Of Mice And Men Quote Analysis

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men takes place during the Dustbowl in California at a time of poverty. George and Lennie are two men who have just arrived at a ranch in Soledad for their new job. Lennie does not make a good first impression on the boss’s son. One theme the story suggests is that loneliness can cause negatively affects people. In the beginning of the story there are several occasions where the reader sees how sad that Candy becomes after the death of his dog. . “Candy lay rigidly on his bed staring at the ceiling” (48) and “A shot sounded in the distance. The men looked quickly at the old man. Every head turned toward him. For a moment he continued to stare at the ceiling. Then he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent” (49). These quotes both show that Candy is hurt by the death of his dog The quote “Candy lay rigidly,” shows the reader that Candy is depressed that his dog is about to die and that he
is about to lose his only companion. The wording “Then he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent” makes it obvious how distressed Candy is. Although, while he didn’t cry it is still obvious to the reader that Candy is subdued from the doleful actions,“he lay silently” and “rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent.” Although one could argue that both of the quotes actually refer to Candy being shocked since he didn’t actually cry, and that Candy is shocked from the meanness of the men and his dog, and that he really isn’t all that sad. “Candy lay rigidly,” could be interpreted as he was so shocked that he just lay sitting completely still. The second quote goes against this though because it is said that “he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent,” which does not show shock, but depression; if it were shock then he would stay still even after the shot but this sentence lets us know that it’s actually not shock but depression. In the middle of the story Curley’s wife expresses in words that she is very lonely, (one reason the reader knows this is when she says it directly in the book).
For example Curley’s Wife says “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely,” (86). This sentence is clear proof that Curley’s Wife is lonely, and because the ranch hands never want to talk to her because Curley gets very jealous, she has no real friends. The reader can see this from the part of the quote that says “I get awful lonely.” Since Curley’s wife felt very lonely she decided to go into the barn to talk with Lennie which ended up with bad consequences. When Lennie kills Curley’s Wife he says “‘Don’t you go yellin,’ he said and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” (91) This quote shows how Curley’s Wife was killed. It also shows how Curley’s Wife was affected by loneliness; she was tired of being lonely, so she went to Lennie to talk to him and ended up being
killed.
The second way Curley’s wife was negatively affected was she kept on doing things like pretending she couldn’t find Curley so that she could talk to the ranch hands. Being lonely influenced her to flirt with men that aren’t her husband. “Yeah? Married two weeks and got the eye? Maybe that’s why Curley’s pants is full of ants.” This quote shows that Curley’s wife flirts with the other men a lot and that it’s enough to get Curley jealous. If Curley’s wife were not lonely and was satisfied with her husband then she wouldn’t have to go out and flirt with the other men on the ranch. Lastly, at the end of the book we can see how George is affected by the loss of Lennie when he shoots Lennie with a gun. “George shivered and looked at the gun and then he threw it from him,” (106). This quote shows how George is affected by the loss of Lennie and can’t even hold the gun that killed Lennie. The use of the word “shivered” hints at how he feels about killing Lennie with the gun and that George is revolted by the gun because it was the weapon he used to kill Lennie.
“‘I just done it,’ George said tiredly” (107) is another quote that shows how George was negatively affected by the death of Lennie because the use of the word “tiredly” shows that he felt awful about the killing and did not want to talk about it. “The hand shook violently,” (106) is another example, because George was getting ready to shoot Lennie and even the thought of killing his only companion scared him. It was also very obvious to the reader that he did not want to kill his only companion from this line.
Overall you can see that from the several examples that I have provided that loneliness actually does have bad effects on people, mentally, and physically. Even though some of them could be interpreted differently it is still obvious to the reader that all of them were feeling distress or got hurt physically from being so lonely.