Loneliness And Isolation In Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Curley’s wife is kept in isolation because she is a woman and Curley wants to keep her in the house fearing that she will cheat on him because she flirts with other men. She’s the only woman on the ranch, so she goes out and looks for attention because of her loneliness and doesn’t get any attention at home. While talking to Lennie in the barn she

In Of Mice and Men, Curley, the ranch owner’s son, has a wife that is not treated fairly. She confined to the small area of the farm and is often commanded to return to her home. Like most women, she just wants to be out and talking to people. Whenever Curley’s wife is out strolling around the farm trying to talk to someone it is often that one of the men says to her, “You better go home now…” (Steinbeck 81). Curley’s wife becomes lonely and the other men and her husband do not take her feelings into account.

Loneliness is inescapable. Everyone at some time in his or her life has experienced loneliness. However, loneliness comes in many shapes and forms. It is not always solitude caused by the absence of people, but by the lack of understanding of those around you. The two main protagonists in Of Mice and Men, George Milton and Lennie Small, are migrant laborers looking for work on various ranches during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

“‘They left all the weak ones here,’” she says upon her entry to the barn, where Candy, an old man with a stump for an arm, Lennie, a big man with a heart to match, but a brain the opposite of his figure; and Crooks, the African American stable buck, who happens to be crippled, are talking. Comparatively, these three are the weaker ones on the ranch, and Curley’s wife takes advantage of it, knowing that they either will not do anything about it, can not do anything about it, or does not know how to do anything about it. She knows that they won’t like it and will, predictably, react to the derogatory statement. But when one of the “weak ones” starts to gain confidence and defend themselves, she turn on them in scorn, “‘Listen nigger,” [Curley’s wife] said. ‘You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’ Crooks stared hopelessly at her, and then he sat down on his bunk and drew into himself,” scared of what she might do to him.

In the story “Of Mice And Men” Crooks is a character who is introduced once the main characters reach the ranch and get hired. Crooks lives in a small bunk next to the animals and is african american. He is treated terribly by the other members of the ranch and isn 't invited when they go out into town. Crooks is insulted horribly by the other characters in the story whenever they so much as refer to him. In this way crooks is faced with what almost every black american was faced with in the 1930s, Prejudice.

For instance, the men on the ranch speculate that Curley’s wife intends trouble and an affair because she is constantly looking for the men on the ranch in the bunkhouse or stable, places she has no business in without her husband. However, Curley’s wife confesses her everyday life when she tells Crooks, Old Candy, and Lennie that she enjoys talking to them rather than talking to nobody (Steinbeck 78). In addition, she discloses to them that Curley gives her little regard and that she loathes staying in their small house all the time. As a result of the lack of attention she receives, she utilises her young and seducing looks to obtain it from any body. Steinbeck writes Curley’s wife as isolated like the lonely ranch men that come and go which appeals to the readers’ feelings.

I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” “(Steinbeck, 86). In the great barn, Curley’s wife walks in to be associated with Lennie’s company.However, workers have viewed her as a terrible person and a rouge. Georgie has told Lennie a lot of times not to socialize with her, because she is only trouble. Since he wants to attend the rabbits Lennie doesn’t want nothing to do with her.

"Of Mice and Men" essay on Loneliness is a basic part of human life. Every one becomes lonely once in a while but in Steinbeck 's novella "Of Mice and Men", he illustrates the loneliness of ranch life in the early 1930 's and shows how people are driven to try and find friendship in order to escape from loneliness. Steinbeck creates a lonely and blue atmosphere at many times in the book. He uses names and words such as the town near the ranch called "Soledad", which means loneliness and the card game "Solitaire" Which means by ones self. He makes it clear that all the men on the ranch are lonely, with particular people lonelier than others.

We all may have had the feeling of loneliness and isolation, wanting companionship feeling abandonment. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, there are men living on a ranch having their own reasons for loneliness or being isolated. The three characters Crooks, George, and Lennie crusade dealing with own ways of loneliness and isolation. Crooks has no one that likes him because he’s black, Lennie struggles mentally and George struggles with always having to care for him. They all can’t decide whether it is that they want to be alone or not.

In the book of Mice And Men, all of the characters seemed to be lonely in some kind of way. Weather it was because they lived on the ranch, was the only black person on the ranch, was the only female on the ranch, or even if they only and a dog as a friend. But in the story, Steinbeck gives info about Crooks that proves that Crooks is the loneliest in the book. He was the loneliest because he was very isolated from everyone. Second, Crooks was the loneliest, because he wasn’t allowed in the other bunk.