Of+Mice+and+Men+Essay

In the novella "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, there is one huge theme. That theme is loneliness, all throughout the book. This quote, "It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs." -Eric Hoffer, relates well to a lot of the characters and scenarios in the book, such as Curley's wife, Crooks, and Candy. One example of loneliness is the character Curley's wife. This quote explains that she is never allowed to talk to people, how lonely she is, and how she feels about it. "Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely." page 86. Her husband, Curley, conrtols her and doesn't let her talk to other men because he doesn't trust her and he's just a very controlling person. This makes her a generally mean person and very, very lonely.

Another example of loneliness in the book is the character Crooks. "A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe thinkin', an' he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so. Maybe if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn to some other guy and ask him if he sees it too. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by." page 73. This quote explains how lonely Crooks gets because he's black, so nobody wants to be around him. He has nobody to talk to, he just sits by himself all alone. He also can't tell if something happened or if it's just in his head. Can you imagine how frustrating that would be? Not knowing if something really happened or if you just made it up in your head? I think Crooks is one of the most loneliest of them all in this book, because of his race. At least the other lonely guys can talk and live and hangout with one another, but Crooks is all alone.

The last character example of loneliness is Candy. This quote "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here they won't do nothing like that. I won't have no place to go, an' I can't get no more jobs." page 60. explains how his dog got too old and useless, so they shot him. Candy thinks about what would happen if that happened to him, not getting shot but getting fired. He wouldn't have anywhere to go. He has no family or friends, nothing. He realizes how alone he will be, having no job and no place to go.

In conclusion, the book "Of Mice and Men" has a lot of loneliness in it. It really makes you appreciate all of the friends and family that you have, because you really don't know when you could lose them all.