Lennie's Loneliness

The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness. Of Mice and Men is a novella written by the author John Steinbeck. It tells a story of George Milton and Lennie Small; two displaced ranch workers, who are constantly searching for a new job during The Great Depression in California. John Steinbeck displays loneliness from the standpoint of average men living and working on a farm searching for friendship to escape their loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, other than the friendship, the story portrays people who are isolated and lonely like George, who has the responsibility of taking care of Lennie and keeping him out of trouble, Lennie, who is mentally disabled, and lastly, Curley’s wife, who desperately seeks for the

He’s 100% dependent on George. Lennie overall is a tall, strong man who doesn’t realize his strength under his kind, loving heart. Lennie has an obsession with petting soft things, such as animals, clothing, and other people. Since he has a mind process of a six year old the other men on the farm don’t really communicate well with him. Lennie notices that and it seems to bother him because he doesn’t understand why. On page 12 Lennie realizes George’s frustration and says, “If you don’t want me I can go off in the hills an find a cave. I can go away anytime…” Lennie shows off this sad gesture by saying that he’d leave and wouldn’t be a nuisance to nobody which gives the readers a hint that Lennie is sad and lonely in his life in general so leaving George wouldn’t be a huge transition for him. Lennie always gets himself into trouble. For example on page 91 where it states, “Look out now, you’ll mess it up.” She jerked her head sideways, and Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on. “Let go,” she cried. “You let go!” Lennie obviously has a hard time comprehending no and it leads him to be frightened and do something he’ll later regret. Overall Lennie’s loneliness is caused by his lack of understanding which leads to disastrous

She seeks attention in manners that aren’t appropriate. She dresses in clothes that flatter her figure and wears too much make up, also with red nail polish and red shoes with ostrich feathers. She had the chance to fulfill her dreams once to be famous and in the movies but instead ended up marrying Curley who isn’t too kind to her. She’s very unhappy with the way she’s living since she gets no attention. She notices that which causes her to react in a un-mannerism way. She flirts with the men on the farm which ends up leaving them in trouble by her husband. On page 89 this illustrates how Curley’s wife talks to Lennie about what her life could’ve been like. “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I ought’n to. I don’ Like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took me. When they had them previews I coulda went to them, an’ spoke in the radio, an’ it wouldn’ta cost me a cent because I was in the pitcher. An’ all them nice clothes like they wear. Because this guy says I was a natural.” When Curley’s wife explains this to Lennie it shows the readers how she’s dreaming of the life she could’ve had and would’ve been happy to live in giving off the sense that she’s unhappy and lonely in the life she’s living in now. Because of the life she lives now, it causes her to feel sorrow and