Of Mice And Men

Of Mice And Men In the masterful story Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck there is a looming theme of loneliness. This theme is told to you through the words and actions of the characters in the story . This story is told through two characters Lennie and George. The setting is 1930’s America. The story involves traveling ranch workers that live only for the one purpose to get paid and waste their money on a few drinks and some pleasure. These men are consumed with loneliness. The care for nothing but themselves. They are very unlike George and Lennie who have each other and a dream. Lennie is a big man with the brain of a child. Lennie never meant to hurt anybody but managed to get himself and his only true friend George into trouble. George is a small smart man who has known Lennie all his life and knows to well that Lennie could not survive on his own lets him travel with him as a favor too Lennie’s aunt Loneliness is defined as Without companions; lone. I will use this definition to describe different aspects of Steinbeck’s treatment of loneliness in this novel. Steinbeck’s use of loneliness is in this novel is very noticeable in some of the dialogue like when Lennie accidentally stumbles into Crook’s home in the stable and they talk. "You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go to the bunk-house and play rummy ‘cause you was black. How’d you like that? S’pose you had to sit out here an’ read books. Sure you could play horse shoes til it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. ‘He whined : ‘A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long he’s with you. I tell ya,’ he cried , I tell you a guy gets lonely an’ he gets sick." This shows Crook’s view of the world and how he feels about what his life is about. He feels as though nobody cares for him which is probably true from the quote above. George and Lennie feel they are not alone they have a dream. This dream is what pushes them on. They are often talking of the land they dream of.