NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Explore Steinbeck s Treatment of the Themes of Loneliness and Isolation in Of Mice and Men A guy goes nuts if he ain t got nobody. Don t matter no difference who the guy is, long s he s with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick. A major theme in Steinbeck s novel is loneliness and isolation. Almost all of the characters including Crooks, Candy and Curley suffer from this although the degree of their exclusion is varied. Intolerance is human nature; people who are different from or weaker than the norm are victims of intolerance and become isolated and lonely.
Those who are in the norm group are expected to be strong and not exhibit their feelings. The norm group or social power group in Of Mice and Men is the white, male workers on the farm. They are younger men who are average sized and quite intelligent. They exclude people who do not fit in with them such as Crooks for being black, Candy for being old and Curley for being short. This intolerance and isolation cause loneliness for all the characters in the novel. The social power group oppress and seclude many of the characters, perhaps through fear of facing up to their own feelings of loneliness.
One of the characters they isolate is Lennie although he is male and white. Although he is very strong and big, he has a mind like a child s so they do not treat him as a coequal therefore he does not belong to their group. For example, George explains to Slim that he, Used to play jokes on [Lennie] cause he was too dumb to take care of itself. Lennie does not take part in the activities that the workers do in their spare time e. g. playing horseshoes or going into town.
In Weed, Lennie gets in trouble because the people do not comprehend his problem. They react with animosity instead of cognition. George explains to Slim, Cause he ain t mean. like what happened in Weed-. Lennie is fortuitous to have George though. George is his familiar and companion; the one person who has past emotional connections with him who has always been around and still is.
George is lonely although he has a comrade. He has an extraordinary relationship with Lennie, which stems from there past together. Lennie is simple and relies on George to take care of him and to safeguard him. George is like his master while Lennie is the dog.
It is likely that George stays with Lennie because he feels reprehensible when he has bad thoughts or memories of past bad actions about him. He feels a sense of duty towards him because he needs someone dependable to take care of him. He gets lonely though because while Lennie is a companion for George, he has a much lower discernment. George cannot talk to him like an adult or discuss adult matters with him such as his money worries because Lennie simply does not understand. He is eager to make friends with the other white guys in the social power group at the ranch, despite his cool superficies. He secretly longs for a friend of his aptitude with whom he can have mature conversations.
He would not leave Lennie because the compunction would be too great. He knows that he and Lennie are lonely like most workers: Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don t belong no place they ain t got nothing to look ahead to, but that if he left Lennie their loneliness would aggrandize dramatically. The power group also single out Candy. He is fearful that he will have nowhere to go soon because he is old: I won t have no place to go, an I can t get no jobs.
Candy knows that society does not value or care about people who cannot work. Society ejects them because they are no longer utilitarian. Carlson shows this when he says about Candy s dog, He ain t no good to you, Candy. An he ain t no good himself. Why n t you shoot him, Candy? Candy knows he is like his dog; an old man who is almost useless.
He knows they will discard him like his dog when he is no longer useful: They says he wasn t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wish t somebody shoot me. Candy tries to find a friendship by attempting to join the dream of George and Lennie to own and run their own little ranch. This is one of Candy s despondent attempts to find a place in society and meaning in life.
Candy offered his services to become a part of George and Lennie s companionship and dream: I ll wash dishes an little chick stuff like that. But I ll be on your own place, an I ll be let to work on our own place. Candy was attempting to overcome his loneliness and regain a positive outlook by seeking out situations that enable him to get involved with other ranchers. It is quite feasible that he was sorrowful and lonely because he was in search of the befitting person to be friends with. After Candy lost his dog, he felt much lonelier than he was before. The dog was something that Candy had owned and confided with within his years.
He felt hollow because now he did not own a single important thing. Candy and his dog had the same connection that George and Lennie had shared for so many years. While Lennie had George and the ranchers had each other, Candy did not have anybody and this put him in a condition of anguish and despondency. Nobody in the book shared the same interests and / or dreams as Candy did. This is why he tried so hard to gain the thoughtfulness and friendship of Lennie and George.
He offers everything that he had to support the friendship including money, but money will never buy friendship. Maybe if I give you money, you ll let me how in the garden even after I ain t no good at it. Women are also victims of intolerance, which leads to loneliness. Curley s wife dreamed of being a movie star, but the man who promised he would aid her never wrote to her.
As a woman, during the depression, she has no choice but to marry someone who can support her. Society gives jobs and independence to men, and women have no omnipotence. She is on the bottom of society. Her marriage to Curley is a calamity because he only cares about himself. He is not interested in her at all.
He s a guy ain t he? Spends all his time saying what he s gonna do to guys he don t like, and he don t like nobody. Curley s wife understands that all men think she is an object. She uses her seductress to attract men so they will talk to her: She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward. She makes use of her stunning body to obtain the attention of the ranchers to ease her loneliness.
These acts give her a sense of relief and make her feel wanted so she can share her personal concerns and experiences. Her reputation for being a flirt means that none of the farmhands want to talk to her. Curley s wife needs friends and people to talk to. She tries to find friends, but everyone turns her away. Curley is suspicious and treats her like a possession to be guarded, but his wife is frustrated: What s the matter with me? she cried.
Ain t I got right to talk to nobody? Curley s insecure feelings towards his wife force her into flirting with the other workers. The other workers do not want to be perturbed though because it is not worth an argument with Curley: Maybe you better go along to you own house now. We don t want no trouble. Curley s wife is isolated because she is the only woman on the farm and is therefore kept out of the social power group.
Curley s wife notices how simple-minded Lennie is and takes advantage of the situation. She knows that he is the only person who she can discuss her problems with to try to evade loneliness. The only problem was that Curley s wife was unaware of Lennie s curiosity and interest in soft objects. She asked him to stroke her soft hair, which led to her death when he did not let go.
This shows that her loneliness was so unalterable only death could end it. Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation in terms of racism. For example, he is forced to live alone in the barn. The setting of this book takes place during the 1930 s when discrimination sadly still existed. The farmhands feel that since he is black he is not worthy of living with the rest of them. He spends his nights reading in his room and his days alone in the barn working on the horses.
The boss takes his hostility out on Crooks whenever he gets upset. Candy explains, The boss gives him hell when he s mad. Only at Christmas is Crooks allowed into the bunkhouse. When he is, Smitty starts a fight with him, even though Crooks is deformed. Crooks knows he is not significant in society because he is black.
He explains this to Lennie: That s just a nigger talkin, an a busted-back nigger. So it don t mean nothing, see? Crooks promises if he had a chance to work for something, he would, such as sharing the little farm with George, Lennie, and Candy: I ain t so crippled I can t work like a son-of a-bitch if I want to. He is fascinated by the strength of the friendship of Lennie and George, especially how close they are. Crooks said, Well, s pose, jus s pose he don t come back. What ll you do then?
Crooks asks these questions because he does not have any friends. He was curious about the friendship of Lennie and George. He does not quite grasp Lennie s mental situation so he says this to attempt to make him feel as he does because he is lonely and has no friends. He is striving to achieve empathy and understanding from Lennie. He would work for nothing if it meant interaction with others and solving his problems of loneliness. The above quote emphasises this point.
Crooks remembers how little jurisdiction he has when Curley s wife warns him, Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain t even funny. As a black man, Crooks has no chance against the social power group. The white men would kill Crooks because he is black.
The reader sees this through the following description: Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. Crooks loneliness is mainly a consequence of rejection. Although the discrimination is present Crooks still attempts to earn friends. The other workers treat Crooks unjustly because he is black and therefore different from the others. He does not know how to act toward others because of the way they behave toward him with disdain. Furthermore he does not know how to verbalist his frustration and consequently, lashes out at others because they are callous to him.
Crooks is not allowed to partake in daily events with white people. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people: 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 stink to me! The social power group also excludes Curley. He is excluded because he is too short. He hates big men because big men automatically get into the social power group. Candy comments to George that Curley s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys.
He s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he s mad at them because he ain t a big guy. Curley shows this about himself when he is hostile and angry when he meets Lennie for the first time. Curley shows his extreme insecurity in the bunkhouse as Slim and Carlson are not apprehensive of him. Curley is fearful of losing his power of coercion.
He notices that Lennie is afraid and so turns his animosity onto him. The reader sees Curley is insecure because Curley continues to attack Lennie although Lennie does not even protect himself or fight back. Each of these men and women are rejected by the social power group and so are lonely but they are not the only ones who are lonely. Even the normal white workers on the farm are lonely because they isolate themselves from each other.
Slim explains that all the men are afraid to show their feelings and be close to others: Ain t many guys travel around together. I don t know why. Maybe ever body in the whole damn world is scared of each other. Slim describes how the workers choose to be lonely: I hardly never seen two guys together. You know how the hands are, they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then they quit and go out alone.
Never seem to give a damn about nobody. George and Lennie know that they are lonely like most workers: Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don t belong no place they ain t got nothing to look ahead to. At the end of the novel, Carlson shows how men shut themselves off and hide their feelings, when he doesn t even know George is sad: Now, what the hell you suppose is eatin them two guys? The white men in the society power group choose loneliness because they are afraid of showing their emotions and fears.
Bigotry and consternation exist everywhere in humanity, which leads to loneliness in Of Mice and Men. Loneliness has many causes. We perceive the many sources of solitude to be primarily discrimination and prejudice. The workers fear showing their feelings to each other.
They cast out people who are different or weak, such as Curley, Candy, Lennie, Crooks and Curley s wife. These characters all suffer from these facts, which leads them to their loneliness. We find that the severity of each characters loneliness is varied and that the consequent effects are directly related to the magnitude of their desolation. Through this, the author shows the reader that everyone causes loneliness in society. It is an infallible fact of life that not even the strongest can avoid. Maybe when people concise this about real life, they will be able to discontinue loneliness.
Free research essays on topics related to: mice and men, curley wife, ain t, george and lennie, friendship of lennie and george
Research essay sample on Friendship Of Lennie And George George And Lennie
