of mice and men

  All the bunkhouse men are single so they must be lonely. They are all like orphans – “They got no family”. All the ranch hands have nothing to look forward to except working for the rest of their lonely lives. Steinbeck continuously repeats “solitaire lay,” in reference to George. This is proving that even though George has Lennie to keep him company, he is still lonely; however this could be because Lennie is not mentally capable to play card games.

Characters associated with Isolation and Loneliness:

• George
• Curley’s Wife
• Crooks
• Candy

  However in one way or another all the characters in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men are all associated with Isolation and Loneliness.

Main Quotes:

• No one seems to love her – Curley certainly is not very affectionate with her, “glove fulla Vaseline”. All she really wants is some companionship: “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?”. She’s “purty”, she wears a lot of make-up and is very proud of her hair; she uses her looks to get the attention of the other ranch hands, as Curley’s wife has already lost her own dream of getting into the “pitchers” or going on stage.
• “There wasn’t another colored family for miles around. And now there ain’t a colored man on this ranch an’ there’s jus’ one family in Soledad.” –Crooks is another character like Candy whose life is isolated and unsatisfying. At that time African Americans were very rare in California, and in that area of Soledad, so Crooks’ family have been victims of prejudice. The isolation which this produced was made worse by the disapproval of Crooks’ father for his white friends. Colour prejudice makes Crooks’ position on the ranch lonely and isolated.
• “Well, you ain’t bein’ kind to him keepin’ him alive.” – This is showing that Carlson is ironically ‘sentencing’ Lennie who will later suffer the same fate as the dog. Carlson assumes that Candy can easily get another dog just like George can get another friend. Candy and his dog are an obvious parallel to George and Lennie – Candy’s dog follows Candy around all the time, just as Lennie is forever following George. Just as Candy feels tied down with the relationship he has with his dog, George understands his responsibility for Lennie. This may be a clue to the real reason for loneliness of the ranch-hands: they shy away from committing themselves to relationships and responsibilities.