Consider the theme of loneliness in the novel, Of Mice and Men Essay

n Of Mice and Men, John Stienbeck explores the theme of loneliness, set in the bring onland of 1930s atomic number 20, where Stienbeck grew up. Stienbeck worked as a farm collapse on his fathers land and so the countryside described at the beginning of the book, and a banquet itself would have been very familiar to Stienbeck. Characters described in the impudent are lonely for different reasons depending on their social status. Age, Race and Sex are some of the reasons for characters loneliness, Stienbeck uses the novel to make these aware in society.George and Lennie are the principal(prenominal) characters in the book they are migrant workers, who are men that travel the countryside harvesting wheat for the farms and doing any other jobs they thunder mug find. The Wall Street encounter caused jobs to be scarce, during the 1930s, when there was very unemployment in the United States. Agencies were set to send farm workers to where they were needed You remember about us goin into Murray and Readys, and they give us work cards. They earned $2.50 or $3.00 a day, plus food and very basic accommodation. These sorts of people lived very lonely lives, as they migrated they had to pick up their roots and move on, on their own and so this what makes them lonely also it was much easer to blend in work for one-person rather than two or more.George and Lennie are total opposites. George is decribed as small and quick, dark of face with restless eyes and sharp, strong fetures. Lennie on the other hand is a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, fed up(p) eyes with wide, sloping sholders. Stienbeck decribes Georges personality as careful and protective while Lennie seems to be rather stupid with a childs mind. Hes very forgetful and handles to pet nice things with his fingers sof things. George likes to be in charge of himself, and this is why he appreciates the time out under the stars where he can relax with his friend Lennie. Lennie however, enjoyes being with George and so the time under the stars is appreciated, but only because hes with George.George and Lennie share share an special affinity like father and son where George helps Lennie with everything and looks after him. This is shown when George is talking to Slim about Weed We sat in an irrigation ditch . This shows how George takes risks to save Lennie. George sometimes gives the printing process that he would rather have nothing to do with Lennie but it is clear that George actually depends on Lennies friendship, being with soulfulness gives him something to live for unstead of just being a migrant worker I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, Lennie loves George because George looks after him, George being the only person who looks after him, George shows Lennie how to do things and gets food for them. George is in control as he does almost everything for Lennie I got three cans of beans in my bindle. George and Lennie travel togeather although th is is not usual and this is why they are not lonely.Steinbeck introduces Candy, the old paste hand into the novel as a tall, stoop-shouldered old man. Candy is kept on the farm as a janitor, he has one hand after he got the other one caught in a machine. He is not much use for anything and he knows this. Candy fears when he is to old to do anything that he will just get canned, which is why he buys into the friendship with George and Lennie. The only thing that motivates Candy is his old dog gray of fit and with pale, blind old eyes, which unfortunately is killed after Carlson decides not to put up with the smell and Candy is ganged up on to get rid of him If you wish me to, Ill put the old devil out of his misery right now.The American Dream is shared by George and Lennie who dream of the little domicile and a couple of acres. For American society as a consentaneous, the dream ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Cinema is the last American dream for many. Curleys wife is one Could have been in the movies, an had nice clothes.Steinbeck describes Crooks with a lean face lined with deep black wrinkles, and he had thin , pale-tightened lips. Crooks lives in a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. Crooks reserves the only right he has, You got no right to source in my room. However, when Lennie goes into Crooks room he relaxes and enjoys the company. Crooks job is a Stable buck, which means he tends the horses. He is the only black man in the novel and the other characters attitude towards him, shows the position of blacks in America at the time.Steinbeck describes Crooks past as a peaceful one. Crooks mentions this to Lennie The white kids came to gip I went to play with them. This shows that racism did not really affect him as he did not understand but his ol man didnt like that. This shows how racism would affect his whole life. The scene in his shed, where it all appears that he is finally accepted for who he is, the reality comes back when Curleys wife says, listen Nigger I could get you strung up. Because Crooks is black, he is forced to spend his time reading books Books aint no good A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody.Curleys wife is the only woman on the ranch she cannot escape from the sexual two-base hit that the men have of her. She, therefore, uses this image as a means of getting noticed. She has full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. When George and Lennie first meet Curleys wife George describes her as jail bait. Steinbeck makes the ref feel the same way as the workers when it comes to discrimanating. The reader is made to feel that Curleys wife is a tart. Workers at the ranch have this impression I think Curleys married a tart. However, the workers are frightened to talk to her. Curley is known as a boxer and the workers know if they get concern with his wife, Curley will beat them up.The hasty marriage of Curley and his wife proves to be a failed attempt, on her part, to escap e her own lonliness. From what we hear Curleys wife married to elicit her mother. However she discovers that her husband is not what she expects, I dont like Curley. He aint a nice fella. It would appear at first that she likes Curley, as she wanders arround looking for him but it soon becomes clear that she is just looking for someone to share her feelings with. Curleys wife describes her life on the ranch to Lennie as if it is no good I coulda made somethin of myself . She uses her sexual image as a woman to get the mens attention just so she can talk to them. However, this does not usually work as most of the men are often to scared to talk to her. Although Curleys wife looks and acts like atart she is just craving attention and this is the only way she knows how to get it.At the end of the novel, her lonliness causes her to converse with Lennie in the barn where the irony is that when she finally gets someone to talk to, it leads to her death Curleys wife is the victim of sexis m, she is lonely because she has no one to talk to as people are afraid to talk to her. Lennie suffers from variety because of his learning disability.The fact that they are both unequal brings them together in the barn. Lennie is there to bury his puppy and Curleys wife is there to have a conversation. However in the end, Lennies disability causes her death dont you go yellin he shook her and her body flopped like a fish. The hazard in the barn affects George, Lennie and Candys relation because Lennie has finally gone too far. When George knows he has to kill Lennie, then the dream dies with Lennie leaving George and Candy lonely.Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. In conclusion Stienbeck makes aware a serious problem leading to loneliness in 1930s California through his novel Of Mice and Men.