Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

835 Words2 Pages

Loneliness

What is it that makes people want to scream, or snap at anyone who tries to talk to them when they are lonely? How can prolonged loneliness change a person? In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, several characters face this problem. The story is about two men, living in Salinas Valley during the Great Depression. The two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, travel from ranch to ranch as migrant workers looking for work, after having to leave their previous job due to Lennie getting in trouble with the law. George has made many sacrifices for Lennie, but anything is better than the loneliness they see in other ranch workers. Steinbeck argues that when people are lonely, they become mean, and act in desperation.
Being lonely causes people to turn mean and cranky, those subject to loneliness are prone to treat others cruelly, and have the urge to fight constantly. George realizes this, and talks to Slim, another one of the ranch workers there, about why he and Lennie travel together, and how he does not want to end up all alone. He tells Slim about the ranch workers he has seen passing through various ranches, and says “‘I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’t have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time’”(41). The men that travel between ranches alone, have no one to confide in, or keep them company, so after a while they become so used to being alone, that they just snap at people, and think everyone is cruel, so there is no point in being nice. Since they have no one who is there for them, they end up picking fights with everyone, thinking the whole world is against them. This idea is demonstrated in the book by Crooks. Crooks...

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... time. She is desperate for company, so she ends up talking to the only people around. Candy, and Curley’s wife demonstrate how people act in desperation when they are lonely.
Through his novel, Steinbeck shows how loneliness can cause people to turn hostile, and constantly want to fight because they have no one to really talk to, they also act desperately due to their loneliness, and do things they normally wouldn’t. Loneliness can have terrible effects on people’s behavior, but it can be fixed. All that is necessary is a kind and patient friend willing to bridge the gap and bring the lonely person out of their misery, giving them someone to talk to and to confide in. If those people had someone there for them, they would no longer feel like screaming, or snapping at anyone who tries to talk to them, and they would go back to being happier, more content people.

Napoleon Dynamite Friendship
464 Words | 1 Pages
George chooses to stick with Lennie, despite his mental disabilities. They are loyal to each other, even though they are different: “Even in the open one stayed behind the other” (2). Their desire to spend time together in fellowship indicates the theme of true friendship. Later on in the novella, George and Lennie are introduced to Slim, the jerkline skinner on the ranch. Because his job requires him to move around, Slim, like most migrant farmers, is lonely. He observes George and Lennie’s unusual friendship and questions it saying, “You guys travel around together?” (34). George and Lennie’s loyalty to each other protects them from the loneliness of their work, revealing one important benefit of true friendship. Near the end of the novella, Lennie is in the barn with
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Why are characters lonely in Of Mice and Men?
703 Words | 2 Pages
According to me, the definition of loneliness is a feeling that naturally occurs when there is no communication between you and someone else, or if you do not like to talk to anyone. This sometimes causes people to create rage (mentally, and physically). This can also sometimes cause death, for yourself or someone else. So in this book, what John Steinbeck is trying to say about loneliness is that, the people are lonely because of their physical features and this involves Candy, Curley’s Wife and Crooks. They all are lonely in their own ways, but have the same problem.
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Of Mice and Men, 3 Characters with Loneliness
406 Words | 1 Pages
Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned. John Steinbeck brought up the theme of loneliness in many characters in Of Mice and Men. Crooks, Curley?s wife, and Candy expressed the theme of loneliness in many different forms throughout the story. Early in the novella George said, life working as ranch hands is about the loneliness of living, for these people finding friendship seems to be impossible. Crooks expressed feelings of loneliness throughout Of Mice and Men.
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The Loneliness Of mice and Men
401 Words | 1 Pages
In the touching and gripping tale of John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, he explains many themes throughout the books. One of the major themes is loneliness, which is shown throughout many different characters, for example, Curley’s wife, the stable buck (Crooks), and Lennie.
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Loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
2203 Words | 5 Pages
Mother Theresa once said, "Loneliness is a man's worst poverty." Without friends and companions, people begin to suffer from loneliness and solitude (Dusenbury 38). Loneliness is an inevitable fact of life and cannot be avoided, as shown prevalent through each of the characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Each and every character in this novel exhibits loneliness. Lennie was isolated for being mentally handicapped, Candy was isolated for being old and disabled, Crooks was for being black, Curley's wife for being a woman, and George for having to care for Lennie and being unable to socialize with others because of Lennie's consistency of getting into trouble from town to town.
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1449 Words | 3 Pages
In terms of emotional stability, there is only one thing in life that is really needed and that is friends. Without friends, people would suffer from loneliness and solitude. Loneliness leads to low self-esteem and deprivation. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife all exhibit some form of loneliness. They are driven towards the curiosity of George and Lennie's friendship because they do not have that support in their life. Through his novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck demonstrates that often times, a victim of isolation will have a never-ending search to fulfill a friendship.
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John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
1096 Words | 3 Pages
This is a novella written by John Steinbeck in 1937, about two men that lived during the depression. They were migrant workers, who wanted to buy a farm. ()
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Effects Of Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
881 Words | 2 Pages
Factors that can fuel loneliness are abundant: depression, trauma, social rejection, loss, low self-esteem, etc. The aspect of human connection and interaction is a psychological requirement for all people, even to those who push others away. These elements of isolation are presented through three methods in a 1938 novel of friendship. John Steinbeck uses indirect characterization, discrimination, and conflict to demonstrate the effects of loneliness and need for companionship in his novel Of Mice and Men.
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678 Words | 2 Pages
Curley makes sure his wife doesn’t talk to anyone. She is a victim of herself because she married a man that she hardly even knew. She married him though, to have a companion. She killed herself and Lennie because of her need for companionship. She craves companionship because she is an attractive woman with a need for interaction.
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4582 Words | 10 Pages
By then there was no more land to be claimed and America had built up
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1369 Words | 3 Pages
Life is not a bed of roses. People use this expression to stress the fact that there are and will be difficulties in life. John Steinbeck, in his novella Of Mice and Men, does not fall short of the same views. It takes place in the year 1937, a period associated with the Great Depression, and illustrates the hardships of the time, and more so those that laborers such as George and Lennie experience. Life proves to be full of disappointments for both men who are victims of harsh circumstances in more ways than one. The two have a dream to own a farm of their own but circumstance and fate robs them of their dream for a better life. This is a depiction of the lost American Dream during the Great Depression which lasts between 1929 up to the 1940s. The poem titled “This Is Not The Life” further depicts the hardships found in life. It clearly portrays the uncertainty and struggle associated with living during the Great Depression. Thus, both the novella and the poem explain that human dreams for a great future are subject to circumstance and fate, which most of the time collude against human success in life leaving only a trace of broken dreams, pain and misery.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
9607 Words | 20 Pages
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714 Words | 2 Pages
Being lonely is nothing new. Many people every day are lonely. It is common in contemporary literature to be able to see and connect with characters who suffer from mental illness. Loneliness is seen even more often in novels of today, it could even be seen as undiagnosed depression in many cases. Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel The House of the Seven Gables is an excellent example of how depression is portrayed in early American novels.
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Loneliness is a reoccurring theme in all types of literature. “Eleanor Rigby,'; by John Lennon and Paul McCartney is a fine example of the theme of loneliness in poetry. The two characters in "Eleanor Rigby" are compared by their loneliness through the extensive use of symbols.
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The Pros And Cons Of Loneliness
1137 Words | 3 Pages
Loneliness. So many emotions are evoked from this simple word. What is loneliness? Webster 's dictionary defines loneliness as sadness because one has no friends or company. Thus it is of no surprise that human beings strive to avoid and dread any remote feelings of sadness that might be derived from solitude. After all, the human species is a social being. In this fight against loneliness humans are compelled to increase our social circles by incrementing and or adapting any new forms of socialization possible.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Napoleon Dynamite Friendship

Why are characters lonely in Of Mice and Men?

Of Mice and Men, 3 Characters with Loneliness

The Loneliness Of mice and Men

Loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Of Mice And Men: Lonliness

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Effects Of Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men