The Role Of Isolation In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Isolation and How It Affects the Human Experience The great depression was a time of strife for many people. This cannot be more true for the migrant workers of California who went around the state looking for work and never staying long in the same place. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays this experience of migrating from job to job and living paycheck to paycheck, along with the loneliness that goes along with the experience, through George and Lennie’s experiences. George and Lennie are unique in that they travel together and as such are not affected by loneliness as much as some of the other characters are in the book. Of Mice and Men shows how loneliness and isolation affects the human experience in a positive and negative
Candy’s dog portrays the isolation and loneliness of Candy. Candy is an old and crippled man and considers himself useless on the farm as the only reason they are keeping him is because he was injured there a few years prior. Candy’s dog, much like him, is old, crippled and nearly useless. This uselessness makes Candy crave to go to the dream farm along with George and Lennie so that he would not feel as isolated and lonely. This may be seen as Candy says “When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me…. I won’t have no place to go,” (Steinbeck 60), in reference to how the other men on the ranch shot his dog, showing how his isolation and loneliness affected him very badly. Another instance in which symbolization expresses how isolation and loneliness has affected the human experience is through the symbolization of the dream farm. To the characters on the ranch, their dream farm is a symbol of hope and a better life, a life where they don’t have to fear being isolated and where they’ll always have someone they can rely on. This dream farm affects all the character exposed to it including, George, Lennie, Candy, and even briefly Crooks. All Candy wants from this dream farm is a place where he doesn’t have fear being run off and be allowed to “hoe in the garden even if I ain’t no good at it.” (Steinbeck 60) , portraying how isolation has
Crooks was affected by isolation more than many of the other characters were as he was not only a migrant worker but he was also the only african american on the ranch. In addition to that he was a stable hand and was not bucking barley like most of the other people on the ranch. His isolation affects him so that he immediately shows a lack of morality when he first meets Lennie and without even taking time to talk to him he practically reduces Lennie to tears. “Crooks face lighted with pleasure in his torture”(Steinbeck 71). Another character who shows a lack of morality is Curley. Curley shows a lack of morality when communicating with practically everyone on the ranch. He gets into a fight with Lennie just because he is bigger and doesn’t understand Lennie’s situation after he kills his wife and immediately wants to kill him and wasn’t Lennie to be lynched. Curley’s lack of morality keeps him separate from the rest of the ranchers which affects his human experience by making him a very bitter person. Curley starts a fight with Lennie because he was “still smiling with delight at the memory of the ranch.” (Steinbeck 62), showing how Curley’s lack of morality affects how interacts with