'Many of the characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’ are lonely Essay\r'

'Describe the reasons for their l nonp beilliness and explore the different ways they seek teething ring.\r\nM both of the theatrical roles in the unused ‘of Mice and hands’ are solitary because they grew up in an unurturing and inimical environment. The reason for this type of negative and depressing posture is due to the ‘Great W either Street friction’. This tormenting economic crash as well ask place at the identical time when the legend ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set, in the course of study 1929.\r\nFamilies fell apart as the men were hale to leave behind their roots, and seek employment on bedcoveres in order to bring back st competentness in their lives ag ain. Relationships were neer formed on these ranches as no whiz had any time nor sake in trying to communicate and bond with the early(a) ranch hands or other residents. The tho object the ranchers were attracted to was making m unityy and moving on, t presentfrom there wa s no stability. Tragically, vast amounts of batch perpetrate suicide, as they could non bear to live their lives intercourse all their losses. Coincidentally the meaning of the town Soledad is ‘our lady of loneliness’.\r\n bareness is a spreading disease, which has the motive to make the most cheerful heap quiet and gloomy as they begin to feel isolated. thither is no direct cure for loneliness; and accordingly no one retires how to deal with it. This is the stage where the genuinelyized people begin to split into two typical groups depending on severally individual’s character; the two groups are k nowadaysn as introverts and extroverts.\r\nThe people that are catogrised in the introvert group flummox the most as they keep all their emotions locked up inside, lede in them taking their anger egress on themselves. Whereas the extrovert group has a solely different way of approaching loneliness, they begin to sustain their anger come in on ot her people in much(prenominal) ways as organism aggressive and flirtatious to overcome their feelings. There is a vast comparison between the two groups; if you bear at it between characters, which are extroverts and introverts, at one extreme you discombobulate Crooks a Negro who is part crippled, and then you contain Curley, a cruel, insensitive extrovert.\r\n each hu adult males need to be sootheed at the time of need as this is the human desire, therefore, it is non surprising that the characters in this novel to a fault beg comfort. more or less characters equal to Crooks need mavenship-based descents so that they potful communicate with other people. Other characters similar to George and Lennie exact their future ideate to think forward to and lam towards that is their tar develop. The definition of a inspiration is:\r\n‘Dream n. coach of thoughts, images, or fancies passing through mind during\r\n log Zs; Conscious indulgence of fancy, reverie, thin g of stargaze- deal beauty,\r\ncharm, goodness, etc.’\r\n(Taken from the Readers run Great Encyclopedic Dictionary, Third Edition)\r\nA dream is something you indulge in, to be given momentarily from sprightliness. This seems to be the context of use that lav Steinbeck intended his characters in Of Mice and Men to dream in. They are all craving for something †in the shield of George and Lennie, that something is res publica. All the dreams in this novel are similar to the Great Ameri force out Dream, which is that you can achieve anything if you shoot the mind and desire to do it. However, most of the characters who perplex dreams know that their dreams whitethorn neer sustain reality, further never the less it pipe down provides comfort for them.\r\nCrooks is part crippled, ‘his body was bent over to the left by his crooked spine’, yet self-dependant Negro, he too is very lonely. Crooks’s personality is quite inte correspondenceing, as he is very defensive and protective of himself:\r\n‘He kept his distance and demanded that others kept theirs.’\r\nCrooks is very careful slightly those who approach him, this is as he does non want to be in any much incommode than he already is; he is panic-stricken that someone will not all pain him physically that harm him mentally as well. He is fully aware of his advanceds, he knows the limitations of what he is allowed to do and what he has not got the right to do.\r\nCrooks is lonely as he has not got anyone to spill to due to the colour of his skin, he does not crimson know how to act around other big cats. All he spends his time doing is reading the ‘battered magazines and dirty books’ which were separated all around his bunk:\r\nâ€Å"Books ain’t no good, a khat needs soulfulness †to be near him…A guy goes\r\n wrong(p) if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, pertinaciousà ¢â‚¬â„¢s\r\nhe’s with you…”\r\nLater on in the chapter we adopt that all Crooks is longing for is companionship, however, it is straightforward to see that Crooks is a bad communicator:\r\nâ€Å"You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. cypher got\r\nany right in here but me.”\r\nCrooks reacts angrily, his anger is and pride is a defense against the gravelly treatment he has been subjected to and experienced for most of his years in life. He has been held back without any real conversation for an eminent amount of time, therefore leading to his language being unwelcoming as it is aggressive and defensive.\r\n solitariness has had a negative effect on Crooks as it has made him verbally aggressive and very protective of what is his and his right. In chapter 4, John Steinbeck does a role reverse, kind of of a sporting man tormenting a Negro, a Negro torments a white man, in this pillow slip Lennie. Crooks took a lot of pleasure i n excruciate Lennie the night George went into town, he had pleasure form infuriating Lennie by suggesting that George would not bother to return as he better off without the presence of Lennie:\r\nâ€Å"I said s’pose George went into town this evening and you never heard of him no\r\nmore… sound s’pose that.”\r\nCrooks enjoys having the power over Lennie, he uses persuasive and artful language to prove his point, for at a time in all the time on the ranch he has an advantage over a white man. This inspires him, Crooks is feeling good at this point; he feels self-assured as though he can take on anything:\r\nâ€Å"…Now you jus’ get on out, an’ get out quick. If you don’t, I’m gonna ast\r\nthe boss not to ever let you come in the barn no more.”\r\nCrooks builds up his b darkenedness to such an extent that he forgets his status on the social hierarchy. However, Curley’s wife coldly reminds Crooks of h is ruined position as a black man; a ‘nigger’:\r\nâ€Å"Well, you keep your place here nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree\r\nso easily it ain’t even funny.”\r\nThis racist statement reminds Crooks of his old self, leading to him look uponing that he has ‘reduced himself to nobody’, he ‘pressed his body against the wall’, in shame.\r\nCrooks achieves comfort from remembering his childishness; Crooks came from a ambit full of love and care for each other, he knows what the true take to be of companionship is:\r\nâ€Å"I remember when I was a little kid on my old man’s chicken ranch. Had\r\ntwo brothers. They were always near me, always there.”\r\nCrooks past childhood is full of affection and love in limit to Crooks now, an isolated and lonely man who is referred to as a ‘nigger’. Crooks is in vast emotional pain as he knows what he is missing out on, however, some people may argue that he is actually quite advantaged as at least he has old memories to refer back to. Crooks also gets comfort from asking to be allowed to join the dream, which George, Lennie and Crooks dominate:\r\nâ€Å"If you would want a hand to work for nothing- barely his keep, wherefore I’d come\r\nand take a hand.”\r\nCrooks wants things to go back to as he was a child, he wants to revisit the happy geezerhood of his life that are now just a vague memory to him. Crooks knows that the just now way he can do this is by joining the dream that George, Lennie and Crooks share. However, Crooks soon finds out when George rejects him from sharing the dream that he is destined to be an old isolated Negro.\r\nGeorge Milton is one of the main characters in the novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’, he is quiet, minuscule and clearly a good worker. George is considered as one of the fortunate characters in this particular novel, this is as he atleast had a chance to experience the true v alue of companionship and unconditional value with his best friend Lennie Small. His companionship with Lennie ‘staves of loneliness’, as well as giving George a role in life; a clear task to look by and by Lennie. It is evident to see that at the beginning of the novel George feels superior with this role as it gives him a smell out of power over Lennie:\r\nâ€Å"\r\nâ€Å"\r\nGeorge has learnt vastly from his past experiences with Lennie; this allows George to fix a two-way relationship with Lennie, one that of a best friend, and another that of a foster. George feels a finger of duty and responsibility towards Lennie as a parent:\r\nâ€Å"Don’t truly seem to be running, though. You never oughta drink water\r\nwhen it ain’t running, Lennie.”\r\nHowever, as the novel progresses George begins to realise what companionship is, ‘we preferably look subsequently each other’, now this role simply makes George feel different from th e rest of the ranch hands as it entitles him to a status.\r\nNevertheless, George still recognises that he is still lonely, despite having a companion, it may be more discrete than others may, but he is still lonely. George and Lennie do not interact on an intellectual level; Slim describes George as a ‘smart little guy’, where as Lennie is set forth by George as ‘dumb as loony bin’; therefore the comparison on their intellect is eminent. At times George thinks he is talking to himself, as Lennie never really responds to his questions. Therefore Lennie can never really understand George emotionally or physically.\r\nGeorge seeks comfort by the companionship with Lennie, they both look out for each other:\r\nâ€Å"Guys handle us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world’…\r\nLennie broke in. ‘But not us! Because…because I got you to look later on me,\r\nAnd you got me to look aft(prenominal) you, and thatâ€℠¢s why.”\r\nGeorge relies on his companionship with Lennie to get through the unurturing and unfriendly environment of Soledad:\r\nâ€Å"…it’s a lot courteousr to go around with a guy you know’\r\nGeorge values and treasures his special relationship with Lennie, he loves him so much that he can even sacrifice him for Lennie’s own benefit.\r\nGeorge also seeks comfort by his simple dream, he wants him and Lennie to have land of their own, and they want to be their own managers and look after each other until they grow old:\r\nâ€Å"Some day-we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a\r\nlittle house and a couple of acres…when it rains in the winter, we’ll just\r\n introduce the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a run off in the stove and\r\nset around it an’ heed to the rain comin’ down on the roof…”\r\nGeorge’s dream, although extremely similar to Len nie’s, is probably more fine and complicated. Lennie due to his child- bid mentality only thinks as remote as ‘tendin’ the rabbits’, whereas George assesses the situation by asking himself if they have got enough money, or when will they be able to achieve the dream, before accepting the dream to become reality. George had made it perfectly clear that the dream that he and Lennie share will only become favored if they both achieve it:\r\nâ€Å"…I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got\r\nto thinking peradventure we would.”\r\nGeorge realised that he just got carried away, he knew from the demoralise that the dream was undoable; all dreams are unattainable in Soledad, as it is such a sad environment.\r\nCurley’s wife is possibly the loneliest of all characters in the novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’, throughout the beginning of the novel John Steinbeck gives the readers the impression th at Curley’s wife is a ‘ sourish’:\r\n‘She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the doorcase so\r\nthat her body was thrown forward’\r\nShe is depicted as tarty through her provocative appearance and flirtatious actions. John Steinbeck deliberately does not give her a name, she is only known as Curley’s wife; therefore a possession of Curley. Curley’s wife has been forced to recognise that her sexuality is the only weapon, the only thing that will ever get her notice:\r\n‘She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up’\r\nThis is primarily the reason for why she is dressed in a sexually provocative manner throughout the novel.\r\nCurley’s wife’s complaints of loneliness are belike to be sincere, yet she presents them in a manipulative manner that reduces any sympathy for the character. Her ‘craving for butt on is immense’, she is longing for someone to have a conver sation with her:\r\nâ€Å"Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awfully\r\nlonely.”\r\nHowever, it seems that everyone is ‘incapable’ of having a faithful conversation with her without it including any ‘sexual bailiwick’. John Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife, as so fearful that to experience the true value of a relationship that she would do anything to obtain it:\r\n‘If anyone- a man or a woman- ever gave her a break- treated her\r\nlike a person- she would be a slave to that person.’\r\nCurley’s wife is prepared to carry out any instructions, or meet any demands for anyone that would for once be able to trust her and become her friend, she would do it to such an extent that she would even follow them as if she was enslaved to them.\r\nCurley’s wife has a different type of dream from George and Lennie’s; instead of having something to call her own, she wants fame, fortune an d adore:\r\nâ€Å"Coulda been in the movies, an’ had clothes- all of them nice clothes\r\nlike they wear. An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers took\r\nof me…Because this guy says I was a natural.”\r\nCurley’s wife’s dream allows her to escape from her tormenting controlled life and seek comfort from what in her point of view could have happened. Curley’s wife is vulnerable, and innocent, she shows her humanity by consoling in Lennie. However, Curley’s wife seems to have a stocky regret that she did not take up every of the men on their offers:\r\nâ€Å"If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.”\r\nCurley’s wife’s vulnerability shows the most at this point, she is so desperate to get away from her usual modus vivendi that she takes the words of a complete stranger to be equivalent of that of a gospel:\r\nâ€Å"He says he was gonna put me in the movie s. Says I was a natural.”\r\nCurley’s wife’s dream was shattered when the earn that she was waiting for never came, coldly she blamed her mother, accusatory her of ‘stealing the letter’. It is understandable that there never was going to be a letter, the men were just taking advantage of the poor innocent girl.\r\nCurley’s wife married Curley on impulse; her precipitant marriage to Curley proves to be a failed attempt to escape from her own spiral of loneliness, however, it is now that she has come to realise that what she did was immoral; she feels more trapped now then she ever did:\r\nâ€Å"I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.”\r\nCurley’s failure to satisfy his wife both emotionally and physically is another reason why Curley’s wife is so lonely and has so much hatred built up towards him.\r\nWhen Lennie kills Curley’s wife in Chapter 5, John Steinbeck offers the readers a disturbing imag e. He describes her with more life and vitality as a clay than he did as a living character, her ‘rouged cheeks’ and ‘reddened lips’ now after her finis give her the appearance of life. In death the ‘meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention’ have gone from her face. This represents John Steinbeck’s first gear cover praise for Curley’s wife; he writes for the first time that she appears ‘pretty’ and ‘simple’, a more commendable character as a corpse than as a living human being, as she is not her manipulative self. Therefore, concluding that in a way, some may say that Curley’s wife has achieved her dream as she won her innocence back.\r\nLoneliness is a major theme in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’. It is only the two characters George and Lennie who stave of it by their relationship. However, the disadvantaged characters are the ones who suffer the mos t, it embitters Candy and Crooks, moreover, it kills Curley’s wife. John Steinbeck describes loneliness as part of a human condition in this particular novel, it is something we as humans are born with leading it to be either something we fight or succumb to all our lives:\r\nâ€Å"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world’…\r\nLennie broke in. ‘But not us! Because…because I got you to look after me,\r\nAnd you got me to look after you, and that’s why.”\r\nHowever, throughout the novel John Steinbeck does not offer any answers to get rid of loneliness, it only shows how different characters deal with this problem differently.\r\n'