Loneliness is a multiplex emotion that comes from isolation. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck writes about two migrant workers, George and Lennie, who find work on a Saline Valley ranch. On the ranch, George and Lennie met three prominent characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife. The way characters are presented to others verse how people actually are, helps readers see Steinbeck’s greater message. Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife isolation helps deliver Steinbeck’s message of broken dreams to the reader. Due to being the only African American in the novel, Crooks became isolated from the other characters which caused him to become anti-social. Crooks expressed to Lennie in Chapter 3, “...You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you have nobody...couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ’cause you was black (Steinbeck 68).” The stem of Crooks’ isolation comes from his dad, who knew the racial boundary between whites and blacks. Crooks’ …show more content…
mentioned to Lennie how his dad expressed his unliking to him playing with the white children. As Crooks’ grew, he became aware of the ‘boundary’, and it increased whenever he gained his own room and was unable to work or play alongside the other ranchers because of his skin color. Referring to his childhood and his present situation, Crooks’ tells Lennie, “There wasn’t another colored family for miles around..There ain’t no colored man on this ranch..I say something, why it’s just a [n-word] talking (Steinbeck 70).” Crooks does not have someone like him on the ranch, just like his childhood. He becomes suspicious and alert at all times because prejudice is all he knows. Discrimination runs deeper than being prejudice, it’s more of not being up to status quo. Candy’s first stages of isolation stem from the loss of his hand in a farming accident, which reduced him to being a “swamper”; then, his only companion (his dog) was shot in the back of the head by Carlson.
Carlson judges Candy and his dog’s relationship and say's, “...He ain’t no good to you, Candy. An’ he ain’t no good to himself..No, I couldn’t do that. I had ‘im too long (Steinbeck 44-45).” Candy’s isolation is different from any other character in the novel. Candy is a silent character when it comes to how he feels. Carlson and the other ranchers thought Candy’s dog was nothing but space to feel, but to Candy the dog symbolize him. Candy was a strong worker even with the lost of his hand, which led to him not being able to work alongside the other ranchers. Soon Candy grew old and weak such as the dog did. Whenever, the ranchers talked about the dog, Candy sat there in silence, and when the dog was shot, he was silent. Keeping your feelings to yourself only makes a situation
worst. At the failure of a movie star dream, Curley’s wife forced herself into a marriage of unhappiness and loneliness with Curley. Curley’s wife introduce her loneliness and says, “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely (Steinbeck 86).”At the beginning of the novel, Curley’s wife was seen as a villain, an attention seeking women. The ranchers labeled Curley’s wife as a “tart”/”jail bait”, but as the novel progress the audience get to understand her feelings of isolation. Before Lennie killed Curley’s wife, she expresses some of her true feelings, “He says he was going to put me in the movies...he was gonna write to me...I never got a letter..I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself..So, I married Curley (Steinbeck 88).” She had failed at becoming a movie star, married Curley, and at two weeks she sought out attention from other men and none of the other men wanted to talk to her. Similar to Crooks and Candy, Curley’s wife were judged and became realist. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck delivers a message of broken dreams through the isolation of Crook, Candy, and Curley’s wife.Steinbeck portrays different types of isolation, but presents the same concept of the message. Crooks isolation was something he could not control because of his race. Candy’s isolation was a self imposed isolation because he silenced his feelings, isolating himself. Curley’s wife isolation was both controllable and uncontrollable because she had a lack of opportunity, but the decisions after the opportunity promoted her isolation. Ultimately, each character chased after “The American Dream” but instead of achieving the dream, they gained isolation. Even though Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife were trying to achieve "The American Dream", it was all but an illusion, the more they chased the allusion, the deeper their isolation grew.
Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, is a book that can be analyzed and broken down into a vast majority of themes. One of the predominant themes found in this book is loneliness. Many characters in this book are affected by loneliness and they all demonstrate it in one way or another throughout the book. Examples of these characters are Curley’s Wife, Crooks, and Candy.
In his novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck depicts the essential loneliness of California ranch life in the 1930s. He illustrates how people are driven to find companionship. There were so many moments of loneliness and sadness throughout the novel, including many deaths. Following the deaths, they were very unexpected making the novel more intense and latch onto it more.
“You seen what they did to my dog tonight? They say he wasn’t good to himself, nor anyone else. When they can me here I wish somebody’d shoot me - Candy”. This quote shows how Candy was so lonely that he would rather want someone to kill himself instead of his dog because without his dog, he is now even more lonely. He is more lonelier than when he was before because before he was just old and he had his dog with him....
Steinbeck expresses the theme of loneliness in the character of Candy. Candy is lonely because his is missing half an arm. Candy?s disability separates him from society, an example of Curley being set aside is when everybody else goes to town he is left in the barn with Crooks, Lennie, and Curley?s wife. Candy?s only friendship was with his old, smelly dog. Candy?s dog was a symbol of himself (old, and useless). When Carlson kills Candy?s dog he kills Candy on the inside as well.
The implementation of isolation within the lives of John Steinbeck's characters in his novel Of Mice and Men allows him to discuss the effect isolation has on an individual's life. Through the characters of Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife, Steinbeck is able to fully illustrate how isolation influences one's attitude towards life. Lennie, Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife all live a life led by isolation. Isolation interacts differently with each character, but ultimately negatively influences each of them. Although each of the characters in Of Mice and Men experience solitude, neither of them do so by choice. Steinbeck is able to demonstrate how the concept of loneliness is essential to the unfortunate but inevitable conclusion of the novel.
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.
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.
Crooks was excluded from the group and had his own barn which was his only freedom. When Crooks said “Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ’cause you was black. How’d you like that? ” (Steinbeck 72), he wants to seek someone’s company like Lennie has George’s. Crooks threatened Lennie into the fact that George might not come back because he wanted Lennie to feel loneliness, but to his disappointment he was in vain. Crooks also conveys through his body language and the way he speaks that he doesn’t want to be excluded from the others and wants to participate in all the activities with them.
"Were born alone we live alone die alone. Only through love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that were not alone” Orson Welles. In this novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck focuses on the loneliness of California ranch life in the 1930’s. One of the most important things in the life is to have a friend, without friends people will suffer from loneliness like in this novel, not everyone in the novel has the same connection and special friendship like George and Lennie’s. Of Mice and Men is the story about lonely men who travel from ranch to ranch not really communicating with other ranch hands. Candy, Crooks and Curley’s wife all were lonely and dealt with their loneliness in different ways.
This is the piece of speech, when Candy is trying to persuade George to let him in on the ranch their going to get. The language Steinbeck uses here, makes Candy seem overly eager to get in with George and Lennie. Mainly because, he’s dog dies so now he doesn’t have anybody, and he feels he might get canned. So as soon as he hears the opportunity to break away from being lonely, he jumps at it. I feel extremely sorry for Candy because he has nobody to turn to. He really does try to find friendship in people, but sometimes tries to hard.
Racial discrimination has been around for a long time, judging people for the color of their skin. Crooks is affected by this because he is black. Blacks in that time were thought as lesser than the white people. The racial discrimination affects Crooks' life in only negative ways. He is plagued by loneliness because of the color of his skin. His lack of company drives him crazy. Only when Lennie comes in to his room does he feel less lonely. He talked of his loneliness using a hypothetical scenario of George leaving Lennie. Crooks' responds to this discrimination by staying in his barn and being secluded. He doesn't want anyone to be in there but deep down he does so he can have some company. He isn't wanted in the bunk house or to play cards with the others because he is black. This effected the story by letting people walk all over him, letting them think they can do whatever they want, and ultimately making the people think they have a lot of power when really they do not.
In Of Mice and Men, the author, Steinbeck, explores the theme of isolation. The whole book has a pessimistic and gloomy tone to it. Steinbeck has hinted at us the theme of isolation from full built evidence to subtle details (such as placing the city of the book in Soledad, California, a Spanish word for solitude). He argues that isolation forms when people become selfish and egocentric and worry about themselves all the time.
We all know that every one becomes lonely once in a while. But in Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men” it shows the loneliness of ranch life in the early 1930's. It also shows how people are trying to find friendship with other ranchers in order to escape from loneliness. Imagine if you had nobody to talk to. Loneliness is the basic message here in this story.
Many authors of fiction attempt to convey to the reader their opinions on certain topics, or themes, throughout the course of their stories. Through his novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck expresses his opinions on the powerful and the powerless, unity and isolation, and dreams and reality.
The theme of loneliness is a dominant theme in john Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". He shows it in a variety of ways ranging from Crooks not wanting Lennie to leave his room to Curley's loveless marriage, even down to candy and his dog and George and Lennie.