Of Mice And Men Loneliness Analysis

Life After Loneliness Loneliness is a devastating disease that can destroy one's life over a period of time. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, takes place on a ranch in the Salinas Valley during The Great Depression. During this time many people were struggling to find work, so they traveled from place to place not developing any substantial relationships. Life was hard and these people’s hopes and dreams crumbled under their fingertips. In this novel, Steinbeck illustrates loneliness as a feeling that suppresses one's hopes and dreams through the characters of Curley's Wife and Candy. Curley’s wife wants attention from her beloved husband. Curley is the smallest character who wants everyone to know that he's the biggest guy in the room. However, Curley doesn't pay any attention to his wife, so she runs off talking to other guys. The only way she can talk to other people discretely is in the barn where she can be all alone with a single person. “I get lonely,” she said. You [Lennie] can talk to people, I can’t talk to nobody but Curly. Else he gets mad. How'd you like not to talk to anybody?” (Steinbeck, 87). She talks to these men to get them to like her. This is a great example of

Candy is the eldest man who works at the ranch and loves his old dog. People at the ranch are disturbed by the old dog and want to kill it. “ If you want me to. I’ll put the old devil [dog] out of his misery right now and get it over with. Ain't nothing left for him. Can't eat, can't see, can't even walk without hurtin’ ” (Steinbeck, 89). Candy wishes that he would have put his dog down himself, rather than anyone else doing it for him. This is ironic and relates to where George kills Lennie because the old man is losing his best friend. He does it to put him out of his misery, and he would rather do it himself, than let anyone else take away his best friends