How do Steinbeck and Gilman explore the themes of isolation, confinement and loneliness within Of Mice and Men and The Yellow Wallpaper?
Isolation, confinement and loneliness are major themes within Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Without isolation, confinement and loneliness, the novels would have an entirely different consequences and outcome. With the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper and Lennie from Of Mice and Men being isolated in the setting of the novels, there is no escape from achieving a positive resolution. Dialogue shows the confinement of Lennie’s and the narrator’s mental capacities, as well as foreshadowing, which demonstrates how the only way to gain a sense of freedom in both texts is to die. …show more content…
Dialogue enables the reader to define both characters and demonstrate their unique thoughts and visions to the reader. This narration “Aunt Clara was gone, and from out of Lennie’s head there came a gigantic rabbit. And it spoke in Lennie’s voice too” (pg100) in Of Mice and Men indicates how Lennie’s very confined brain led him to hallucinating and talking to two imaginary figures. The same incident occurs with the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. “I don’t like to look out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast,” this extract of dialogue directly shows how the narrator, with a mental illness that confines her logic, imagined many women “creeping” around her private front yard. Escaping confinement in both novels, where society degrades women and the disabled, is only reachable through death. Gilman and Steinbeck foreshadow confinement leading to death. The unstable narrator mentions how the lines on the yellow wallpaper look like they are going to “commit suicide” in a room where many postpartum women have killed themselves due to insanity. Throughout Of Mice and Men, Lennie is referred to a dog multiple times and multiple dogs die in the novel. Candy’s dog gets shot and some of the newborn puppies are drowned to be put out of their misery or strangled by Lennie. Therefore, confinement leads to death in both texts and this is shown by
Isolation, confinement and loneliness are major themes within Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Without isolation, confinement and loneliness, the novels would have an entirely different consequences and outcome. With the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper and Lennie from Of Mice and Men being isolated in the setting of the novels, there is no escape from achieving a positive resolution. Dialogue shows the confinement of Lennie’s and the narrator’s mental capacities, as well as foreshadowing, which demonstrates how the only way to gain a sense of freedom in both texts is to die. …show more content…
Dialogue enables the reader to define both characters and demonstrate their unique thoughts and visions to the reader. This narration “Aunt Clara was gone, and from out of Lennie’s head there came a gigantic rabbit. And it spoke in Lennie’s voice too” (pg100) in Of Mice and Men indicates how Lennie’s very confined brain led him to hallucinating and talking to two imaginary figures. The same incident occurs with the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. “I don’t like to look out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast,” this extract of dialogue directly shows how the narrator, with a mental illness that confines her logic, imagined many women “creeping” around her private front yard. Escaping confinement in both novels, where society degrades women and the disabled, is only reachable through death. Gilman and Steinbeck foreshadow confinement leading to death. The unstable narrator mentions how the lines on the yellow wallpaper look like they are going to “commit suicide” in a room where many postpartum women have killed themselves due to insanity. Throughout Of Mice and Men, Lennie is referred to a dog multiple times and multiple dogs die in the novel. Candy’s dog gets shot and some of the newborn puppies are drowned to be put out of their misery or strangled by Lennie. Therefore, confinement leads to death in both texts and this is shown by