Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

One Life in the Hands of Another
Loneliness and friendship are complete opposites, but sometimes loneliness can result from an act of friendship. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, friendship and loneliness are common themes that appear in the lives of nearly all the characters within this novella. During the times of the Great Depression migrant workers would travel alone and rarely trusted anyone. However, the two main characters of the novella, George and Lennie, do not have the same morals. These two men choose to find work by traveling together, which is odd to many of the other characters. Many minor conflicts and incidents occur at the ranch many involving Lennie, who has never wanted any trouble and more importantly was not a violent person. However, an incident happened between Lennie and Curley’s wife resulting in her unintentional death at Lennie’s hands. Irrational workers such as Curley and Carlson have the

However, it is hard to deny the fact the Lennie had trusted George more than anything and he knew George had always been there for him and would always be there for him. Lennie and George had always been there for each other and Lennie would excessively repeat, “Because… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why” (Steinbeck 14). Despite George and Lennie’s troubles and differences, they were always there for one another no matter what. George kept Lennie safe and got him out of trouble, while Lennie provided company for George. They were extremely close and George would not just throw that all away and murder his friend out of nothingness. All things considered, George only wanted to be there for Lennie just as Lennie had for him. George only killed Lennie to protect him from suffering and being tortured and he knew he would regret letting die a brutal death if he had not done