How does Steinbeck present the theme of loneliness in ‘Of Mice and Men’? Essay

Of Mice and Men by rear end Steinbeck, is set in mid-1930s the States during the depression. This depression came as a shock to America after the 1920s boom-time. The inspiration that Steinbeck pull upon is the spatsome times people were vivification through at that time. However, the fictitious characters in the sweet ar lucky in that they be working on a wanton farm, scorn millions actually being bulge of work at the time. In this essay, I go away attempt to bring come to the fore key points referring to l bingleliness and how it affects the characters in the story. The apologue is set in a set up called Soledad, which incidentally means loneliness.The two key characters in the novel be George Milton and Lennie Small. The set-back chapter helps us gear up to know the characters well. George and Lennie argon two workers who move from cattle farm to bed cover in search of work and great pay. We know early on that they be currently between jobs, and are hitching lifts to their nigh job. They had to move on from the exit ranch because of Lennie having touched a girls dress, so they are on the run.George is happy and intelligent. He is too very guarded Lennie. You gonna be sick corresponding you was last night.. George is small and quick, dark of face, alike with alert eyes this again stresses the point that he is cautious and weary of peeled(prenominal) people. Lennie neertheless is very child homogeneous Look, George. Look what I done. Like a small child, Lennie is laborious to impress George. One point emphasized frequently through the book is, despite his terror of violence, he is a military man of great physical strength and is oftentimes compared to an animal He stood crying, his fist befuddled in Lennies paw.In umpteen styluss, George and Lennie are the two halves of a unmarried person, one of them is healthful while the different is weak. The two refer to both George strong mind, physically weak and Lennie p hysically strong, barely mentally weak. Lennie is Georges shadow, he does as he is told by George whether in his best interests or not You tol me to, George, he said miserably. George and Lennie care for each separate as if they were family. George plays the parent figure in Lennies life, he has taken on the responsibility for Lennie part step up of pity, partly come to the fore of affection, and partly for companionship. They actually sine qua non and depend upon one an new(prenominal) you got me and I got you as Lennie keeps saying. They share a imagine to let a patch of get d admit and it is this that keeps them going in the bad times. some former(a) men may too brook had this conceive of, precisely perhaps dont have as such(prenominal) credence in it as George and Lennie do. glass is approach to the end of his useful life on the farm and knows he has little to verbal expression forward to. candys save companion is his clink, we are told Candy has incre ase him since he was a pup. When the dog is killed by Carlson, Candy is silent most as if his soul was in the dog, so when the dog is destroyed, Candy is too. He is offered a new pup by flimsy, but this is no consolation as he has befogged a life coarse friend. Candy is slowly hurt by Carlsons willingness to carrying into action his pet Les get it over with, Despite his emotional commotion early in the book, Candy is salvage from insanity by George and Lennie. He is permit into their dream and he is just as enthusiastic rough it as Lennie How much they want for a invest like that? The loss of his dog is not the root he has had to deal with. He scratched the tree stump of his wrist nervously. I got hurt quaternity years ago, This battle arrays he has only one hand, and has had to come to terms with the loss of something perhaps more important than a pet.Crooks is a special case. He is a literate black cripple who fly the coops horses on the ranch. This makes him one of the loners in the novel. Because he is black, he has a room of his own but with manure right outside the window, he is not living in luxury. His remarkable possessions are his books. Whereas the ranch workforce chiefly read magazines, he has the time and the apprehension to read proper books. Literature, after all, educates us, allows us to enter into other worlds, and fills our time profitably. He says, A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin books or takein The books actually show that Crooks is not inferior. If anything, they show that he has a superior intelligence.However, Crooks indicates the books also reflect his loneliness he would like someone to talk to. So they also show how he is different and apart(predicate) from the other workers on the ranch. He has massive been the victim of oppressive violence and prejudice, this in itself leaves him separate from the rest of the group. Despite the persecutions, the other characters seem to secretly admire him Jesus, how that spade can pitch shoes. thusly Slim replies Hes plently good, although they never equilibrise him when he is around. Crooks does have rights, but many of them are abused and no-one does anything to enforce them. Crooks has trouble fitting in and making friends because of restrictions compel on him by the boss he is only allowed in the bunkhouse at Christmas.Crooks character is bored with life and only wishes to be equal with white people, like he seemed to be as a child, and he only now realises why his baffle despised his white friends as a child. Crooks is isolated from the other ranch transfer because he is different. He copes with it by retention a distance between himself and the other hands but he is drawn into the dream of working on George and Lennies farm. When Lennie is with him when the others are in town Crooks is public lecture about his views on companionship. Crooks tries to talk to Lennie about the loneliness he is feeling caused by being bla ck, but Lennie is too nimble thinking about George to listen to him. So Crooks ends up teasing him about George not coming back.Curleys wife is seen as a possession something belonging to Curley or else than a person in her own right. She is just described as a stinging, but little more is cognize about her. It could be because of this that she enjoys teasing Lennie and the others on the ranch she knows Curley does not approve and it is a way of getting her own feel of being an individual back. She wants to be notice as a person, her shattered dream of being a movie sensation is shared with Lennie as they grow a short friendship. She is described as a temptress, piece of jail-bait and a tart. She is portrayed as an evil character, although it is also emphasised that this is no fault of her own. She is damned by Candy for the end of his own dreams, even though she was also a victim after Lennie unintentionally killed her. world lonesome(a) she turned to Lennie for compa nionship, but his bask of petting soft things ends in her demise.Lennie and Curleys Wife are, with the exception of Crooks, the most lonely and misunderstood characters in the book. In chapter five, they see to it in the barn after Lennie has haply killed his puppy. Curleys Wife approaches him, but he knows he should not be talk of the town to her, after all George said she was a bad person, Well, I aint supposed to talk to you or nothing.. He reveals the dead puppy, and she begins her slow process of seduction, by consoling him telling him it was not his fault. Then she tells him about her dreams, her life story and how she was cheated out of a movie star career by her ol lady. It changes from seduction to a friendship because she had confided in him, she moved proximate to Lennie and sat beside him so now in that location is a one way hope between the two, Curleys Wife already having confided in Lennie, but he is fluent worried about what George might think and the pos sibility of George not letting him tend the rabbits.But Lennie tells her he likes soft things, and she allows him to thump her hair. She has fallen into a trap, and it seems she will live on the same fate as the other creatures Lennie has petted. She does. Eventually killed by her own loneliness, she dies violently at the same strong hands as the mice, the dog and Curleys hand. Candy then stumbles upon the body, he knows it was Lennie and realises the trios dream is finished. He gets George who knows he must(prenominal) reach Lennie before Curley and the other ranch-hands, so he can help Lennie pull out the violence that would ensue if he didnt catch him in time.An alternate way of life is sought by the characters, actuate by their loneliness, this is one of the reasons they drift from ranch-to-ranch, they are continually searching. They do this, often without discriminating what they are really looking for. Characters are also lonely because of something within themselves, so mething that almost seems to make their loneliness inevitable. Different characters attempt comfort in different things for Candy it is his dog for George and Lennie it is each other for Crooks it is his rob and skill at things like slant horseshoes. For them, it is an unending journey moving from prat to place, the same jobs, the same routines, different people. Sadly, they never stay in one place long enough to make friends or settle down. Many dream of getting a ranch of their own, but it will never happen as long as they take their pay either month and go into town and surplus all they have earned on one night of recreation.