Of Mice and Men – in What Ways Could This Novel

Steinbeck makes it clear that most the workers on the ranch are lonely, as working in a ranch is hard work and no one really wants to work really hard every day Just to eat and survive, so you can say that the people working In the ranch have no alma In life, living temporary lives, oath beaten by hard boys down from the ranches to swim In the deep pool, and “A beaten hard by tramps”.

Also as Leonie and George had to walk long way to the ranch or to work this may have been the case for lots of people in the ‘ass as that was the time of the Great Depression and the Wall Street Crash In where the economy of the USA fell and everyone was out of jobs and money, you can say that this is tragic In some way as it shows how hard people tried Just to find work and how the Depression bought loneliness onto the people of the ASSAI. Some people in the ranch vive more lonely lives than others. One of the loneliest persons on the ranch has to be Curly wife.

As she Is the only women on the ranch she feels Isolated and left out from the men and feels different. Also no one really wants to talk to her as she is the wife of the boss’s son and no one talks to her out of fear of getting into a fight with Curly who has power upon the ranch to fire people as he is the boss’s son and the workers did not want to get fired as there were no Jobs around. This can be seen as tragic as If a worker Is accidentally seen communicating with Curly wife Curly will ant him fired or will want to fight him as Curly is seen as a character as aggressive.

Also Curry’s wife is seen as a “flirt” or just wants attention as she is the only female on the ranch, but Curly doesn’t want her to talk to anyone. As she has no female friends on the ranch, men are her only option, but they do not want to talk to her. So this really frustrates her and makes her lonely. Even thought Curry’s wife is mentioned throughout the book, she is never called by her name, from her lack of a personal definition you can say that the men on the ranch don’t see her a normal human being UT as an “object”. She says to Leonie “Think I don’t like to talk to someone ever once in a while? This shows that she is trying to tell Leonie that she is desperate to talk to someone and have a friend that she can Just talk to, you can say this is tragic as Curry’s wife can’t even have one of life’s simplest things “a conversation” or a friend. However, she believes that one day she would make It to the movies and become an actor, “l Alan used to level like this. I could made something of myself… Maybe I will yet. ” because of this extreme loneliness she wants to think of herself as having a true ahead of her, but in reality she does not.

So she is living in two different lives, but in reality she Is living in a boring ranch with no one to talk to. You can say this Is tragic as the ranch brings peoples hope up Into believing that they will make it big one day but in reality the ranch crushes this dream and the workers on the ranch will 1 OFF Another point about Curly wife is she escapes all this “loneliness” by dying, when she is killed by Leonie, Steinbeck writes, and “The meanness and the planning of the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face.

This means that Curly wife is dead and now she looks happy when she is dead as she has escaped from being lonely. This can be seen as tragic as you can say that the only escape from loneliness is death. Another character that can be seen as lonely is Crooks. Crooks suffers from loneliness because he is the only black person on the ranch, and black people suffered lots of racial abuse from white people in the ‘ass because black people didn’t have human rights. Also he lives by himself as no one likes him as he is black, this makes Crooks even lonelier.

Crooks does not take part in any social activity in the ranch, he is so lonely that he turns to reading books in his spare time. Steinbeck shows Crooks character someone who is desperate for company, but Crooks really does not show it. This can be seen as tragic as everyone is racist to Crooks on the ranch and no one likes him. Also when Leonie enters Crooks room, Crooks talks to Leonie even though he knows that Leonie doesn’t understand him as much, but still continues to talk as he is “not lonely’ any more as he has someone to talk to.

Crooks says, “A guy goes nuts if he ant got nobody… I tell way a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick. ” This shows that he knows what it’s like to be lonely and what it can do to somebody, this can be seen as tragic as no one should really know what it really feels like to be left out and lonely for a very long time even though there are always people around you and those people neglect you for something that you don’t choose to have – the color of your skin.

Another character that is portrayed as lonely by Steinbeck is Candy. Candy is an old man who is physically disabled and who used to work on the ranch, he is disabled due to an accident in the past. You can say that candy is lonely because he is old and no one really wants to become friends with someone who is old, also Candy only companionship was his dog that got shot in the back of his head because he was getting old and useless Just like Candy.

As Candy now has no friends he over hears Leonie and George talk about their “dream place”, as Candy wants to escape this loneliness he wants to Join Leonie and George in their dream place, so Candy offers his saving towards the dream place and making it a “reality’. “Expose I went in with you guys. ” This shows that Candy is fed up from being in the ranch and wants to escape his past; also he knew he was going to be sacked soon as he old and cannot work so he put his money into the “Dream place”.

This can be seen as tragic as you can say that people will give all their money away to escape from loneliness, and you can say that money does not always bring happiness. Another character that can be seen as lonely is Curly, even though he has a wife. No one really likes him in the ranch as he is aggressive and he likes to look down upon the workers on the ranch, this leads to Curly having no friends in the ranch, also Curly goes to the brothel house even though he has a wife, you can say that his wife may not like him that much or satisfy him so he turns to the brothel.

This is tragic as Curly wants to be respected and to be seen as someone with power, no one him, also as Curly is intimidated by bigger men, he hates Leonie who is twice his size, as Lien’s character is seen by the workers on the ranch as “innocent” and childlike” the workers seem to take Lien’s side when Curly attacks Leonie out of frustration and anger.

Curly as a character can be seen as tragic as no one really likes him and he has no real friends and no one seems to respect him but only fear him because of his position in the ranch, even his own wife doesn’t really like him as Curly always controls her and makes her feel lonely in her own ways and Curly even has to go to a brother to satisfy his sexual needs even though he has a wife, from this you can say that Curly is truly lonely.

Another character that is portrayed as lonely towards the end of the book is George, as he killed Leonie, you can say that he now has no burden on his shoulders any more, but you can also say that George now has no true friend and will now suffer loneliness like the other men on the ranch. This could be seen as tragic as George killed Leonie out of “Love” and did Leonie as favor as Leonie would’ve been sent to a mental asylum and in the ‘ass asylums were bad places to be, so George did something out of “Love” and now suffers loneliness and not having a true friend.

So in conclusion loneliness is seen tragic in a number of ways in this book and Steinbeck uses lots of means to escape loneliness; such as death, giving away all your possessions, and even turning to books. Also doing something you may think is good will bring something bad, like when George killing Leonie out of love and friendship, George will now suffer from loneliness, So “Loneliness” in Of Mice and Men is a major theme as all the characters are affected by it and Steinbeck shows all the tragedies of loneliness and he also shows what people would do Just to escape this “Loneliness”.