Steinbeck's Of mice and men

Essay by dondemateoHigh School, 10th gradeA+, November 2002

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Of Mice and Men

Loneliness is a basic part of human life. Every one becomes lonely once in a while but in Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men", he illustrates the loneliness of ranch life in the early 1930's and shows how people are driven to try and find friendship in order to escape from loneliness. "A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." A major theme in Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men is loneliness. The characters Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife each suffer from this althoug ... In terms of emotional stability, there is only one thing in life that is really needed and that is friends. Without friends, people would suffer from loneliness and solitude. Loneliness leads to low self-esteem and deprivation.

In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curly's wife all exhibit some form of loneliness. They are driven towards the curiosity of George and Lennie's friendship because they do not have that support in their life. Through his novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck demonstrates that often times, a victim of isolation will have a never-ending search to fulfill a friendship.

"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick" (Steinbeck, 13)

Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation because the society in which he resides is racist. As a result, the previous quote was his means of finding a personal connection to Lennie. Like Lennie, Crooks has a 'relationship' with loneliness. He knows that when...