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Loneliness and isolation in mice and men
Character analysis of lennie in of mice and men
Character analysis of lennie in of mice and men
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Of Mice and Men What if the world had never gotten past the Great Depression? What if everyone was still in an era surrounded by cruelty and vulnerability? Lennie Smalls and George Milton are each other's guides in life. They go through everything together, their worlds become one during this tragedy of the 1930’s. In Of Mice and Men, author John Steinbeck reveals that having a strong, sturdy, loyal friendship can help you get through rough times, also isolation and loneliness can make those times worse, and weaknesses are just the beginning of many mistakes waiting to happen. Having a strong connection with someone who is always there for you through thick and thin plays a big role in Of Mice and Men during the Great Depression. George was Lennie’s mentor for a long time, and promised …show more content…
In this story, Of Mice and Men characters Crook, and the unnamed Curley’s wife are both the definition of lonely. During times of desperation Lennie goes to hang out with Crook, and he exclaims, “ They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, all of you stink to me.” (Steinbeck 68). Crook feels neglected, and he has a right too. During the Great Depression, years before and after, the nation was very racist. He had no one to fend for him but himself. This made him very lonely, but at the same time made him a little stronger. Curley’s wife also states later on, “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.” (Steinbeck 87). In the story, Curley’s wife wanted to be an actress, but decided to marry Curley for money and protection. Now that she is married tho, there is so much rules laid out for her, and she is isolated from all else. Curley’s wife feels like she would be better off if she would have taking the acting job or just leave and ran
Although discrimination is still present during the time period of the book, Crooks still attempts to make friends. Others treat Crooks unjust because he is different from others given that he is black. He does not know how to treat others because of the way others treat him; with disrespect. Furthermore, he does not know how to vent his frustration and as a result, lashes out at others because they are cruel to him. Crooks is not allowed to participate in daily events with white people. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people (the ones who offended him.)
Mother Theresa once said, "Loneliness is a man's worst poverty." Without friends and companions, people begin to suffer from loneliness and solitude (Dusenbury 38). Loneliness is an inevitable fact of life and cannot be avoided, as shown prevalent through each of the characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Each and every character in this novel exhibits loneliness. Lennie was isolated for being mentally handicapped, Candy was isolated for being old and disabled, Crooks was for being black, Curley's wife for being a woman, and George for having to care for Lennie and being unable to socialize with others because of Lennie's consistency of getting into trouble from town to town.
In Crooks’ case, he is isolated because of his race. When Crooks talks to Lennie about why he is excluded from the bunkhouse, he responds with, “Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black” (Steinbeck, 68). Crooks feels that the other men on the ranch exclude him. Another example of this is when Curley's wife says to Crooks, “Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny” (Steinbeck, 81). Curley's wife is being
Life is an array of emotions and experiences. At times it blesses us with experiences that instill feelings of happiness and joy, in which we are able to celebrate life and all it could offer us. Other times life hits us in the face, letting us endure hardships, sadness, depression and loss. Most may argue that Of Mice and Men is either intended to celebrate the joys of life or meant to be a depressing book. Yet what most fail to see is that Of Mice and Men portrays both aspects of human life through the mutual friendship of two uncommonly men, George and Lennie, the dream they both share, and the sudden calamity that befall them.
Historically, the black American solution to racially imposed loneliness and homelessness was to embrace the structure of family. White characters in the novel appear without families, for whatever reason. However, black Americans were compelled to come together as a people despised by others, to shelter and protect, even to the point of the creation of extended families, much as George assumes a protective all four. Significantly, Crooks does not receive an invitation to join George, Lenny, and Candy on the farm, even though he broaches the subject. Racial and ethnic minorities in America in the 1930s understood the importance of this strategy for survival because otherwise they would not have survived. Crooks gets described by Curley’s wife as “weak” because he is crippled and a Negro, two conditions which Steinbeck conflates into being synonymous in the novel. He functions in the role of a victim-savant. Acting as an insightful thinker and clarifying the meaning of loneliness for the reader, he remains an “outsider,” someone for whom the reader feels more pity than respect.246 By remaining on this ranch, experiencing unfair treatment, Crooks chooses his own racial victimization each and every day.246
Steinbeck writes "Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego - his voice was toneless. "(81) The character of Crooks reflects the universal need for human connection as well as the brutalizing effects of racial prejudice. Like Crooks, Curley's wife is very lonely,
Crooks, the most isolated character, is treated differently by everyone on the ranch. They treat Crooks with less respect than they do each other. They call him names, which might not have caused uproar, but still disrespectful. In fact, when Curley was looking for him, he demanded to know where Crooks was. Curley asked, "'Where the hell is that god damn nigger?'" (Steinbeck 29). Curley's harsh words, are some of the reasons Crooks...
When a person’s need for love and compassion are not met, they may choose to either act out to gain attention or to seclude themselves from any other relationships. Curley’s wife chooses to act out and to be unfaithful to her husband due to the fact that he does not give her any attention. She flirts with the other men on the farm to get their attention. Crooks, who is segregated from the rest of the group because he is African-American, is very bitter towards Lennie and the other guys on the farm. When Lennie tries to come into his room to talk to him, Crooks shouts “You got no right to come in my room” (68). This shows how the neglected feeling that he has made him act angrily towards the ones who neglected him. It caused him to be protective and rude to one of the most kind hearted characters in this novella. Curley’s wife and Crooks represent how people act when they do not have the proper friendship and companionship that every human desires.
After Curley’s wife was told she was a natural and was going to make it big in life, she had never gotten the letter the man said he was going to write her, she did not matter that much. “‘Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself, an’ where they stole your letters, I ask her if she stole it, too, an’ she says no. So I married Curley’” (Steinbeck 44). In this quote it shows how she had nothing or was going nowhere in life, so she married Curley. Also Steinbeck shows that women are very low in society by depriving Curley’s wife of dreams, not becoming famous, family and friends, ran away from her mom and can not talk to anybody, and most of all he did not give her a name, she is labeled as Curley’s
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.
“’I get lonely’ she said ‘You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley, else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to nobody?’” (Page 87) This quote is said by Curley’s wife when all the men went to town, including her husband. It shows that she spends all her time alone, in her house as the men work in the fields. She is also not allowed to talk to anyone but her husband who spends all of this time in the fields, so she feels like she is living alone all her life. This forces her to talk to anybody she finds. This shows her case of loneliness, and Crooks almost has the same situation.
So many people are lonely in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, because; unfortunately, that is a part of the society we live and it was a part of the society in Steinbeck’s book. So many people shut themselves out and become so self-absorbed they don’t even notice those around them. For example, Candy is a lonely old man who has been working on that ranch, and many others most of his life. Now he doesn’t have anything to call his own, he has the clothes on his back and his dog, but that is about it.
George is never able to develop friendships, as Lennie restricts him. In fact, George’s loneliness is what causes him to lash out at Lennie so often. The loneliness weighs on, putting negative thoughts in his mind. Throughout the novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck develops George’s character from being lonely, to coping with loneliness. John Steinbeck also illustrates how friendships keep someone sane.
He keeps to himself a lot and hides away in his little room near the horses. “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t welcome in my room,” he says to Lennie who wants to come in and talk to him as he obviously looked lonely. Crooks lets him in after a while as Lennie doesn’t mind the fact that he is black. Crooks has no white friends because he is discriminated against and doesn’t trust them. “
Candy remarked that Curley’s wife “lives over in boss’s house” (27). Deliberately, Steinbeck did this to show readers how Curley’s wife was subject to the “cultural normalities”, of life during the dustbowl era in America as a direct result of being judged by her feminine appearance. As a result of this she was confined to her home and found herself sneaking out, as she was rarely allowed out. To feel purposeful, she risked sneaking out of the house to seek companionship from other men working on the farm, something which eventually lead to her demise. Curley’s wife could have easily been purposeful in her career.