...Loneliness: The quality of being unfrequented and remote; isolation. Being lonely can change a lot about a person. In a way, loneliness can define who someone is. Even the strongest person can crumble under the wrath of loneliness. Many characters in the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck have experienced times of extreme loneliness. One of the characters, Lennie Small, often feels very lonely. Loneliness drives Lennie to believe that he isn’t wanted by George, his companion. “If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time.” (Steinbeck 12) This quote shows that Lennie often feels as if he is unwanted by George. Lennie offers to go away and live in the hills where he wouldn’t bother anyone, including...
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...In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck loneliness plays a key role in the book. Loneliness affects most of the character throughout the book. The characters Crooks, George, and Candy all experience loneliness throughout the book. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Crooks, George, and Candy all experience loneliness. Being lonely can lead to being distrusted. Being lonely can lead to being distrusted because loneliness is a feeling and people can still feel lonely when surrounded by people. Crooks experienced loneliness by having his own room in the barn with no other workers around. Crooks feels lonely because he lives alone in the barn while all the other workers live in a bunkhouse. In the book Crooks says, “I ain’t wanted...
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...Aspects in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row Cannery Row was written by John Steinbeck in 1945. The story takes place in Monterey, California sometime between the Great Depression and World War II. The story is based on “his non-teleological acceptance of what ‘is,’ his ecological vision, and his own memories of a street and the people who made it home” (Shillinglaw vii). Steinbeck lived during the Great Depression and his experience affected the tone within the story. Steinbeck chose to write using third person narrative within the story which is an omniscient point of view- this allows the reader to know what the characters are thinking and feeling. The author wrote this story for the soldiers entertainment throughout battle. Steinbeck uses a unique style to construct this novel by periodically incorporating anecdotes and vignettes within the book, which allows the author to paint a overall picture in the reader’s mind of the reality of this time period. The major aspects within Cannery Row are loneliness, suicide and the development of characters. In the story Cannery Row, loneliness can be considered a major aspect of this book. Loneliness describes many of the characters in this narrative- especially the character Doc. Although Doc is much loved by his peers and has many friends, he is lonely. He spends most of his time listening to music on the phonograph. The text explains that “'He was a dark and lonesome looking man' No one loved him. No one cared about him” (Steinbeck 6). This...
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...Great Depression. However, when John Steinbeck uses the dialogue of Crooks, the actions of Curley's wife, and multiple characters undergoing major inconveniences for friendship it openly depicts the need for companionship in his novel, "Of Mice and Men". The primary way that Steinbeck portrays loneliness and the need for companionship, is through the articulation of the character Crooks. Initially, this can be viewed when Crooks expresses that he feels unheard and that nobody listens...
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...this longing to be anything but alone is the subject of many literary works. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays the need for companionship using character interactions, characters, and the setting. First, using character interactions, John Steinbeck expertly displays the need for companionship in his novel Of Mice and Men. One way Steinbeck does this is through character dialogue. Early in the story, George refuses Lennie's proposal to abandon George and "go off in the hills an' find a cave" (Steinbeck 12). This passage suggests...
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...The classic novel, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck was made into a movie in 1992. The novel, which takes place in the 1930’s, follows the lives of two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, as they try to attain their dream of owning their own farm and “live off the fatta the lan’”. George is a smart man who always seems to have things figured out. Lennie is massive, a contradiction of his last name, but has the mind of a young child. George looks after him, but it is not easy since Lennie always seems to get himself in some kind of trouble. As they struggle towards their dreams, George and Lennie face obstacles that test their friendship. In the end, with Lennie dead, George finds out that dreams aren’t worth striving for, and eventually, loneliness overcomes everything. The book Of Mice and Men differed from the movie adaptation, with the portrayal of Curley’s wife, and Lennie’s death scene. Along with those differences there are aspects in the movie that show a strong resemblance to those in the book, like how the characters were written, and how they were acted. The movie of Of Mice and Men had many differences while still giving the same messages that the book intended on having. A major difference between the book Of Mice and Men and the movie was Lennie’s death scene. In the book there was a scene in which Lennie was alone, where George told him to go in case he ever got in trouble. At that moment Lennie was hallucinating about his Aunt Clara and rabbits. This...
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...Of Mice And Men In the masterful story Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck there is a looming theme of loneliness. This theme is told to you through the words and actions of the characters in the story . This story is told through two characters Lennie and George. The setting is 1930’s America. The story involves traveling ranch workers that live only for the one purpose to get paid and waste their money on a few drinks and some pleasure. These men are consumed with loneliness. The care for nothing but themselves. They are very unlike George and Lennie who have each other and a dream. Lennie is a big man with the brain of a child. Lennie never meant to hurt anybody but managed to get himself and his only true friend George into trouble. George is a small smart man who has known Lennie all his life and knows to well that Lennie could not survive on his own lets him travel with him as a favor too Lennie’s aunt Loneliness is defined as Without companions; lone. I will use this definition to describe different aspects of Steinbeck’s treatment of loneliness in this novel. Steinbeck’s use of loneliness is in this novel is very noticeable in some of the dialogue like when Lennie accidentally stumbles into Crook’s home in the stable and they talk. "You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go to the bunk-house and play rummy ‘cause you was black...
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...Explore the way the writer presents the relationship between George and Lennie in “Of Mice and Men” Of Mice and Men was written in the 1937 by John Steinbeck, he other well know books as the Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, h also received a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. This book is set in the 1930s and set in California, his home region. During this time, the USA was suffering from a great depression, this meant that it was hard to find job because the economy was very weak, so to find job the men were disposed to go anywhere and the bosses would exploit their workers. The itinerant ranch workers where very lonely people because they had to move from place to place and tis meant that they could set up a stable life with a wife and children. Another reason that suggests to us that they are lonely is that at the end of each month they take their money and they go to “cat house”. The character of George and Lennie are very unusual and contrasting, this is because they have a strong relationship between them and they also have a dream, a dream of buying a house and some land to become independent and to life together for the rest of their lives. But the reader knows from the beginning that this will not happen and it will have a tragic end, and this is suggested in the title “Of Mice and Men” that comes from a from Robert Burns poem “The best laid schemes o’mice an’ men/ Gang aft agley” and it means: the best laid schemes of mice and men/ often go awry. As soon as the...
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...In “Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, it’s apparent that Steinbeck tries to explain what it is to be human. A theme of the book is displayed through the nature of loneliness using different characters from the story. Individuals come and leaves. Yet deep inside them, they want to have a place called “home”. With warmth and a place they can go back to. The author suggests that people who are different people don’t go well with each other, he used characters like Crooks, George, Lennie, and Curley’s wife to have a profound sense of loneliness and isolation. One of the character, Crooks is lonely and he desperately need someone to talk to. In chapter 4, Crooks said, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody...I tell ya a guys gets too lonely an’ he gets sick”(Steinbeck 72). When Crooks meets Lennie, he is envy that Lennie have George, while he have...
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...Teen loneliness Loneliness is a feeling of isolation, and abandonment, in the story, “Of Mice and Men” loneliness is one of the many themes. Steinbeck’s novel is about two men, George and Lennie, during the great depression. They want to start a ranch, but are delayed by many trials, and hardships along the way. Loneliness is very present throughout this novel; on the most obvious level we see this isolation when the ranch hands go into town on Saturday night to ease their loneliness with alcohol. Others examples of emptiness, are when Lennie goes into Crook's room to find someone to talk to, Loneliness is very real and present today, especially in the lives of teens. Although the loneliness of teens may not be the same isolation as seen in Steinbeck s novel; it is still serious. Society today is much more complex than it was during the great depression. For example, there is technology so advanced that you do almost anything on your I-phone or whatever the case may be. Loneliness is a growing problem, because many teens think that they can use technology to get friends. You may think teens aren’t lonely? Your teenage years are the best years of your life? But let me explain just how a teen can feel unwanted, and lonely. I think the biggest thing is not feeling accepted, which brings us back to Steinbeck s novel, where Lennie feels unaccepted because he is different. Technology is another big problem, connecting teens with each other over the phone instead of face to...
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...Loneliness in “Of Mice and Men” Friends are needed in a person’s life for emotional stability whom without would lead to a life of loneliness and solitude. In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the characters Crooks, Candy and Curly’s wife exhibit a form of loneliness. They are driven to George and Lennie’s friendship because they lack support and that emotional stability in their own lives."A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick" (Steinbeck, 13). Throughout his novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows that victims of isolation crave to fulfill a companionship to fill in that void of loneliness. Firstly, Crooks, a handicapped black man, experiences isolation because of his race and disability and seeks to be a part of someone’s life. Crooks is physically separated from the other men as he has his own room in the barn and has limited social contact because he tends the horses. Crooks’s loneliness forces him to translucently share his bottled thoughts to Lennie when he comes into his room, and asks to be a part of the dream George and Lennie share, "...If you...guys would want a hand to work for nothing--just his keep, why I'd come an' lend a hand..." (Steinbeck 88). This shows that Crooks wants to be engaged with other people in his life despite his inability to see beyond the prejudice and discrimination he has always experienced. Secondly, the character...
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...Loneliness is the state of being alone in solitary isolation.‘“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world”’(13). There are several characters that have to deal with being lonely but Crooks is the most lonely character in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Some individuals, however, disagree and think other characters can be classified as the loneliest. Crooks is the loneliest because he is segregated from everybody else on the ranch, he talks about how lonely he is, and has limited social and work contact because of his disability and race. Firstly, Crooks is segregated from everyone on the ranch triggering him to be lonely. “Crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn” (66). This shows Crooks does not live...
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...Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Exam style practice questions for AQA GCSE English Literature Teaching notes The following questions are designed to meet the assessment objectives for Of Mice and Men for GCSE English Literature Unit 1, Section B: Exploring cultures. Where we have created practice questions, they follow a similar structure and wording to the questions that have been set for examination. Questions are provided for each section of the text, according to the passage focused on in Part (a). It is not necessary to have completed a reading of the whole text in order to answer Part (a) of each question, so you may wish to use one or more of these with students as they study a particular section. Part (b) of each question requires reference to the novel as a whole. Where available, past paper questions have been identified for you to use as possible practice questions for that section of the text. These can be downloaded here: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-literature-9710/past-papers-and-markschemes. Please note that for copyright reasons past papers are moved to the Secure Key Materials of the AQA website after three years, with copyright extracts removed. Please also note that the passages focused on in Part (a) of the practice questions below have not been reproduced, again for copyright reasons. Section 1 Foundation Read the following passage and then answer Part (a) and Part (b). Extract from p.2, ‘For a moment the place...
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...All great and precious things are lonely John Steinbeck once said, “All great and precious things are lonely.” Steinbeck exemplifies the theme of how loneliness determines people to try and find friendship in order to dodge loneliness. Three main examples show this idea. The first example being Candy after his dog passed away. The second example being Curley’s wife and how she dealt with her loneliness and the third noteworthy example being how Crooks was treated on the ranch due to his race and disability. Each example presents the theme of how loneliness determines people to try and find friendship in order to dodge being lonely. Once Candy’s dog dies, he desperately goes searching for a new companion because he is trying to run away from the idea of being lonely. He idealizes becoming friends with George and Lennie once he overhears them talking about buying their dream ranch. “S’pose I went in with you guys. That’s three hundred and fifty buck I’d put in … How’d that be?” (pg.86 Steinbeck). Steinbeck shows us how Candy is tired of being in a place where he knows he is not wanted and how he’s starting to give up on himself after his dog got shot. Candy had had his dog as his companion from the very beginning. Candy is the only other character besides Lennie to have ever loved an animal. After Carlson took his dog to the back and shot it, instantly Candy became attached to George and Lennie’s dream to settle down on a farm. His sudden attachment to their plan shows...
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...John Steinbeck showed the effect that friendship has on people, multiple ways. In this novel, Lennie shows how he has become reliant on others for everything. Lennie's face wrinkled with apprehension. "I don' know.(Steinbeck, 72)" This evidence suggests that Lennie doesn’t know what to do when he has to make decisions on his own. Another way Steinbeck shows loneliness is by showing the effect of lost companionship. In this novel, Crooks is portrayed as someone who has had to be lonely for so long that he needs someone's companionship. "A guy needs somebody to be near him." He whined "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. (Steinbeck, 72)" This quote shows how Crooks has had no one for so long that he yearns for the companionship of others. The last way Steinbeck displayed loneliness is by showing human- animal companionship. He said miserably, "you seen what they done to my dog tonight? When they can me here I wisht somebody'd...
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