Choosing one character from each of the texts, explain how the authors show their isolation from others.

The setting of Mice and Men is surprisingly similar but not as threatening in the first chapter. It is also set a distance from civilisation. But unlike the signalman's settings it is often visited " There is an ash pile made by many fires; the limb of the tree is worn smooth by men who have sat on it." like the signalman there is a path but it is visited a lot more regularly than his. " A path beaten hard by boys coming down from the highways. " On the whole it is described as an extremely hospitable place. Isolated but welcoming. "Willows fresh and green with every spring". This place comes to represent a place of safety for Lenny at the end of the story where he comes to hide, because of his isolation.

The Signalman's story unfolds to produce a quite ghostly story. The first impression that Dickens gives of the Signalman is of a mysterious character, -"Dark sallow man with a dark beard and heavy eyebrows" The use of the word dark suggests a shady character no one knows much about, and links him with his surroundings, which is true because he is on his own. His unsociable working hours

Thomas Boddington

and isolated working place, prevent him from seeing other people and making contact with them so nobody really knows him. " Heavy eyebrows" may also disguise what he is thinking and feeling. Dickens also uses the word "sallow" to describe him. The word suggests an unhealthy complexion caused by his work and lack of exposure to natural light. "Fixed eyes" and "saturnine face" suggests something slightly

demonic. Which is why he probably fears him being a ghost. But we are to learn later that he is a quite normal man. "I should have set this man down as one of the safest men to be employed in this capacity". The signalman is a willing talker "You shall not have to ask me twice what troubles me". Which is another sign of his isolation, as he doesn't often have the opportunity to talk to people. Once talking the signalman's true intelligence is conveyed. "I had proven the man to be intelligent"

With Lenny, on the other hand, he looks fairly normal apart from being bigger than most and only when he opens his mouth do you realise that he is not normal. Steinbeck often compares Lenny to animals "Snorting into the water like a horse", "His big paw". This makes Lenny sound even larger and makes him sound stupid because of the connection with him being an animal, which makes him sound sub human. Lenny is not isolated due to where he works but because of his intellect he cannot really enter a conversation and just listens. Unable to really communicate to others Lenny tends to sit on the sides and watch. He remains an observer until invited into the conversation, more often than not, by George, who doesn't usually like him speaking because it sometimes gets them into trouble. The only time he becomes bold enough to initiate speech is with crooks another isolated character. Signalman has a good grasp of the English language, similarly Lenny dose not. Steinbeck uses language that is childish and often uses incomplete sentences for Lenny's character. Lenny often curses and swears but not like other men when he does it makes his speech more unnatural. So both characters are isolated due to their lack of communication with others.

In "Of Mice and Men" Steinbeck uses colloquial dialect to portray their Americanisms "Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya?" In shorter sentences unlike Dickens who uses long complex descriptive sentences with a lot of detail. Steinbeck still puts in descriptive and detailed sentences but with less complex vocabulary. But Dickens's complexity was due to the time he was writing, the nineteenth century. This makes his work less accessible to the modern reader.

In both stories there is a very short time period where you get to know the characters very quickly and the reader focuses more closely on the characters. This is to build up the dramatic effect of the endings where they both die.