Loneliness And Isolation In Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men (Essay Sample)

John Steinbeck uses characters to show how loneliness and the lack of loneliness can affect someone's actions. Throughout the story, many characters are affected by loneliness. Characters like Crook and Curley's wife have both shown the effects of loneliness. Crook, who hasn't had a good conversation in years, tells Lennie, "Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick."I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick. " This quote not only says how lucky Lennie is to have George, but also how lonely he gets. Curley’s wife, also confiding in Lennie, saying that "I get lonely" and "How’d you like not to talk to nobody?" Both of these characters are great examples of how loneliness can affect a person. But Steinbeck expresses loneliness through George in a different way.

Until the very end of the book, George was always with Lennie. George needs Lennie so he doesn't become lonely, while Lennie needs George to help him through life. Even though Lennie holds him back, George still won't let him go. During the first chapter, George said many times, "I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easily and maybe have a girl " and how" God, you're in a lot of trouble." Lennie, afterward, responds to how George doesn't want him, exclaiming, "If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time." But George needs Lennie so he quickly says, "No – look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ‘Cause I want you to stay with me. At the end of the first chapter, George is talking about him and Lennie. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. But not us." Geroge says. Lennie interrupting exclaims, "But not us! ... Because I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you and that's why. Again, showing how much they need each other.

As Of Mice and Men goes on, George meets new people on the ranch and develops new friendships. This is first shown when Crook asks Lennie if "All the boys gone into town, huh?" This quote is very important because it is one of the first times that George goes somewhere without Lennie. Near the end of the story, after Lennie kills Curley’s wife, George says, "-I think I knowed from the very first I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would." George is contemplating whether or not he should help or throw away Lennie. In the past, he never would've considered doing that. Now he has more people to talk to and is less lonely. In the last 2 pages of the story, George takes Carlson’s gun and "he pulled the trigger." In the end, Lennie's abandonment killed him, blaming him for stealing the gun.

Steinback writes George as the only character with a major change in his loneliness, while Crook and other characters start lonely and become less lonely. George, on the other hand, relied on one person, betraying him, and made new friends and replaced his own.