" Loneliness is the only thing We all have in common"

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Mohammed Osman 11L  

22/01/03

                                Loneliness is the only thing 

                We all have in common

Introduction:

John Steinbeck’s novel ‘of mice and men’ deals with the experience of loneliness. Also of mice and men was published in America in 1937. In the same year it was adapted as a role-play and later on it was made into a film. The title of this book was taken from Robert burns wrote a poem called ‘to the mouse’ burns was a farmer as well as a poet. Although the characters in the novella are lonely in different ways they all share a history that can go some way to account for the loneliness they feel.

In the 1930’s there was ‘the wall street crash.’ Which meant hunger poverty and loneliness for thousand of Americans. Banks went bust, and people’s savings vanished. It was very hard to buy food and even to the pay rent or find a job. The states like Oklahoma and Arkansas were very badly hurt. Many people were now living on the streets or had to travel to find work.

In some ways George and Lennie can be seen as different from the other ranches of their time. George and Lennie are different because they have each other. “…Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you” we know Lennie is not lonely for several reasons. Firstly Lennie has a mental disability, we know this because Steinbeck describes Lennie as an animal. Lennie is like others others on the ranch, because he has a dream. This stops him from being lonely. Lennie’s mental state means that he doesn’t really understand the meaning of loneliness, in the way   Candy, Crooks and Curley’s Wife seem to be the loneliest people on the ranch. Candy is an old man with only one arm. He had an old dog but agreed to let Carlson kill it. Candy was very attached to his old dog, as he had been with the dog since it was a pup. He reacts badly to the dog’s death, and feels guilty that he let a stranger kill it. Candy is afraid that he will be sacked when he is no longer any use. He knows that he will have nowhere to go when he gets fired, so when he hears George and Lennie talking about getting their own place and living off the fatta the land, he is completed to ask them to take him with them, and offers them enough money so that at the end of the month they will be able to afford to buy the place. After his dog’s death, Candy seems desperate to leave the ranch. To make George and Lennie sure that he wants the place he tells them; I make a will an leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, cause I ain got no relatives or nothing. You guys got any money? Maybe we could do it right now?

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Curley´s wife has a different type of dream. Instead of something to call her own, she wants fame, fortune and admiration. She tells the three “bindle stiffs” about her offers of fame. She is unhappy with her husband, and his constant stories of who he’s going beat up next:

“Sure I gotta husband´. You all saw him. Swell guy, ain´t he?”

When she is talking to Lennie, alone in the barn, she recounts her obviously well told stories of her offers of fame. She seems to have a deep regret that she didn’t take up either of the men ...

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