Isolation In Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men (1937) is a novella written by John Steinbeck, a Nobel Prize-winning author, which focuses on two itinerant workers – George Milton, described by Steinbeck as “small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features” (Page 2), and Lennie Small, George’s opposite. The novella was set in during the aftermath of the Great Depression in (1929-1932) in Soledad, literally meaning ‘solitude’ in Spanish. During this time of hardship, companionship and friendship were rare to find among ranch workers. Many of them were lonely, as George had described, “Guys like us…are the loneliest guys in the world…” (Page 14). Even as the protagonist, he admits his need for companionship. Steinbeck conveys the idea of the isolation …show more content…
The title of the book “Of Mice and Men” foreshadows the entire book. This title comes from the poem To a Mouse, written by Robert Burns (1759-1796), with eight stanzas but Steinbeck primarily uses the last two stanzas to assist in foreshadowing his novel. The second to last stanza tells the reader that many good plans for the future often go wrong and leave nothing but loneliness and despair. In the novella, George and Lennie’s plan to save up money for a farm which only resulted with the murder of Lennie, where George was reluctant and nearly tearful to kill Lennie. The last stanza tells reader that the mouse cannot think about the past and the future and how only the man suffers in future, which resembles the qualities found in the protagonists. Steinbeck has symbolised Lennie as the mouse and George as the man, where George has to suffer in future for what he has done to Lennie, leaving him with without companionship. Steinbeck is able to express the central idea of loneliness by foreshadowing the end of George and Lennie’s …show more content…
As the author characterises Lennie as a huge man with an innocent child-like behaviour, which enabled him to communicate with other characters with ease. Lennie is able to give the reader information about Crooks and how loneliness affected him. Foreshadowing is a generally unrecognised narrative technique which helps portray the idea of loneliness. As by comparing Lennie to the mouse and George to the man from the poem, the reader is able to guess future events that will occur later in the book. Auditory and visual imagery are used so that the reader can imagine the setting in their “mind’s eye”, imagine the isolated lake with only George and Lennie among the brushes. Each of these narrative techniques help give the reader hints about how loneliness is a central theme in the novella. Steinbeck is successful in engaging the reader with narrative techniques to convey his central idea of