' we'll have maybe a pig an' chickens . . . . an' down the flat we'll have a . . . . little piece alfalfa”

Curley's wife symbolizes broken dreams when she speaks to Lennie in the barn before her death she talks about her dream of becoming an actor and how it didn't work out.

Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an' I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my of lady- wouldn' let me. She says because I was on'y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I'd went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you