Of Mice And Men2
What causes characters to feel isolated and alone in Stienbeck's Of Mice and Men, how do they try to combat this loneliness and do they succeed? The novel of Mice and Men is primarily about George and Lennie's relationship and the hardships of living in America during the 1930's when there was mass unemployment because of the depression caused by the wall street crash. Gorge is a slow, child like man. He is not intentionally bad, but he is naive and so gets himself in trouble all the time which he and Lennie have to run from. This is how Lennie and George find themselves on the ranch where the story is set. We will meet the characters outlined below, and follow the events that lead to tragedy with the death of Lennie.
The migrant workers had a hard lonely life away from their families, and they did not bond with anyone. They were only living to survive, leaving their families behind and not trusting the strangers they met along the way made it hard to form lasting friendships, and they got what little pleasure they could from alcohol and "Cathouses" (brothels). The migrant workers only survived by putting up barriers and in general not getting attached to anyone. The lifestyle that the migrant workers lead meant that they had a mistrust of almost everyone they came across, because they did not stay in one place for very long and their aspirations in trying for a better life seemed hopeless.
Candy was a one handed old man who had lost is hand on the ranch. He was kind and had a close relationship with an old dog that he had had from a pup. He is from a different era too from the other younger men that come and go from the ranch, and has no living family to miss, so he would be lonely wherever he was. Having no family and having lived in a different world to the other men mean that he is not as forlorn as them, this might be why he shows an interest in other people's lives. Having his dog as a companion also helped to...
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