Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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“We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community” -Dorothy Day. In the book, Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck, we meet a community of people on a ranch, and all of them demonstrate loneliness. We meet three distinct characters, and their names are Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy. The story between them all is different but essentially the same in that they are alone and isolated. The only woman on this ranch has no name, but in the book, is given the title of Curley’s wife. Curley is her husband who we later find out she does not love, which makes her lonely. In the book, she is conversing with another character and says, ¨Well, I haven’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I oughtn't to. But, I don't like Curley¨ (Page 89). First off, The wife never has anybody to talk to, so she never gets to tell her feelings. Second, she is married to a man she doesn't like. She won't leave him because she has no friends and nowhere to go. She is just stuck where she is, and that is why she…show more content…
To put it in perspective, in the book, Carlson wants to shoot Candy’s dog, and Candy doesn’t want him to. On page 45, it says, “Candy looked for help from face to face.” Candy looks around for someone to be on his side about not killing his dog. But everyone is fairly on Carlson’s side. No one is caring about what Candy thinks they just want his dog out of there. Another demonstration of Candy being ignored is on page 58-59 it says, “When Candy spoke they both jumped as though they had been caught doing something reprehensible.” This was after Candy’s dog was shot and George and Lennie were talking about their American dream. Candy was so invisible to them that they didn't even notice him while they were talking. Candy knows his time is getting short at the ranch when no one is paying him any mind. Which leaves him isolated with no say in
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