Loneliness In
...show that it is a
natural and inevitable result of the kind of life they are forced to lead. The novel
is written during the “Great Depression”. Steinbeck has decided to write about loneliness because this was on of the main issue people faced during this period. We see how life was like for average ranch hands during the “Great Depression”. All they did was come to work, earn cash and then move on which shows how lonely there were. Unfortunately there were caught in a trap of loneliness. Throughout the essay I will be examining the lonely situation of some of the characters, how they dealt with it and the result.
The main obvious lonely characters are Curley’s wife, Crooks and Candy. They are also known as “Outsiders”.
One of the main lonely characters is Curley’s wife. Newly married and in a strange place, she is forbidden by Curley to talk to anyone but him. As she is the only woman in the ranch she has no championship of other women so she constantly approaches the ranch hands on the excuse of looking for Curley to talk to someone. Because of her reputation for being a flirt, none of the farmhands wants to talk to her, but no matter how hard she tries, she can never fit in. The only result is that the men regard her as a slut, and Curley becomes even more intensely jealous. Finally, her loneliness leads to her death as she tries talking to Lennie. “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I am, anyways?...” This not only suggests how Curley’s wife felt, it also tells us how women in the society were treated. Sexism during the “Great Depression” is also another reason why women felt lonely as they have no companion of men and if they do they are not taking care of just like Curley’s wife.
Crooks is another character who is isolated because he is black. Also a disabled worker. He’s been treated as a second class citizen. “A guy needs...
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