Loneliness And Isolation

Loneliness and isolation is a common human emotion that is felt within everyone and can be felt every now and then. In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, the theme of loneliness and isolation is dominant and many of the characters express it throughout the novel. The novel is set around the Great Depression where life is hard and everyone is barely getting by each day, so when the two main characters George and Lennie go to a job interview together it causes suspicion since men usually travel alone. When the men are hired they encounter many different personalities on the ranch that all deal with isolation or loneliness, some even deal with both and the different ways they handle it. Although a person may be surrounded by many …show more content…
Curley’s wife is always trying to talk to the other men, but they think she is mainly trying to flirt with them. Whether her intentions with the other men are good or not, she is still very lonely and is very open about it when she proclaims, “‘I get lonely,” she said. “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like to not talk to anybody””(87). Being the only woman Curley’s wife has no other person to talk to other than the men on the ranch but is still not able to talk to them due to her husband, and this ultimately leaves her with no one to talk to but Curley. When Curley’s wife is shut out once again she is tired of no one talking to her and expresses her frustration to Lennie and she remarks, “”Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely”(86). All Curley’s wife ever does is stay inside and is only ever able to talk to Curley, but when she actually gets the opportunity to talk to someone else other than Curley she is once again and she openly expresses her loneliness to Lennie. Curley’s wife is full of frustration and annoyance due to the fact that she is never able to talk to anyone on the ranch because they are scared of getting in trouble, she is always open about her loneliness in hopes that someone …show more content…
Since Lennie and George always claim that they have each other and will always have each other the feeling of loneliness is less likely to be felt with them, but when Crooks messes with Lennie he still questions whether George is there for him or not. The men on the ranch are gone when Lennie is in Crooks’ room and Crooks decides to play around with Lennie by telling him that George won’t come back, but Lennie responds saying, ““He won’t do it,” Lennie cried “George wouldn’t do nothing like that. I been with George a long time. He’ll come back tonight ---” But the doubt was too much for him. “Do you think he will?”(71). Even with Lennie being different he is around George all the time and they have been through many tough situations where George was still with him, yet Lennie still has his doubts and questions whether or not George will come back which reveals a hidden fear of loneliness within Lennie. Lennie and George are lucky to have each other during that time because many men are traveling alone and have no one to be there with them, but both Lennie and George rarely realize how lucky they are. Crooks describes how being lonely doesn’t make a guy happy by telling Lennie, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya,” he cried, “I tell ya a guy gets too