Loneliness in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Loneliness in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This book is set in a deserted, lonely country. The individuals in the

story are isolated by particular features such as age, sex, disability

and race. They appear to relate to each other, however, each is

essential trapped by their situation. In the end they are unable to

help each other to escape their loneliness or to escape their own

fate.

Of Mice and Men is set in the farmland of the Salinas valley, where

John Steinbeck was born and which he had known all his life.

Steinbeck's father owned land in the area, and as a young man

Steinbeck had worked as a farm hand. The ranch in the story is near

Soledad. It is an isolated community in the south-east of Salinas on

the Salinas River. Weed is nearby. The countryside described at the

beginning of the book, and the ranch itself, would have been very

familiar to John Steinbeck. It was lonely and desolate. .

Lennie Small is a physically large man whose mind is slow; he has a

very short attention span and acts like a child. Lennie never could

anticipate the consequences of his actions. He travels with and is

cared for by George .Whilst George Milton is basically the opposite.

He is small and sharp witted, George is a typical, realistic worker

who uses his mind to anticipate the future. .George Miltonhas cared

for his mentally slow friend, Lennie Small, since the death of

Lennie's Aunt Clara. They travel together. They work at various jobs

so that one day they will have enough money to live on their own and

be their own bosses. Unfortunately, every time they have a job, Lennie

gets into some trouble which forces them to run away. This i...

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...ighter. He clings

to her and instead of finding support he brings about his and her

destruction. Eventually kills her.

Many characters in the book are lonely. This motivates them to look

for an alternate way of life. This is one of the reasons they are

drifters. They are continually searching, often without really knowing

what they are looking for. Characters are also lonely because of

something within themselves, something which almost seems to make

their loneliness inevitable. Different characters seek comfort in

different ways: for George and Lennie it is each other; for Candy it's

his dog; for Crooks it's his pride and his faultless skill at pitching

horseshoes; for Curley and his wife it is marriage. In the end it is

often the means they employ to escape their loneliness which brings

about their destruction.