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Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Do you ever get lonely? How often?. In the book Of Mice and Men you get treated differently based on everything, intelligence, race, gender and anything else you could think of. You see how some of the characters are kind of outcast and lonely and how they deal with it. You see how they are treated and what makes them an outcast therefore leading to their loneliness. Through the book you see how the characters are lonely different ways through crooks, curley’s wife and candy. Crooks is a hard working stable worker treated bad because of his race. He is not allowed in the bunkhouse and has to sleep in the stables. He gets left out of everything because he’s black. “ You go get on outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room” (steinbeck 68). In this quote lennie was in the barn and saw crooks light and walked into his room. Crooks didn't want him in there because he's not welcome in the bunk house. Crooks goes on about how the guys say he stinks and he's black and thats why hes not allowed in the bunkhouse which leaves him …show more content…

Well candy gets to know the true meaning of losing a best friend.” he aint no good to you, candy. And he aint no good to himself. Why’n’t you shoot him candy? (steinbeck 44). Everyone is pressuring him to shoot his dog because he stinks and cant see and is no good anyone but candy raised that dog and dosen’t want to see him go. Charlson later goes out and shoot the dog in the back of the head. Everyone said it had to happen but did it really?. “ i ought to of shot that dog myself, george. I shouldn’t ought to have let a stranger shoot my dog.(steinbeck 61). Candy now is full of regret because he should have been the one to shoot the dog and beats himself up about it. Through everything candy went through he always had his dog. He was so used to having him around and now he’s gone. The dog was the only real friend he had and now he’s living a lonely

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Further into the novel, Candy confided to George about regretting not taking action when he needed to, "'I ought to of shot that dog myself,' he tells George: 'I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog "(Steinbeck 30). This evidence is important because it shows how mortified Candy was at the scene of the incident. Such events will lead to health disorders such as depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, that were commonly ignored and looked down upon by the public. Secondly, Candy was trying to find ways to delay the shooting, "'You ain’t got no gun.'. ' The hell I ain’t.

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In the novella Of Mice and Men, loneliness is one of the main themes in the story. Many of the characters in the story live alone and try to find someone who they can trust to be their companion or audience. Crooks and Curley’s Wife are two examples of these characters. Crooks, the negro stable buck on the ranch, lives by himself separate from all the other workers. He has a crooked back and he is abused by the owner of the ranch.

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We all may have had the feeling of loneliness and isolation, wanting companionship feeling abandonment. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, there are men living on a ranch having their own reasons for loneliness or being isolated. The three characters Crooks, George, and Lennie crusade dealing with own ways of loneliness and isolation. Crooks has no one that likes him because he’s black, Lennie struggles mentally and George struggles with always having to care for him. They all can’t decide whether it is that they want to be alone or not.

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Within the novel Crooks deals with loneliness, because he is segregated by his skin color. “S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black... A guy goes nuts when he ain’t got nobody” (72). Crooks is black, and in

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Candy feels useless without his hand and feels that he has no place to go and no family to turn to and confesses to George, “When they can’t use me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an I can’t get no more jobs. ”(Steinbeck 59).

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For example, on Saturday night, Lennie innocently attempts to make friends with Crooks; however, Crooks is immediately contemptuous, snarling, “ ‘You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me’ ” (Steinbeck 33). Because Crooks is a racially discriminated against black man, he is used to being scorned by everyone; therefore, he despises most people and would rather be left alone to protect himself from further derision, as well as to conceal his deeper feelings of desolation and despair.

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Loneliness and isolation is an ongoing theme throughout the novel Of Mice and Men, experienced by several characters to different degrees. Some characters are more isolated and lonely than others, yet every character in the story goes through this theme during one point in the story. There are various reasons why each character is lonely or isolated. In general, all the ranch workers feel some sort of loneliness because they move alone from ranch to ranch and do not have real connections with others, Curley’s wife experiences this theme because she is the only woman on the ranch and nobody wants to interact with her because Curley is very protective and hostile of her. Thirdly, Candy struggles through being lonely and isolated after Carlson shot his dog and because Candy does not work with the others since he is a swamper.

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Loneliness in the novel, Of Mice and Men is extremely significant and a major theme. Loneliness is portrayed to be the sadness or isolation of how a character feels in the novel. They feel as if they are unwanted, which is why they begin to deal with their loneliness by searching for association with the other ranch workers. Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife are the three main characters that struggle from this particular theme where they all have a different concept of how they deal with being alone. Crooks, initially is known to be the only black man in the entire novel as his African-American background relates to his separation from the others on multiple occasions.

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The novel Of Mice and Men is set during the great depression. John Steinbeck uses loneliness as the major theme of the story. The author was trying to tell the American public that the lifestyle of everyone during the era was lonely. Loneliness can mean that they got no friends or company to share their feelings. Almost everyone during the era was in a great depression; with a large amount of unemployment makes people as the loneliest man in the world.

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Candy’s dog is all that keeps him company. He has become emotionally attached to his dog. Another character who demonstrates loneliness is Curley’s Wife. “Both men glanced … brittle quality.” - Steinbeck, 31.

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After attempting to fight Lennie in a particular petty moment and thinking he had the upper hand, Lennie manages to allow the men to perceive him as a coward, which creates an increased feeling of alienation and distance between Curly and the other men on the ranch. His wife also ridiculing him, after, she found out about the incident. Curly’s fear of loneliness and isolation and lead him to take desperate actions such fighting Lennie in order to feel superior but instead results in him making a fool of himself. The final character I have chosen to represent the theme of loneliness from this novel is Crooks. Crooks faces racism which results in him being isolated from the others on the ranch and a deep mistrust others.

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People Affected by Loneliness Loneliness can make anyone affected by it very depressing and sad to see. It is seen in Of Mice and Men in many characters that are prominent in the story. The main ones are Crooks (the black stable hand), Candy (the old worker with his old dog), and Curley’s wife (who is ignored so that they do not get into trouble). Each of these characters have had lasting events that led them here.

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Candy´s dog is killed , simply for the fact that he is aging , and ¨ smells bad¨ . Due to his old age , he is rendered useless. Candy insinuates that the same will happen to him when he becomes incompetent of fulfilling his duties . The quote ¨ I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn´t ought to have let no stranger shoot my dog.¨ ( 89 ) symbolizes the companionship you also find in george and lennie.

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977 Words | 4 Pages

The motif of loneliness is explored throughout John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, not only through the main characters, but the secondary characters as well. Of Mice and Men has many examples of discrimination. Some of the best examples are racism and sexism, which is why two of the characters are shown to be lonely. Crooks, the stable hand, is black, which makes all the others on the ranch want to have nothing to do with him. Similarly, Candy is outed since he is an old cripple.

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In recent years, it has become more and more apparent that the adolescents of today are unfit for the responsibilities currently available to them. Equipping someone who is unable to fathom the risks of the decisions they make with the power to put themselves and others in danger is far too precarious. For this reason, the age at which adolescents become adults currently established is dangerously low. The age of legal adulthood should be 25, because at this age young adults are truly capable of comprehending the consequences of their actions and are able to handle the responsibilities of adulthood.

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