The Loneliness of Mice and Men

The Loneliness Of Mice and Men

In the touching and gripping tale of John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, he explains many themes throughout the books. One of the major themes is loneliness, which is shown throughout many different characters, for example, Curley's wife, the stable buck (Crooks), and Lennie.

"'I get lonely' she said 'You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley, else he gets mad. How'd you like not to talk to nobody?'" (Page 87) This quote is said by Curley's wife when all the men went to town, including her husband. It shows that she spends all her time alone, in her house as the men work in the fields. She is also not allowed to talk to anyone but her husband who spends all of this time in the fields, so she feels like she is living alone all her life. This forces her to talk to anybody she finds. This shows her case of loneliness, and Crooks almost has the same situation.

"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. 'I tell ya' he cried. 'I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." (Page 72-73) As you can see, Crooks also spends most of his time alone because he is black. He is not allowed to enter the bunk house nor go to town with the guys. He is not allowed to enter the bunk house, he is not allowed to go to town with the guys and nobody likes him because he is black. This shows that he has no friendship and his whole life is filled with loneliness. His case is different from Lennie's.

"You ain't gonna leave me, are ya George. I know you ain't (page 103)... S'pose George don't come back, s'pose he took a powder and just ain't comin back. What'll you do then? (Page 73)"Lennie is showing that he can't live without George and he depends on George, that he will do everything for him and take care of him. I don't blame Lennie for his actions, since he is mentally challenged.

Different people feel lonely in different ways and have their own ways to deal with it. Loneliness is constantly shown throughout this novel and I think loneliness is continuously brought out in the world t