"Of Mice and Men". Loneliness is at the heart of this novel. What do you think?

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Loneliness is at the heart of this novel-What do you think?

Loneliness is shown throughout this novel through the many different characters.
A quote used in the novel is 'Guys like us, that live on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world'. This would be because of the time period the novel was written about, that being the Great Depression in America, where men went off on their own to earn money working on ranches because of the lack of jobs. Lennie and George are then portrayed to be the opposite of this trend by the fact that they have been travelling together as friends for apparently a while. This quote also applies to the other ranch workers that are mentioned throughout the novel including Candy and Slim.

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Candy is an old, disabled worker on the ranch whose only ally is a dog he has owned since it was a puppy. Later on in the novel this dog is declared 'past it' and shot for being old. Candy is then left on his own and compares himself to his now deceased dog saying that when he's declared too old to work no-one will shoot him, he'll just get given a final payment which won't last very long and then get 'canned'.

Slim is also a ranch worker who has been travelling in search for a job. ...

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