Ensomhed i John Steinbecks 'Of Mice and Men'

Topic #1Loneliness is a dominant theme in Of Mice and Men. Most of the characters are lonely and searching for someone who can serve as a companion or just as an audience. Discuss the examples of character loneliness, the efforts of the characters in search of companionship, and their varying degrees of success.

OutlineThesis statement: In his novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck depicts the essential loneliness of California ranch life in the 1930s. He illustrates how people are driven to find companionship.

George and Lennie’s relationship & dependency

Candy’s attachment to his dog

Crook’s isolation

Curley’s wife & situation

The hope and power when people have companions

Being lonely is a feeling that can be difficult to put into words. The way people may feel lonely can be different than the feelings others experience. But a sentence which I think describes how it can feel is the following quote by Mother Teresa, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.”.

In John Steinbecks classic novel, Of Mice And Men, the three characters, Crooks, Curley’s wife and Candy struggle with loneliness in different forms because of characteristics that they can’t control

All three characters deal with their loneliness by searching for companionship with others on the ranch and this works out differently for each of them. Crooks is an African American stable-hand on the ranch, who because he is black is very isolated and lonely. He is the only black man on the ranch and is segregated from the others on multiple occasions. All Crooks wants is to be able to do daily activities with the other ranch workers, even simply a game of cards. However, since Crooks is black, he is not allowed into the bunkhouse, and is forced to live alone in the barn. He wants to feel like someone cares about him, "Don't make no difference who the guy is, long’s he's with you. I tell you, a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." (80) Lennie finds Crooks one night in his room when he is playing with the new puppies on the ranch. After Crooks tries to play a joke on Lennie, Crooks realizes that Lennie