Solitude In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

‘Of mice and men’ is a book full of extraordinary key themes: Steinbeck deliberately presents the main theme of solitude also known as (loneliness). Solitude is a very important theme in this book the reason being for this is because: Steinbeck wrote the book in the 1930s when America suffered the Great Depression. The great suffering of depression in America lead to solitude, this affected most male labourers (like characters such as: Slim, Carlson, Crooks and George) along with many females which in the 1930s were classed as housewives. For example, a victim that suffers with solitude in the book most is Curley’s wife an example, of this is in the title of the book. The title ‘Of Mice and Men’ does not mention any aspect of women, this clearly

Also, the fact that she had a conversation with Lennie portrays that no one else wanted to socialize with her and that Lennie was the last result. Since she married her new husband, she has constantly been living in the background of his shadow. Ultimately, this would be classed as pathetic fallacy because her husband was full of darkness. The fact Curley’s wife lives in her husband’s shadow portrays that she lives the lonely back end of life. Evidence to support this is: ‘I get lonely’ Curley’s wife said ‘you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley else he gets mad’ .This quotation represents the isolation and solitude that she went through in her life. This also shows the readers that Curley’s wife was his possession and she did whatever he pleased. This quotation also, links back to the historical context in the 1930s, when women had no rights and were classed as 2nd class citizens, the 1930s were a very dark place for women, as men overpowered them with their there patriarchal dominant