Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men is an American novel of loneliness, love, and need of homeless men who have nothing but each other. This novel was written by John Steinbeck, and was published in 1937. John was actually writing of his past experiences of working on farms and enduring loneliness when he was younger. Of Mice and Men tells a story of the nature of humans beings and their desire for friendship. Almost all of the characters admit to having a strong sense of loneliness at one point during the novel. Each of the character crave friendship but will settle for even a stranger to talk to and tell about his troubles. Curley’s wife tells Lennie that she is unhappily married to Curley, because he never spends time with her and won't let her talk to other people. Crooks informs Lennie of how depressing life is when you don’t have a friend to turn
to when in times of need. Most of the words I had trouble with were the names of the jobs the men had.
One of the names of the jobs was “the swamper”. I later figured out what the swamper was when Candy (the swamper) said that what he does best is sweeping and washing dishes. Another name I had trouble with was “the skinner”. The narrator later explained that the skinner was the manager of the mule team when Crooks said that “the skinner” is the only person in charge of the mules. The author had a very different way of conveying his message, which I found hdiffucult to read. Instead of just writing the words, he would write the word the way that they sounded. Since they lived in the South, the characters spoke with a strong southern accent and the dialogue looked like, “ Ya’ jus’ be headen’ home now.” and could be hard to comprehend at times. Most of the time the author would use rhetorical devices to help share information. Rhetorical devices is when someone asks a question that is not intended to be answered. When the author used rhetorical devices he normally said, “ Why don’t ya’ jus’ shut up.” or “Why don’t jus’ leave me the hell
alone.”
I personally didn’t care for the book mainly because it was very anti-climatic and didn’t have a very happy ending. The way the author wrote was neat and made the the story interesting to read, but got confusing after awhile of continuous reading. My favourite part of the book was towards the beginning of the book when they were sleeping by the river because their lives were simple and easy. When they got to the ranch, they had to be careful what they said so that they could keep their jobs. Then, toward the end of the book, the overall theme was very depressing as well as the ending.