Loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

I agree that the majority of the characters in 'Of Mice and Men,'

written by John Steinbeck, are lonely. The novel is set in America

during the 1930's, the time of the depression. I believe that

Steinbeck choose this time because many people were lonely because of

having to travel to find a job. Throughout this essay, I will be

trying to prove my point that even though the characters may look

happy, they have few possessions, travel alone and have no real home.

This I believe makes them feel lonely.

This novel follows the story of two men George Milton and Lennie

Small, these men are good friends but George easily gets annoyed.

George normally gets annoyed at Lennie due to his bad memory. The

first time that we see George get annoyed at Lennie because of this is

at the start of the book when Lennie had already forgotten what he had

done in Weed. Lennie also imitates George, 'George lay back on the

sand and crossed his hands under his head, and Lennie imitated him,

raising his head to see whether he were doing it right.' Lennie is

also retarded and does whatever George says, 'I turns to Lennie and

say: "Jump in (the river)… An' he so damn nice to me for pullin' him

out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in."'

George is the brains of the and arranged working permits and bus

tickets, '"You remember about us going into Murray and Ready's, and

they give us work cards and bus tickets." Lennie with his bad memory

thinks he has lost his work card. '"George… I ain't got mine. I musta

lost it." But George was smart enough not to have given Lennie his

work card.

George and Lennie have had to migrate because Lennie had felt a girls

dress and had a lynch mob set on him; also because of the depression

there is little work. Because of this, they have had to move all the

way to the Salinas valley in California.