Similarities Between Of Mice And Men And What's Eating Gilbert Grape

The novella, “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck and the movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” demonstrates a major theme of loneliness, each containing at least one or more character representing varying degrees of loneliness. Crooks, a character in “Of Mice and Men”, is the only black farmhand on an all white farm during the time of America’s Great Depression. He deals with the constant isolation, segregation, and loneliness of the racism on the farm. Mrs. Grape, a character from “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” is an obese mother grieving her husband’s suicide years later. Because of her immense weight, Mrs. Grape stays indoors at all times leaving her children to take care of the household, bills, and herself. Her loneliness stems from losing her husband as well as being isolated in the house constantly. These seemingly different characters have many similarities. Although both Crooks and Mrs. Grape are similar in many ways, one huge difference makes Crooks a stronger person.

Grape were both able to move around but it was with great difficulty that Mrs. Grape could move and Crooks could not perform certain tasks due to his crooked back. The two were ‘disabled’ or more or less deformed in terms of the healthy and regular human anatomy. When Lennie first sees Crooks, Steinbeck states, “His [Crooks] was bent over to the left by his crooked spine…” (Steinbeck 67). It is a known fact in the novella that Crooks’s back was caused by a horse kicking it during his younger days, so it is through no fault of his that he is ‘deformed’. On the other hand Mrs. Grape was regarded as the most beautiful woman in town, but after her husband’s suicide, she gained weight. She gained so much weight; she became obese and therefore ‘deformed’. Her obesity was through no fault but her own because she used food as a coping mechanism with her husband’s death years