“OF MICE AND MEN”
Consider the theme of loneliness in the novel, “Of Mice and Men”. How does this affect the friendship and relationships in the novel?
Introduction
The story “Of Mice and Men” is set in the farmlands of Salinas Valley in California. It is the 1930s the time there was a world wide depression, caused by the Wall St Crash in America. This caused massive unemployment all around the world, especially in America. John Steinbeck (write of this novel) was born and brought up in Salinas Valley, he had lived and experienced a life of a migrant worker and that is what inspired him to write this novel. Even in the beginning of the novel the country side and the ranch itself would have been very similar to the one Steinbeck was brought up on. This meant that he could paint a lot better picture of the place and the people for the reader. This novel “Of Mice and Men” is about two migrant workers Lennie and George, who work and travel together. These migrant workers had a really potholed and isolated lives and the only thing that kept them going was ‘The American Dream’. The theme of loneliness is explored in this novel through several different characters, who have contradictory criteria’s such as age in Candy’s case, race in Crook’s case and sex in Curley’s wife’s case, which make them feel lonely.
The central characters in this novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ are Lennie and George. They both work as migrant workers 12-14 hours a day. The two men are very different in various ways. First of all they look different; Steinbeck describes George as being ‘small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features’. However Lennie on the other hand is described as ‘being his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders’. They have been both have a long background together, they have been travelling together ever since Lennie’s aunt Claira died and there was no one left to look after Lennie. They both also speak very differently as well. George speaks in long intricate sentences. Where as Lennie short and undesired sentences, telling us he hasn’t got much to say. He is also very repetitive like a little child. The writer also uses lots of animal like imagery to describe Lennie: ‘he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws’. This tells us that Lennie is very unsystematic. Because Lennie’s child like characteristics George has to lead him and Lennie even imitates George just like a little kid would do. Lennie is fascinated with soft things like: mice and rabbits and likes to pet them. However when he pets them he can’t help hurting them, he isn’t aware or in control of hiss own strength. Lennie is so dumb he always gets into trouble and he doesn’t even know about it.
