The Theme of Loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

The Theme of Loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is set in the farmlands of Salinas

Valley in California during the 1930’s. At this time there was a world

wide depression caused by the Wall Street crash in America. John

Steinbeck was born and brought up in Salinas California, he had lived

and experienced a life of a migrant worker and that is what inspired

him to write this novel (novella?). This meant he could paint a lot

better picture of the place and the people for the reader to imagine.

'Of Mice and men' is about two migrant workers, Lennie and George, who

work and travel together. These migrant workers had a lonesome and

isolated life and the only thing that keeps them going is the

‘American Dream’. The ‘American Dream’ is the idea of an individual

overcoming all obstacles and beating all odds to one day become

successful. In George’s and Lennie’s case the idea that one day they

will own and “live off the fatta the lan’”.

There are several clearly identified themes running through the novel,

one of the main being loneliness. Steinbeck raises questions in the

mind of the reader that the novel would be based on loneliness

immediately from the beginning of the novel. The first line read ‘A

few miles south of Soledad’. This is a clever idea by Steinbeck as ‘Soledad’

means loneliness in Spanish. The title ‘Of Mice and Men’ may be seen

as a warning for the whole novel as it came from Robert Burn’s poem

‘To a mouse’ which translates as “No matter how well we plan for the

future, things often go wrong”.

The setting of Steinbeck’s novel is very important in relation to

loneline...

... middle of paper ...

...use I got you to look after

me and you have got me to look after you and that's why".

The last line that Steinbeck wrote read, "Now what the hell ya suppose

is eatin' them two guys". Curly is not used to being with someone for

so long therefore he does not understand why they were depressed after

Lennie gets killed.

In conclusion, John Steinbeck expertly portrays the theme of

loneliness in "Of Mice and Men" in an interesting and original manner.

He portrays loneliness through characterisation, setting and

discrimination. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel.

Miss sale, I am not that happy with this essay! But it’s what I did in

45mins/1 hour so I didn’t want to add to much more without your help,

just in case I couldn’t fit it in, in the real exam. How long is the

lit exam? And what can I do to improve it?