Isolation and Loneliness in Of Mice and Men Essay

In the novel Of Mice and Men the theme of loneliness and isolation can hardly be ignored as there are elements of them in key moments in the story. Isolation and loneliness plays a huge role in the story and some of the points that make this book a very gripping read, they also put things across that most of us would not have imagined in the first place. George and Lennie play the biggest part to the themes of loneliness and isolation. When they first arrive at the ranch everybody is very surprised to see two itinerant workers travelling around together. The night before George and Lennie come to the ranch they are sitting by the brush they say to each other ‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world†¦ They don’t belong no place†¦But not us!†¦ Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you.’ George and Lennie’s dream of themselves owning a ranch together and having a house with two separate bedrooms for each other, this in the day the book was written was very strange because people keep themselves to themselves and travel on their own they would do almost anything to share a room with somebody just for the company. But George and Lennie aren’t lonely and they want their own space away from other people. All of the other workers are not afraid to tell George and Lennie that they find it strange that two workers are travelling together and Lennie can only speak when George lets him. The ranch owner tells George that he will keep an eye on them because George may be trying to take something from George, for example his money. This is a perfect example of how people thought about workers travelling together. A good point about having friends on the ranch is if you get in a fight you have someone to stick up for you. An example of this is when Curley starts to hit Lennie he does nothing until George tells him that he can hit back and so he does and Curley gets what he probably deserves. The friendship that George and Lennie has is very important especially to Lennie because most other people would not be able to put up with him being a pest and causing them to loose their previous job in weed due to Lennie doing something stupid. If it was not for these two friends looking out for each other Lennie would probably been killed a lot earlier on in the story and not by George. Curley’s wife is also a great example of loneliness and isolation on the ranch. Steinbeck does not give her a name. That makes her feel unimportant and she is not wanted, even though she plays a big part in the novel about the themes of dreams and in a way stops Lennie and George from getting their own dream of their own ranch. She is the only woman on a ranch full of men. This means that there is an immediate sense of loneliness because if any of the workers are caught flirting with her there will be trouble because Curley’s dad is the ranch owner and he can get the workers sacked if his son tells him to, so Curley’s wife has to stay in her house all day and the only person she can really talk to is Curley. Towards the end of the novel when Curley’s wife is talking to Lennie in the barn it is the first time in the whole novel when she actually has a full conversation with anybody. She opens up to Lennie and tells him things that she has never told anyone else before, probably because she has nobody else to talk to. She really ‘lets her hair down’ and tells him all sorts of things like she tells him that she does not like to only have to talk to Candy because she does not like him and that he is not a nice person. The only reason why she married him was so that she can escape her ‘previous life’ at home. She also says ‘Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time.’ On the ranch Candy is another perfect example of loneliness and isolation. Because he is old and disabled the other workers have a different attitude to him. His equivalent to a friend on the ranch was hi old dog. Because his dog was old and no longer useful so they kill it. Candy hopes they shoot him when he gets unable to do any work. At the very end of the novel when Lennie has killed Curley’s wife and Curley is hunting him down. George is the one to kill Lennie because they were friends and he wanted no body else to shoot him. This shows friendship even when Lennie has done something very bad up until his last moment George can still find it in his heart to be kind to Lennie.