Of Mice And Men
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Alienation and Loneliness in Of Mice And Men
In a poem written by Robert Burns, he stated that “The best-laid schemes o mice an Ðmen gang aftagley,” which translates to, the best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. John Steinbeck was inspired by this poem and his title originated from this line. During the Great Depression, it was tough for people to make a living. When a migrant worker first comes to a new farm, he can pay for his food and his room on credit. Therefore the second day he is there he has to work to pay of the first day. And the next day he has to pay for the previous day. A migrant worker is always in debt. “The average migrant worker earns $2.50 to $3.00 a day, hardly enough for a sizable nest egg of savings” (Moss 270). John Steinbecks main theme of the inescapability of alienation and loneliness is represented by his major characters.
Crooks, the Negro stable buck, represents how all black people were treated during the Great Depression. “Black Americans harbored a legitimate fear of being lynched. Of the 4,312 people lynched in the United States from 1882 to 1920, the vast majority was black” (Moss 273). Crooks lives in constant fear of doing something wrong and getting lynched because of it. Crooks was not allowed to talk to anyone else on the farm and he had to live in his own separate bunkhouse. Crooks is surprised when Lennie comes into his stable room and tells him, “You got no right to come in my room. This heres my room. Nobody got any right in here but me” (Steinbeck 68). Crooks gets used to living alone and he would rather be alone than have someone come into his room and start talking to him. Lennie does not understand the way people would separate themselves just because they were from a different social class than someone else. Crooks is proud, but he was extremely lonely. “Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and lives alone, ostracized by the ranch hands because of his race” (Telgen 247). Crooks tries to explain to Lennie how lonely he is because he is pushed away from society because he is black. Lennie does not understand what Crooks is trying to tell him. Crooks is the only example in Of Mice and Men of an African American being alienated by all of the other characters in the novel.
“In the early 1900s men and women were generally restricted to separate spheres of life” (Moss 271). Curleys wife also represents a group of society that is alienated during the time of the Great Depression. Women were not allowed to work in the fields at all. They were supposed to stay in the kitchen and do the laundry, the dishes, and all the housework. “Curleys wife displays a restlessness associated with other women of her situation and status” (Moss 272). Curleys wife expresses this restlessness when she is talking to Lennie in the barn. Curleys wife talks to Lennie about how she could have been a movie star and how she could have had nice clothes, but she did not get any of those nice things. Curleys wife, instead, married Curley and came to the ranch. Eventually, Curleys wife tells Lennie how lonely she really is. She says, “I get lonely. You can talk to people, but I cant talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. Howd you like not to talk to anybody?” (Steinbeck 87). Curleys wife gets so lonely that she starts flirting with all of the workers. George starts talking to Whit about it and Whit says, “Well, stick around an keep your eyes open. Youll see plenty. She aint concealin nothing. She got the eye goin all the time on everybody” (Steinbeck 51). Curleys wife knew Lennie did not know his own strength when she was in the barn with him. With this in her mind, she was so lonely and desperate for a friend; she let him pet her hair. John Steinbeck really illustrates how lonely and alienated women were in the early 1900s by not even giving Curleys wife a name.
Many white people would alienate themselves from everyone else as well. George and Lennie, the only two characters who seem to have a friendship and not be lonely, could possibly be the two loneliest characters in the book. “George and Lennies friendship is an obligation imposed upon George by Lennies aunt, and it frequently irritates George since Lennie has always got them both into trouble” (Burgum 120). Steinbeck uses this friendship between George and Lennie to help denote the loneliness of a ranch hand in the early 1900s (Dunesbury 346). When Lennie would get in trouble, George would tell him that it would have benefited everyone if Lennie had never been born. Lennie tells George that he will go hide in a cave if that is what George wanted but George tells him to stay and that he needs Lennie. This shows that George is not being a friend to Lennie, he is only watching over him. “The dominant cause of George and Lennies lonesomeness and of that of all the ranch hands is the lack of a home” (Dusenbury 345). George would make fun of Lennie and play jokes on him all the time because Lennie did not know any better. George said, “Funny, I used to have a hell of a lot of fun with Ðim. Used to play jokes on him. I had fun. Made me seem God damn smart alongside of him” (Steinbeck 40). When George would do this, he was just making the two of them become farther apart. Even though Lennie praised George for saving him after he jumped into the water, George was not gaining anything from the experience. George would always