'‘Of Mice and Men’ – Are all the characters in this novel lonely? Essay\r'

'‘Of Mice and Men’ is set in California during the mid 1930s. Before 1930 mass in California spendd to live to holdher blithely as families and used to lead a relatively normal life, how perpetu bothy in 1929 the collapse of the stark naked York stock market meant that star and a half million people became unemployed rising to terzetto million by 1930 †this was called the ‘Wall Street frighten off’. This depression made caused families to break up as many people (mainly hands) to go elsewhere to go through work up and earn a living.\r\nConsequently there was a breakdown in American society. Steinbeck worked concisely as a bedspread worker himself and well-nigh of his early books, including ‘Of Mice and Men’, were concerned with social issues of the day. Steinbeck was a realist and in his e realwherebolds he presents the poor and disadvantaged sympathetically. His work made him unpopular with exploitative employers and land owners whom he held credi twainrthy for perpetuating the cycle of poverty and deprivation created by the ‘ effect’.\r\nThe fresh was real winning in explaining the demand of people who atomic number 18 lone(prenominal) and maybe fall in no friends or family. It overly looks at the requirement to dedicate a friend or moon to support you through life. The different relationships and characters in the original represent loneliness and world with nearly both per watchword belongings a reverie.\r\nThe first compeer we come across in this original is George and Lennie; these two friends travel to limither and are truly close, they b bunk each early(a). Lennie is mentally handicapped and relies very very much on George to make decisions for him. George however is stronger mentally and has a lot of power over Lennie although he relies on Lennie to restrict him friendship and safe. â€Å"They had walked in single level down the path, and unconstipated in the open one stayed behind the former(a)”, this quotation represents the power at bottom their relationship; George is the leader and has psychological control over Lennie. Their friendship is like a father and son relationship, George dominates Lennie and some periods teaches him a lesson â€Å"You never oughta drink piddle when it ain’t running, Lennie”, alone is still perpetually handsome to him â€Å"Good boy”.\r\nGeorge grows close to Lennie disrespect the trouble Lennie’s innocence and strength brings on them both. George is Lennies defender-protecting him from others and himself. Ironically in the first chapter George explains that he could â€Å"get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t hand you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe require a girl”, he describes the stress and irritation of having to look after Lennie.\r\nIronically George explains he wants this further when he is forced to shoot Lennie in the nett chapter he becomes lonely. George shoots Lennie when they are at their closest m yet, he describes to Lennie their dream that he adores to hear; the dream comforts Lennie like a bedtime story. This dream finally dies with Lennie and is the biggest sacrifice George has to make †killing his own company and the person he loves most. This shows John Steinbeck’s down-to-earth approach to this novel; people’s lives get into’t evermore live happily ever after and many dreams don’t always become a reality, especially non in the 1930s.\r\n edulcorate is an old disabled â€Å"swamper” on the spreading. He lost his right hand in a farm accident and now is reduced to strap job on the ranch; a cleaner. He has lost control of his life and is devoted to his frank. His get across is his moreover friend and when this dog dies we chequer he is human with emotions, and these people are worthy of respect. When dulcify’s ancient, ill do g was shot, Candy has zip left. He delayed killing the dog, even though he k mod deep down that it was the best thing, as he dreaded losing his long-time companion.\r\nCandy after having nix in life to live for, decides to join George and Lennie in their dream, his funds would make the dream possible. Candy and his dog’s relationship is parallel to the one with George and Lennie’s; George relies on Lennie, Lennie relies on George and Candy and his dog depose on each other too. Their relationship also foreshadows George and Lennie’s †Candy regrets not snap his dog himself, â€Å"I ought to of let no singular shoot my dog”, this is foreshadowing the end of the novel where George recognises he had to shoot Lennie. They both lost their love ones.\r\nCurley (the boss’s son) and his wife do not get on very well; Curley only has a wife for power and for him to look successful in life. Curley’s wife is married to a man she doesn’t l ove and who doesn’t love her. She has very undersized respect of Curley â€Å"I’d like to bust him up myself”, and only marries him to get back at her mother for not let her fulfil her dream to become a picture show star which psyche had promised her in the past â€Å"An’ a guy tol’ me he could put me in pitchers…..Says I was a natural”. As soon as the reader meets Curley’s wife they get a very bad impression of her, â€Å"…the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off”, this is both erratum and metaphorical foreshadowing; she is cutting off the vigilant in the door so all of the men look up to her, it is metaphorical foreshadowing gravid the impression that she is trouble.\r\nThis means that passim the novel she is disliked by the reader make her to be even lonelier. By marrying Curley she has become very isolated bonny the only woman on the ranch; she turns to outsiders for circumspection and tri es to befriend the men by hanging orbitual the bunkhouse. Curley’s wife is just like Lennie, Crooks and Candy as they have been left behind on a Saturday night- the rejects on the ranch.\r\nCurley’s wife has no friends and even admits to existence lonely beholding that she is not really aspect for Curley; she just wants to express with someone â€Å"Think I don’t know where they all went? Even Curley. I know where they all went.” besides although being forlorn she still has a lot of power over the other ranch workers being the boss’ son’s wife, we see this power when she reminds Crooks of how much authority she has over him â€Å"I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny”; she exercises her power threatening Crooks with death.\r\n wish well Candy, being a social outcast, Crooks is the loneliest person on the ranch. Crooks lives in enforced solitude, absent from the other men. He is bitter slightly being a back-busted â€Å" nigra”. He is racially discriminated against being referred to as a â€Å"nigger”; people also have no respect for him because of him being black and consequently lives in the b by himself. He cannot get away from this prejudice as not other ranch would take him for the reason that he is black, crippled and old. Steinbeck describes his group B (the place where he lives and spends most of his time): â€Å"for being alone, Crooks could retract his things about”. Crooks is extremely lonely, all he has is books and his rights; he believes that every human being should have his rights whichever race they may be.\r\nWhen Lennie joins Crooks in this barn, Crooks starts to tease him, this is the only time he has power over someone and is in control. He can make Lennie afraid as he does not understand, Crooks makes Lennie feel like he does now even though Lennie has done cipher wrong â€Å"S’pose you didn’t have nobody…à ¢â‚¬Â¦S’pose George don’t come back no more” Lennie is terrified of being alone and is helpless without George. Crooks is very depraved due to his loneliness; â€Å"Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody †to be near him…A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody”, but is very pleased when Lennie and Candy join him in his barn â€Å"It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger”.\r\n whole through the novel Crooks has a dream of being seen as equal to everyone else. He knows his civil rights and remembers lovingly his childhood, when he played with white children who came to his family’s lily-livered ranch. Crooks longs for a similar relationship with white people again. He dismisses the fact that George, Lennie’s and Candy’s dream pull up stakes come true â€Å"I see hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches with bindles on their back an’ that homogeneous damn thing in their heads. Hundreds of them…nobody never gets no land. It’s just in their head.’ But when Candy explains that they’ve got the money ready and that they are very enthusiastic about achieving this dream thusly Crooks gets raise â€Å"If you….guys would want a hand to work for nothing-just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand.” A new friendship is just about to develop but Curley’s wife then enters and diverts all attention to her, putting an end to Crooks’ new friendship and dream.\r\nJohn Steinbeck is a realist and illustrates his views in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’. The different character’s lifestyles and personalities in this novel represent what existence was like in the 1930s after the Wall Street Crash. Steinbeck support social justice and equality for the working classes and so uses realism in his writing. He shows ordinary, everyday details, and makes characters turn to and behave as they might do in real life. We see this particularly in how his characters are revealed through dialogue â€Å"She had full, rouged lips and wide slur eyes, heavily made up. Her finger-nails were red. Her hair hung up in little rolled clusters, like sausages”. In his use of realism he portrays a sense of mint; whatever the characters do they are at the kindness of outside influences beyond their control, so attempts to improve their lives will fail.\r\nWe see this use of realism in George and Lennie’s dream; the couple have done nothing wrong but the injustice of outside causes prevents them from holding on to this dream. Not all the characters are throughout this novel but all of them come about to be lonely at the end; George and Lennie have each other with the dream of starting a new life in a little cottage of their own, we only know till the very end that this dream can no yearner take place with the loss of Lennie and therefore causing Georg e to be lonely. Curley and his wife have each other even though not really speechmaking to each other much, Curely’s wife could be considered lonely as the reader never sees her with Curley but always hanging around looking to talk to someone.\r\nCandy did have his dog to rely on and to trust but when he died then he soon found himself becoming lonely and looking to others for attention and Crooks was also lonely throughout the novel being racially discriminated against by all other ranch workers; he was an outsider. Characters on the ranch in this novel are lonely and hold a dream to keep themselves calm and for something to hold onto, seeing that they have no friends they need to look to something to keep them happy and sane. Steinbeck worked on a ranch deep down the 1930s and must have seen how ranch workers behaved and how lonely they can feel. He has been in a position of a ranch worker and has expressed his intuitive feeling of loneliness and dream worthy within this novel, his realism has caused nearly all characters to be lonely at the end of the novel.\r\n'