Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Mother Teresa declared, "The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved" (Mother Teresa Quotes). Albert Schweitzer stated, "We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness" (Albert Schweitzer Quotes). Loneliness has been addressed by many famous people. Steinbeck's novel agrees loneliness can exist in the presence of other people and is the worst form of poverty. Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, describes loneliness through the problems it causes, the elements of society producing it, and the characters' attempts to defeat it. First, Steinbeck describes loneliness through the problems it causes. The main problem loneliness creates in Of Mice and Men is hostility between characters. One example occurs when Crooks taunts Lennie with the idea George will not return from town. Crooks tortures Lennie with these ideas until Lennie …show more content…
When Lennie asks Crooks why he is not wanted, Crooks replies, "'Cause I'm black" (Steinbeck 68). Similarly, Curley's wife is lonely due to her gender. She tries to interact with the workers, but they avoid her to keep from getting in trouble with Curley. George foreshadows the problems Curley's wife will cause when he says, "She's gonna make a mess. They's gonna be a bad mess about her" (Steinbeck 51). Steinbeck often uses conversations between characters to foreshadow future happenings such as the problems caused by Lennie and Curley's wife. Foreshadowing is used at the beginning in the conversation where George tells Lennie to hide in the brush when he gets into trouble. The reader is given insight into future occurrences in the story through foreshadowing. Steinbeck uses this literary device to benefit the reader's future understanding of important events. Consequently, foreshadowing adds depth to the book by eluding to future situations like Curley's wife's loneliness causing
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