Write about the loneliness and violence in the lives of the characters in 'Of Mice and Men' Showing How John Steinbeck conveys these aspects of the Novel

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Calvin Winter                                                                                Page 1

Write about the loneliness

and violence

in the lives of the characters

in 'Of Mice and Men'

showing how John Steinbeck

conveys these aspects of the Novel.

'Of Mice and Men' is based around the lives of migrant American labourers in California in the 1930's. The labourers used to move from ranch to ranch completing work before they moved on again.

        Loneliness is an important factor throughout 'Of Mice and Men'. Nearly all the men who work on the ranch travel alone, they never stay in one place long enough to have or maintain frienships with anyone else. 'Of Mice and Men' also looks at other reasons why the men may not have friends, like the colour of their skin and their age. George and Lennie are different from the other men on the ranch, this is because they have each other. At the begining of the novel George states how they are different, he tells Lennie about men that work on the ranches,

"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world."

                                Then when Lennie gets excited he states why they aren't lonely,

"Because I got you","and you got me".

        From early in the novel the characters of George and Lennie explain to the reader what men on ranches are like, but how they are different.Later in the novel the loneliness of the other characters is emphasised by the fact that Lennie and George are so close and that they have each other.

        In the period of time when 'Of Mice and Men' was set and because of the situation the character Crooks was in, he was very isolated from the other men and very lonely. The reason for crooks being isolated is because he is black, people at the time were very racist against black people. Crooks lives alone in the stable away from the other men and when Lennie enters his room Crooks becomes angry,

"You got no right to come in my room."

                                        he naturally becomes offensive as he thinks all the people are the same and don't like him. When Crooks is asked by Lennie why he isn't wanted in the bunk house Crooks replies by saying,

Join now!

" 'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black."

                                              the repetition of "I'm balck" by Crooks shows that he is almost angry because of the reason and he longs to be different so he

Calvin Winter                                                                                Page 2

can be accepted. Crooks tells Lennie about his background and how he used to play with white kids and how they used to be nice to him. He also says that his Old Man didn't like him doing that an now he knows why. Crooks then begins to talk ...

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