Curley's Wife Loneliness Analysis

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Throughout the novel, almost every character is portrayed by Steinbeck as suffering from loneliness. Curley’s wife suffers acutely from loneliness. In the male dominated, hostile world of the novel, being female isolates her from the ranchers. She is referred to as “ a tart “ and as “ jail bait “ – expressions which convey fear and contempt. She is never referred to by her name; she is only known as “ Curley’s Wife “ which emphasises her character’s sense of loneliness. Alone in the hostile and suspicious world of the novel she cherishes dreams which satisfy her need for attention – “Could have been in the movies and had pictures took of me “ It seems that only in death is she freed from her terrible burden of loneliness – “And…show more content…
They understand that it is their friendship that give their life meaning and a common purpose – “We’re going to have a little house and a couple of acres” At the end of the novel, George kills Lennie as a final loving act of friendship – “Everybody gonna be nice to you, nobody gonna hurt nobody” However, in doing so, he condemns himself to the lonely and meaningless existence of all the other ranch workers – “An’ when the end of the month come, I could go to a cat house”. It would seem that in the hopeless, hostile world of the American Depression, friendship must always give way to loneliness. Of Mice And Men depicts a world of shattered dreams, how much do you agree with this statement? Throughout the novel, almost all the characters seem to nurture some form of dream. Crooks is dismissive and cynical of the other ranchers’ dreams: “Nobody gets to heaven and nobody gets no land” He believes that all the ranchers’ dreams are unattainable. Yet even Crooks seems to nurture a dream of companionship, though tragically his dream exists in his memories of childhood “Had two brothers. They was always near me. Always

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