Living the Lonely Life
Living the Lonely Life
Loneliness can cause many problems and it can change your life. Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck in 1937. Our story takes place in California during the Great Depression which was in the 1930’s. In this story many characters face loneliness. Among these characters are Curley’s wife, Crooks, and even my own aunt. Loneliness surrounded migrant workers in the days of the Great Depression. It was typical for men to travel alone and work for their fifty dollars a month. Unfortunately for Curley’s wife she is married to the son of a plantation owner. She was told to stay inside most of the time and she is the only woman there. She feels this loneliness because of the gender separation and because of the fact that she was married. She gets mad at George and tells him “Think I’m gonna stay in that two by four house…” (Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. 1937. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Page 78.) In order to rid herself of this loneliness she talks to other guys but she is unsuccessful in this because the other men don’t want anything to do with her. Although migrant workers are greatly affected by loneliness, others on plantations were also affected.
African Americans also faced a great amount of loneliness during these times. They usually didn’t have any friends because of their skin color. Crooks is a good example of this because he was very lonely. He sleeps in the stable by himself and hardly anyone talked to him unless it is work wise. He is separated from the rest while the guys play cards. While they’re playing cards he reads books but having no one to talk to can make you go crazy. No one wanted to be his friend because in this time blacks weren’t accepted like they accept white men. To rid him of his loneliness all he did was work and read but it didn’t work because he couldn’t survive by himself as said in the quote, “Guys like us, that work on ranches one the loneliest guys in the world” (13).
Loneliness can cause many problems and it can change your life. Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck in 1937. Our story takes place in California during the Great Depression which was in the 1930’s. In this story many characters face loneliness. Among these characters are Curley’s wife, Crooks, and even my own aunt. Loneliness surrounded migrant workers in the days of the Great Depression. It was typical for men to travel alone and work for their fifty dollars a month. Unfortunately for Curley’s wife she is married to the son of a plantation owner. She was told to stay inside most of the time and she is the only woman there. She feels this loneliness because of the gender separation and because of the fact that she was married. She gets mad at George and tells him “Think I’m gonna stay in that two by four house…” (Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. 1937. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Page 78.) In order to rid herself of this loneliness she talks to other guys but she is unsuccessful in this because the other men don’t want anything to do with her. Although migrant workers are greatly affected by loneliness, others on plantations were also affected.
African Americans also faced a great amount of loneliness during these times. They usually didn’t have any friends because of their skin color. Crooks is a good example of this because he was very lonely. He sleeps in the stable by himself and hardly anyone talked to him unless it is work wise. He is separated from the rest while the guys play cards. While they’re playing cards he reads books but having no one to talk to can make you go crazy. No one wanted to be his friend because in this time blacks weren’t accepted like they accept white men. To rid him of his loneliness all he did was work and read but it didn’t work because he couldn’t survive by himself as said in the quote, “Guys like us, that work on ranches one the loneliest guys in the world” (13).