Of Mice And Men
...many examples of solitude and loneliness. Prejudice and discrimination are the main sources of loneliness and solitude. These 2 main sources obviously result in loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck is trying to say that the most important thing in this world that you can have is a friend. Without friends and companions people all around the world would be suffering from loneliness and solitude. Most of the characters in the story are envious and jealous of George and Lennie's friendship. The most envious and jealous are Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife. Throughout the story these characters all exhibit their loneliness and Steinbeck has given them all different reasons and different levels of loneliness. Crooks childhood on the chicken farm, Curley's wife vision of one day being in pictures and George and Lennie's dream of living on a farm are all signs of loneliness.
The setting of the novel is the most obvious reason of loneliness. The setting is taken in Soledad. If you look up Soledad in Spanish it means "loneliness." The full name of this California town is "Nuestra Senora de Soledad" which in English means "Our Lady of Loneliness."
Let's start with Crooks. Crooks has no friends or relationships with anyone in his society. The only thing that Crooks has a relationship' with is loneliness. He can relate to loneliness and tries to test Lennie by asking him what he would do if George didn't come back. "
Well, s'pose, jus' s'pose he don't come back. What'll you do then?..." Crooks asks this question because he doesn't have any friends and doesn't know what it would feel like if you were to lose them or for them not to come back unexpectedly. The other reason that he tortures Lennie with those questions is because he needs to ease his jealousy of Lennie and George. Another reason that Crooks is so lonely is because he is black. His whole society around...
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