Of Mice and Men - Loneliness

A detailed Summary of Of Mice and Men - Loneliness

Loneliness is an inevitable fact of life that not even the strongest can avoid. In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates the loneliness of California ranch life. Throughout the story, the reader discovers the many sources of solitude, primarily being discrimination and prejudice, resulting in loneliness and isolation. I feel that loneliness is a sense of insecurity and emptiness in one's life and the only way to overcome this is to become optimistic towards life instead of always being pessimistic. In Of Mice and Men, there were several characters that went through loneliness. George is one of those characters, he and Lennie are extremely close friends, however there is still a sense of loneliness inside of George because he feels Lennie is restricting him from living his life. Crooks is another character that feels tremendously lonely throughout the novel because he is a black man and they were treated very poorly during those times. Candy is an old crippled man working on the ranch and feels very lonely because his only friend is his aging dog. Throughout the novel, George, Crooks and Candy experience a sense of loneliness somewhat different from one another but essentially

Loneliness was the main theme in Of Mice and Men. Almost every character in the novel suffered from some sort of loneliness within them. George loses Lennie in the end, he has to live the rest of his life, in guilt, alone and knowing that he killed his only friend. Crooks is still living by himself in the barn and will continue experiencing isolation because the type of society he resides in is racist. Candy has developed a friendship with George and he has his new puppy, however Candy will still be stuck at the ranch until he is fired because their dreams of a farm of their own is now over. One of the most important lessons we learn in Of Mice and Men is that friendship and human interaction are two very valuable things, and that having them is as much a right as it is a privilege, that we must treasure as it keeps us away from loneliness.

"I was talkin' about myself. A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or thinkin' or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin', an' he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so. Maybe if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here. I wasn't drunk. I don't know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an' then it would be all right. But I jus' don't know" (Steinbeck 73).

Crooks is a slightly handicapped lonely black man working in the ranch as a stable buck. He does not have any friends at all because he is considered an outcast in their society because of his race. He is not allowed to associate with any of the white men in the ranch. Crooks expresses his loneliness when talking to Lennie, he says, " 'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me" (Steinbeck 68). This illustrates Crooks feelings towards their racist attitude it also shows how he is branded as an outcast because of his skin colour and he is not allowed to join in the game, which is the reason he is so lonely and irritable. Crooks als

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Approximate Word count = 1472
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English