Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a compelling novel that tells the story of two friends, George and Lennie, who constantly seek work and farm job opportunities to eventually reach a convenient and stable lifestyle on the ranch. While George is your average farmworker who is calculated and enduring, Lennie is less survival oriented, and despite his untraditional and less intelligent behavior, is a talented and strong worker. Despite their differences, they look after each other and their friendship is strong. After running away from a terrible incident from a previous job in Weed, they find ranch work in Salinas and continue to try and earn enough money to buy their own place whilst meeting their new coworkers. Throughout this story, we are introduced to a few characters that are unordinary and hold …show more content…

Crooks is unordinary in a very subtle way, and it’s not because of his race, or because he’s lonely; it’s because of how his loneliness is represented in the text and how the author shows how isolation has affected him as an adult. In multiple novels or even movies, the lonely character is simply represented as someone who is unhappy, quiet, and slightly distrusts or questions people when they make the slightest attempt to be kind, welcoming, and make the feel wanted. Additionally, if the character continues to grow up feeling isolated, then they become cunning and vengeful towards those who they believe are the blame for their distrust and years of loneliness. Though Crooks may be able to partially identify with these characters, his confession is what separates himself from them. In the text, Crooks starts to play with Lennie’s mind, his trust for George, and the confidence that George will always come back for him. This is before Lennie starts to become afraid that something had happened to George and begins to dangerously approach Crooks who is now alarmed and says,