Analysis of Loneliness in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men Essay

John Steinbeck – the creator of the famous: Of Mice and Men, was born in 1902 in California; near Solidad. His family were quite wealthy, but he was interested in farm labouring, and this is how he materialised most of his stories. He wrote a number of novels about people that were farmers and yearned for better lifestyles including The Grapes of Wrath, which is a touching story about a family’s struggle to escape the dust bowl of the West to reach California. Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, six years before his death in 1968. The title of the novel: Of Mice and Men, originates from a poem made by a Scottish poet named; Robert Burn. It comes from the line that says: â€Å"The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, gang aft agley.† From using a translated version of the poem, I induced that this means: The best-laid plans of mice and men often go askew. People can have enormous dreams, that they continue to plan how to get towards, but things have a way of falling apart and sometimes turning tragic. In my essay, I am going to talk about the main characters in Of Mice and Men, and I will discuss how each of the characters befriends loneliness. Of Mice and Men is one of the spectacular novella’s which was written by John Steinbeck. It is about two men that go travelling together that come across many unworldly experiences. The first of the two men: Lennie Small – a large man – in contrast to his name, has broad shoulders and a large body frame. His companion, George Milton, is quite opposite, he is small and slim. Lennie also has a disability; this is the main reason why the two men go travelling ‘together’. George is the brainpower of the two men and is a man that is just trying to live a normal life and earn a living. The novella starts when Lennie and George are escaping a place called Weed due to Lennie’s liking for touching things that are ‘soft’. Lennie likes the look of a woman’s dress, so feels the necessity to experiment. The woman believes that he is attacking her so she runs away and alerts the lynch mob of the area. Lennie and George are forced into hiding till the lynch mob finally retreats. Then, they decide to start a new life, and so the phenomenal story begins. Two migrant workers: Lennie Small and George Milton, come to a ranch in Soledad to â€Å"work up a stake†. They hope one day to fulfil their shared dream of settling down on their own land. Lennie’s part of the dream is never forgotten throughout the short novel – which is to have soft rabbits that he can tend. The quick-witted George thinks of a great plan if there is a repeat of what happened at Weed. He tells Lennie that he will not get to â€Å"tend the rabbits† if he gets into any trouble. The threat helps prolong the time that they get to work on the ranch. When they finally reach the ranch, their dream appears to become possible. Candy, the aged, one-handed ranch-hand, employs the idea that he can pitch in with George and Lennie so that they can buy their dream land by the end of the month. The dream is dismantled when George kills the attractive, wife of Curley, the ranch owner’s son, while trying to stroke her hair. A lynch mob led by Curley gathers. George decides to be practical and decides to spare Lennie from a painful death at the hands of the evil, antagonizing Curley, and his crew. George shoots Lennie in the back of this head before the mob can locate where they are. The shot comes while Lennie is distracted by one last retelling of the dream. At the beginning of the text, a sense of loneliness is emitted by John Steinbeck. He describes one of the men – George – to be walking in front of the other. After having been dropped off at the wrong destination, George and Lennie decide to walk the last few miles to the ranch. Steinbeck’s description of the way they walk inevitably shows the status of both men. Even without knowing that Lennie has a disability, we are notified that one of the men is superior to the other. George seems to have a higher profile to that of Lennie because George is walking in front of Lennie; steering Lennie’s movement. Lennie is walking behind George even though the place they are currently trudging is â€Å"open†. He appears to need a leader in order to arrive at a place successfully. This is a very extraordinary quality – although the path is wide enough for the two men to walk, one chooses to be guided by the other. The irony of this situation is that Lennie and George are together – yet are profoundly lonely. Lennie shows he needs creature comforts to aid his loneliness. When Lennie and George are walking towards the ranch, they stop to discuss what Lennie has taken from his side pocket. George is intrigued by this mysterious object and says, â€Å"What’d you take outta that pocket?† Lennie replies saying he has nothing in his pocket. He is afraid of losing his only solution to overcoming loneliness. Lennie does not have the ability to engage in discussions with people, so finds another way to entertain him self and finds an animal for a replacement. With animal company, he feels that he is happy and content. Lennie does not want to lose his only diversion for loneliness on account of George’s worries. Lennie’s loneliness is apparent when he starts to copy the actions of his fellow comrade, George. John Steinbeck writes: â€Å"Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed himself back drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right. He pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes, the way George’s hat was.† The two men stop by a river bank to quench their thirst. Lennie, the bigger of the two men, can not think for him self, because of his disability, so takes to copying his friend to show him how to do things. This is an indicator that Lennie does not really have a personality, he is always doing what everyone around him is doing. Therefore, a sense of loneliness is shown through the way Lennie acts. George shows his disappointment in the lifestyle he is currently living. After George tells Lennie instructions on what to do when they get to the ranch, George ponders how his life would be without Lennie. He â€Å"crossed his hands under his head†. This gesture confirms that George is looking up at the sky thinking about something; in this case – life without the â€Å"trouble†. George talks about the possible lifestyle he could have leaded if he never had to worry about Lennie, saying: â€Å"I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail.† This suggests that Lennie believes without his companion, he would have lived a ‘normal,’ happy, life, without having anything, or anyone to worry about. If Lennie did not follow George around everywhere like he were George’s â€Å"tail,† George assumes that he might have been able to make something out of his life. George then goes on to say, â€Å"I could live so easy and maybe have a girl.† George repeats the word easy, showing he feels strongly that his standard of living is ultimately never near to easy. He even imagines that he would be in a relationship if he had not chosen to look after Lennie. On the whole, George considers Lennie to be a constraint in his life, and that without this ‘constraint’ he would have lead a better life. John Steinbeck uses animals as well as humans to show loneliness throughout the story. Intelligently, he chooses to use snakes as a form of isolation. Snakes are very good at displaying loneliness because most water snakes are not usually found in groups. So he chose to use a snake for background loneliness, as oppose to the characters. John Steinbeck writes that the water snake, â€Å"slipped along on the pool† and its head was: â€Å"held up like a little periscope.† From this quotation, I can see that Steinbeck was trying to show that the snake might have been looking for company, and so, it perched its head up hopefully, with the intention of finding anything else that was stirring in the lake. It is confirmed that the old swamper has nothing to do in his spear time. When Lennie and George arrive at the ranch, they start talking to a man that has come to greet them. The two newcomers to the ranch are disgusted by the object lying around the bunk house that indicates the ranch has many faults. After noticing a can that is utilized for killing insects, George begins to worry about the health and safety at their new work place. George says indignantly, â€Å"What the hell kind of bed you giving us anyways we don’t want no pants rabbits.† The challenging remark makes the old swamper retaliate immediately because he is given the chance to socialize with new ranch workers, and he feels it is a great opportunity to make new friends. The old swamper states, â€Å"Last guy that had this bed was a black smith – hell of a nice fella and as clean a guy as you want to meet†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The old swamper is lonely and because of this factor, he has found an occasion when people are actually interested in what he has to say. Therefore, to keep them listening to him, he takes upon telling them stories about different people to keep them in range of conversation. The Old swamper starts talking about all of the men on the ranch. This shows he has been lonely for quite a while and so has not had the chance to gossip about all the men and their lifestyles. Now he has people to talk to that are not associated with the ranch, he uses them to discuss all of the workers on the ranch because he feels he wants to get it off his mind so that he can relax. (He is fit to burst with useless information that he never got to tell anyone). When Lennie and George go to meet the boss and hand him their work slips, Lennie clearly feels left out because he has made a pact that he is not going to engage in any conversation with the boss since he will only spoil things for the two hard workers. George emphasizes that his friend is: â€Å"as strong as a bull.† Lennie feels it is appropriate for him to produce a smile and proudly repeats; â€Å"strong as a bull.† After saying this, he is warned by George. Steinbeck writes: â€Å"George scowled at him, and Lennie dropped his head at having forgotten.† Due to Lennie’s disability he is made to be left out in some situations. This is a very good example; George tells Lennie that he must not talk whilst they are in the mist of talking about their job status, and because Lennie was being commanded by George he feels he has to obey him. In obeying his close friend, (George) he has to be isolated from any conversations that include the Boss of the ranch. The old man with a dog is accused of listening to George and Lennie’s excited discussion. Panicking, George asks if he has heard anything. The old man replies saying: â€Å"A guy on a ranch don’t never listen nor he don’t ast no questions.† The elderly man examines a crucial point about the ranch workers. From this line, we are given the hint that all the men on the ranch are not aware of socializing. They work on the ranch single handed; working hard to get money to spend it foolishly or use it to buy treasures they have always wanted in their lonely lives to cure them of lonesomeness. After talking about Curley’s family tree, the swamper starts to talk about the relationship between Curley and his wife. The swamper is inexperienced in relationships and feels it is right to talk about this topic, especially because Curley’s is the Boss’s son. He wants to gossip about the Boss’s son to pass time, but also, to explain to his new friends -George and Lennie- that the Boss and his family are not perfect. Curley is the main example of why the family is not very close and idealistic. In other words, the old swamper wants to get the point across that the ranch workers are not the only people on the ranch that have to put up with loneliness, and so the Boss’s family are also human, even though they are richer than the â€Å"ranch hands.† George implanted the idea in Lennie’s head that if he ever does anything inhumane, he is not going to be able to â€Å"tend the rabbits† when they finally get their dream land and house. Every time Lennie does something slightly wrong, he becomes sad, because he has child-like thoughts, he is disheartened sourly by the fact that he will not get access to these soft and ‘happy’ animals. This shows his loneliness is deep within him. Even though he does not always show his depression – due to loneliness, like the other men, the way he reacts to George’s encore of: â€Å"if you get into any kind of trouble, you remember what I told you to do,† shows how desperate Lennie is to â€Å"tend the rabbits† – to keep him sane! Slim, the ‘prince’ of the ranch, describes George and Lennie as, â€Å"kinda funny.† This demonstrates that the men on the ranch do not really know how it is like to have a travelling companion. Slim declares that, â€Å"Hardly none of the guys travel together.† The isolation is clear because if none of the men are seen traveling with company, this means that none of the men have ever had a real friendship. However, George and Lennie are different – because they travel together, they stand out and defy the normal â€Å"ranch hands† behavior. George is forced to play solitaire to overcome boredom. The way in which this expresses loneliness is that George is playing a card game that is made for one person only. This shows his isolation from other’s company. The loneliness of Carlson makes him become selfish, as he resorts to killing Candy’s old dog. He does not like the idea of anyone having a companion, so makes the excuse that the dog is causing too much catastrophe by just existing. He says he does not know â€Å"nothing that stinks bad as an old dog.† The way he comprehends this sentence suggests that Carlson does not really mind about the smell coming from the dog because he is categorizing all dogs. This indicates that he feels dogs in general smell; technically, he is not really pin-pointing the idea that Candy’s dog is causing him grief. Therefore, Carlson is only killing the dog because he does not want anyone to have a companion, or he is mercy-killing the dog due to the suffering that the dog might be enduring. In this frame of mind, he might only want to kill the dog to save Candy from the grief when the dog dies naturally. As a result of the killing of the dog, Carlson achieves totalizing the loneliness surrounding the ranch workers. George illustrates how the ranch workers live their ‘normal’ day-to-day lives. He states, â€Å"I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’ have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time.† From this quotation, we are painted a clear image of how the ranch workers live. The loneliness in the ranch goes around the workers, making them all aggressive and angry. The seclusion of the way the â€Å"ranch hands† live turns all the men bitter and this is how fights break out. All the men walk around the ranch gloomy and bored, so they start fights to pass time, and beat boredom. George confronts Lennie about separating the puppy from his mother saying: â€Å"take this pup back to the nest. He’s gotta sleep with his mother.† Lennie always needs comfort and closure and gets this from animals. He was brought up by his aunt Clara, but she soon died. Because Lennie’s mother abandoned him as a young child, Lennie does not understand why the puppy needs to be with its mother. He does not understand the motherly bond that a child and mother have, or that a puppy and its mother have. We are first fully introduced to Candy when he is questioned about the preference of his â€Å"ancient dog†. Carlson tells him that it is about time that the dog is killed, for his own good, and for the sake of the ranch workers. Carlson is starting to get annoyed by the smell of the old dog, so insists that the dog must be killed on the day. Carlson confronts Candy saying, â€Å"why’n’t you shoot him, Candy?† Without having to think of a come back, Candy immediately retorts saying, â€Å"Well-hell! I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup.† Candy has had his dog since the dog was a puppy, and also mentions that the dog is almost like family; this shows his loyalty and dedication to the mammal. The dog has become his only friend since he has had it for a long time. Candy’s only continuous friend is his dog. When Carlson shows were the shot of the gun will be directed, Candy replies again, without thinking saying, â€Å"No, I couldn’ do that. I had ‘im too long.† Because Candy has had his dog for a lengthy time, he feels that it is hard for his only friend go. He has become emotionally involved with the dog – the dog is a part of him. This is why he is so reluctant to letting the dog go. A while after Candy’s dog is taken away from him to get slaughtered. Candy, even though he does not know George and Lennie, wants to collaborate to get the hose. He would rather buy land with people that he does not know, than go back to living his life suffering from the illness known to many of the ranch hands as – loneliness. After Candy has finished mourning the death of his old dog, he starts to listen to George and Lennie’s discussion about the land they want to buy. He realizes he is not of any additional help to the ranch, and thinks it is time for him to find another location to live a life that is relaxing and that does not consist of too much laborious work. Hopefully, Candy suggests, â€Å"S’pose I went in with you guys.† He believes he has a chance to get away from the ranch, and grabs it at all corners. Candy decides there is nothing left for him at the ranch and it is his time to leave; knowing he will have a better life living elsewhere. The irony of the situation is that in the end of the story, George ends up killing his partner that was supposed to be getting the shared dream house and land. Candy might have therefore, filled the spot of Lennie, even though the bond would not be as good as the bond of Lennie and George. Whitt is introduced when he is talking about a magazine that he purchases; he explains, â€Å"I think your mag is the best dime’s worth I ever spent.† Whitt talks about a person called Bill that worked on the ranch previously. Whitt is lonely and is deduced to gossiping about other people to relieve his boredom. Because of the rarity of friendship on the ranch, Whitt wants to keep the magazine to hold on to his old friend – Bill. He feels he has companionship because his friend’s letter was published in a letter and he was the only person that talked to Bill about the letter before it did not even exist in the eyes of the public. Curley’s wife likes to draw attention to her self in order to get company to socialize. She comes into the bunk house â€Å"fully made up† and wearing red nail polish, asking about her husband. She looks like this because she wants to grab the interest of the men, thus getting their full awareness and successfully managing to converse. Her husband Curley does not talk to her because they are both always looking for each other. So Curley’s wife needs to find other people to talk to. Throughout the story, Curley’s wife is never given a real name; she is always referred to as Curley’s wife. She has become a possession of Curley. They suffer from the same loneliness because they both married into a loveless marriage. We are notified that Curley’s wife wanted to be an actress in Hollywood, but when she never receives the phone call to admit her, she marries Curley. This shows that she did not really want to marry Curley, but she felt it was right to marry Curley because she needed someone to care for her because she could not have the job that she wanted. Crooks is a â€Å"busybody† because he feels it is his job to inform Slim on the whereabouts of Lennie. He states, â€Å"That big new guy’s messin’ around your pups out in the barn.† Then he goes on to explain what Lennie was doing with them: â€Å"He’s takin’ em outta the nest and handlin’ them.† The ranch workers gossip because this is the only way that they can communicate. To relieve their unhappiness and loneliness they are forced to pay for company. The boss’s son, Curley, appears to be the loneliest person on the ranch. After coming from one of his detours, Curley is subjected to finding his ‘other half.’ When Curley is looking for his wife, he has to turn to the workers for advice. He says, â€Å"You seen a girl around here?† demanding an answer from the men. When he says this, he ensures he gets a quick response with no unnecessary information. Instead of greeting the men warmly, and then introducing his query, he gets straight to the point, requesting a valid answer. Curley does not have much experience talking to people since he is always either in town or looking for his ‘wife.’ Another factor that could be the answer to why Curley is always aggressive towards any human company is that he has turned bitter because he is lonely. Although he has a wife, she is never around for him to talk to her – so his socializing skills are limited. To add to this, Curley might have had a lon ely childhood because he grew up on the ranch and did not have the opportunity to play and talk with someone his age – all of the ranch workers are adults. As a result of this, Curley turned out to be an outspoken, patronizing adult. Crooks finally gets his chance to emit all the emotions he is feeling. When he receives this opportunity, we begin to realize the extent of his loneliness. Lennie is bored because all the other workers have gone to town, and he has no one to talk to so he decides to visit his puppy in the barn. Instead, he meets the stable buck – Crooks. They start to talk and Crooks says, â€Å"There wasn’t another colored family for miles around.† From this quotation, we get to look into how Crooks feels; vulnerable and singled out. This also shows how he feels at the ranch; because he is the only black person on the ranch he feels different, almost an outcast. He then goes on to talk about his status on the ranch, saying: â€Å"This is just a nigger talkin’, an’ a busted-back nigger. So it don’t mean nothing, see?† Crooks believes that because he has a disability, this is another reason why the men on the ranch are not likely to want to talk to him. He feels like he does not exist because a lot of people take no notice of what he says. He does not have anyone to talk to. For being alone, Crooks could leave his things about and being a stable buck and a cripple, his actions are not arguable. Crooks is separated from everyone so he believes none of the men take notice of him. He mentions that he is the only black person for miles, because of this, he feels vulnerable and singled out. When Crooks is talking to Lennie, he tries to make Lennie see his life from his perspective. Lennie has gone into the barn to see his puppy because all of the other men have gone into town. Instead of seeing the puppy, he meets the stable buck – Crooks. He has finally managed to get to talk to a person and have a full conversation; so uses this opportunity to let someone else feel the hurt and loneliness that he has had to endure for most of his life. Crooks states, â€Å"Well, s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then?† Crooks feels isolated and because of this, he wants one person to try and even image the loneliness that he has to suffer each day. Lennie retreats to the place George told him to go if ever he got in trouble – â€Å"the brush.† He starts to hallucinate; seeing his aunt Clara. Lennie turns immediately at the sound of any company. Due to his loneliness, he wants a companion, so he seeks comfort and manages to conjure up a hallucinated version of his Aunt Clara. John Steinbeck cleverly makes the illusion speak with Lennie’s voice. I believe the image was Lennie’s conscious, making excuses for why Lennie is going to be killed by George in the future; but because of Lennie’s mental incapability’s, he does not receive this warning in time. Lennie needs constant reassurance from George that their lives will be better when they buy their own place to live. So tells George to recite their dream, showing he always wants to look at the bright side because his life is miserable. Lennie is near a pool waiting for George to arrive, so that the two men can flee to another ‘ranch’. Then, George arrives disheartened and Lennie says immediately, â€Å"Tell me like you done before.† Then George replies reluctantly, â€Å"Tell you what?† Lennie then says, â€Å"Bout the other guys an’ about us.† Then George starts to describe â€Å"how it’s gonna be.† George does not want Lennie to feel lonely when he dies so tells him to look across the forest, to make sure Lennie is not aware of the situation – and that his only companion dies peacefully. George shoots, and after, he feels very sad for killing Lennie, although does not feel regretful. His future now looks bleak, in term s of companionship. I believe the loneliest person on the ranch is the Boss. He is the character that gives orders to all of the workers around and just gets money coming in for doing practically no work. In accordance to this, he probably does not have much entertainment at home because he does not need to work for his money, because he is fortunate enough to have bought the ranch. The only time that we hear about the boss is when he is accepting George and Lennie’s work slips. This promotes the idea that the Boss is not very included in the society of the ranch, and is therefore, more prone to getting lonely than the other men on the ranch. The workers can talk to other workers whilst they are keeping themselves busy working to make money. The boss is a typical leader that receives money for just having the title: ‘Boss’. Furthermore, there is no mention of the boss having a wife in the book, so the only relative family that he has is Curley. This makes matters worse for the boss b ecause Curley is always in town or looking for his wife. So explains why the Boss deserves the title: â€Å"loneliest being.†