How does Steinbeck present the theme of loneliness in ‘Of ...

‘Of Mice and Men’ by simply John Steinbeck, is set in mid-1930s America during the despression symptoms.

This major depression came being a shock to America following the 1920s ‘boom-time’. The creativity that Steinbeck drew after is the frustrating times individuals were living through during those times. However , the characters inside the novel are lucky because they are working away at a prosperous farm building, despite hundreds of thousands actually becoming out of work at the moment.

In this essay, I will try to bring out tips referring to solitude and how it affects the characters inside the story. The novel is placed in a place called Soledad, which in addition means loneliness. The two central characters in the novel are George Milton and Lennie Small. The first section helps all of us get to know the characters very well.

George and Lennie happen to be two workers who push from ranch to hacienda in search of work and great pay. We understand early on that they are currently between jobs, and are hitching take you to their up coming job. That were there to move in from the previous ranch because of Lennie having touched a girl’s costume, so they are on the run. George is quick-witted and brilliant.

He is also very cautious “Lennie. You will be sick just like you was you get. “. George is ‘small and quick, dark of face, ‘ also with ‘restless eyes’ this kind of again stresses the point that he is mindful and careful of others. Lennie nevertheless is very childlike – “Look, George. Look what I completed. ” – Like a little child, Lennie is trying make an impression George.

A single point emphasised frequently throughout the book can be, despite his terror of violence, he’s a man of great physical strength and is often compared to a creature – “He stood sobbing, his fist lost in Lennie’s foot. ” In many ways, George and Lennie will be the two halves of a sole person, one of them is good while the various other is poor. The two make reference to both George – solid mind, physically weak – and Lennie – bodily strong, although mentally weak. Lennie can be George’s ‘shadow’, he does as he can be told by simply George – whether in his best interests or not – “You tol’ me to, George, ” he said miserably. ‘ George and Lennie maintain each other as though they were family.

George plays the parent figure in Lennie’s life, this individual has taken on the responsibility for Lennie partly out of pity, partly away of devotion, and to some extent for lasting love. They actually want and depend upon one another – “you acquired me and I got you” – since Lennie keeps saying. They will share a dream to own a patch of land in fact it is this that will bring them going into the bad occasions.

Other men may also have had this wish, but maybe don’t include as much hope in it as George and Lennie do. Sweets is near to the end of his beneficial life for the farm and knows he has very little to look ahead to. Candy’s simply companion is his puppy, we are informed Candy provides raised him since having been a puppy dog. When the puppy is murdered by Carlson, Candy is definitely silent almost as if his soul was at the dog, thus when the dog is damaged, Candy is too.

He is offered a new puppy by Slender, but this is certainly no convenience as he offers lost a lifelong friend. Candy is easily hurt by simply Carlson’s determination to ‘murder’ his family pet “Le’s have it over with, ” Despite his emotional hardship early available, Candy is usually saved by insanity by George and Lennie. He’s let into their dream and he is in the same way enthusiastic about it as Lennie! “How much they want for any place like this? ” The losing of his doggie is certainly not the initial he has had to deal with. ‘He scratched the stump of his arm nervously. “I got harm four in years past, ” This kind of shows he has only one hand, and has had to come to terms while using loss of something perhaps essential than a pet.

Crooks is known as a ‘special case’. He is a literate black cripple who tends race horses on the farm. This makes him one of the loners in the new. Because he is black, he has a space of his own – but with manure right outside the window, he can not residing in luxury. His significant possessions are his books.

Whereas the farm hands generally read journals, he has the time – and the cleverness – to study proper books. Literature, in the end, educates all of us, allows us to get into other sides, and floods our period profitably. He says, “A dude sets alone out at night, maybe readin’ catalogs or thinkin'” The books actually display that Crooks is not inferior.

If perhaps anything, they show that he contains a superior cleverness. However , Crooks indicates the books likewise reflect his loneliness – he would just like someone to speak to. So in addition they show just how he is diverse and in addition to the other employees on the ranch. He has long been the sufferer of oppressive violence and prejudice, this kind of in itself leaves him distinct from the remaining group.

Regardless of the persecutions, the other characters seem to privately admire him “Jesus, how that nigger can presentation shoes. ” Then Thin replies “He’s plently great, ” although they never complement him if he is around. Thieves does have rights, but many of them are abused and no-one will anything to enforce them. Crooks has trouble fitting in and making friends because of constraints imposed upon him by boss – he is just allowed in the bunkhouse at Christmas.

Crooks’ character is usually bored with life and only wishes to be equivalent with light people, like he seemed to be as a child, and he only now realises so why his father despised his white friends as a child. Crooks is remote from the various other ranch hands because he is unique. He copes with that by keeping a distance between himself plus the other hands but he can drawn in the dream of taking care of George and Lennie’s plantation. When Lennie is with him when the other folks are around Crooks is talking about his views on company.

Crooks attempts to talk to Lennie about the loneliness he could be feeling caused by being dark, but Lennie is too busy thinking about George to listen to him. So Crooks ends up teasing him about George not really coming back. Curley’s wife can be considered a control – a thing belonging to Curley – rather than a person in her own right. She is just identified as a tart, but a bit more is known about her. It may be because of this that she enjoys teasing Lennie and the other folks on the farm; she is aware Curley will not approve and it is a way of getting her personal sense penalized an individual back.

She desires to be seen as a person, her broken dream of like a movie star is definitely shared with Lennie as they expand a short companionship. She is described as a “temptress”, “piece of jail-bait” and a “tart”. She is described as a great evil figure, although it is usually emphasised that is no fault of her individual. She is blamed by Candies for the conclusion of his own dreams, even though your woman was also a victim – after Lennie unintentionally wiped out her. Becoming lonely she turned to Lennie for companionship, but his love of petting gentle things ends in her demise.

Lennie and Curley’s Better half are, except for Crooks, the most lonely and misunderstood characters in the book. In chapter five, they meet up with in the barn after Lennie has unintentionally killed his puppy. Curley’s Wife strategies him, although he is aware he ought not to be talking to her, after all George said your woman was a awful person, “Well, I ain’t supposed to talk to you or nothing. “. He discloses the useless puppy, and she starts her gradual process of seduction, by consoling him – telling him it was not really his wrong doing. Then the girl tells him about her dreams, her life story and how the lady was conned out of the movie star career by her “ol’ lady”.

It changes from seduction to a a friendly relationship “because your woman had confided in him, she moved closer to Lennie and lay beside him” – right now there is a one way trust between the two, Curley’s Wife already having confided in Lennie, but he could be still concerned with what George might think – plus the possibility of George not allowing him are likely the rabbits. But Lennie tells her he wants soft things, and the lady allows him to cerebrovascular accident her hair. She has dropped into a snare, and it seems like she will suffer the same fortune as the other pets Lennie provides petted. The girl does. At some point killed simply by her own loneliness, your woman dies violently at the same solid hands because the mice, the dog and Curley’s hand.

Candy in that case stumbles after the body, this individual knows it absolutely was Lennie and realises the trio’s fantasy is finished. He gets George who is aware of he must reach Lennie ahead of Curley and the other ranch-hands, so he can help Lennie escape the violence that might ensue if he didn’t catch him in time. An alternate way of life is usually sought by characters, motivated by their isolation, this is one of the reasons they wander from ranch-to-ranch, they are continually searching.

Cash, often , and without knowing what they are seriously looking for. Character types are also depressed because of something within themselves, something that almost seems to generate their isolation inevitable. Diverse characters seek comfort in different points – pertaining to Candy it can be his dog; for George and Lennie it is one another; for Thieves it is his pride and skill by things like harrassing horseshoes.

For them, it is an neverending journey shifting from place to place, the same jobs, similar routines, each person. Sadly, they will never stay in one place long enough to generate friends or settle down. A large number of dream of acquiring a ranch of their own, but it will never happen so long as they take their very own pay each month and enter town and waste almost all they have received on one nights recreation.