Of Mice and Men: Theme of Loneliness Essay Example

Loneliness is a dominant theme in "Of Mice and Men". Most of the characters are lonely and searching for someone who can serve as a companion or just as an audience. In this novel, Steinbeck depicts the essential loneliness of California ranch life in the 1930's. He illustrates how people are driven to find companionship. Throughout the book we are introduced to characters who have no name, this implies they are not important enough to people to call them by their names. Curley's wife is known as Curley's wife because nobody wants anything to do with her. "Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody, I get awful lonely." Curley's wife admits she is lonely on a ranch full of men and has nobody to vent to. The Boss is only ever mentioned once throughout the whole book so Steinbeck didn't make him important enough to actually give him a name.
George and Lennie are the best of friends. They travel around together, although I think George gets lonely sometimes because even though Lennie is with him, George cannot have a proper conversation with Lennie`or talk to him about how he feels because Lennie won't understand. George gets frustrated at Lennie very easily because when George tells Lennie something, it doesn't sink into Lennies brain, therefore he forgets almost everything George tells him, Lennie also forgets right from wrong. Lennie is described as a dort of pet of George, like he is George's property. When Lennie and George arrive at the ranch, George makes a real friend, Slim. Slim acts as an audience for George and he confides in Slim about the Weed incident and how hatd it is to care for Lennie.
Candy was never lonely because he always had his dog as a companion. Candy had the dig since he was a pup and he used to herd sheep with him. Although because the dog was very old and smelly, Carlson persuaded Candy to let him shoot the dog because " He ain't no good to you, Candy. An' he ain't no good to himself. Why'n't you shoot him, Candy?" Candy