Loneliness is one of the many major themes found in the novel and more or less every character is lonely in one way or another. Within the book loneliness is described in many different situations linking to other emotions such as jealousy or anger and also leading to horrendous events such as death. Steinbeck sees loneliness as a part of the human condition, something we are born with and something we either fight or succumb to all our lives. However in the book George and Lennie overcome loneliness with their relationship. George and Lennie need each other to survive and in the novel this is clearly shown to the reader.
Harmonium and Nettles Harmonium and Nettles both highlight the theme of memory. As they both are looking back over past memories that are painful, the poems feature the feelings of being helpless in stopping the hurt that was caused. The writer in Harmonium feels remorse for the things he hadn’t said to his father as Armitage states “then mouth in reply some shallow sorry phrase or word too starved of breath to make itself heard”. The writer in Nettles is protective of the recurring threat to his child that he can’t destroy. “rain had called up tall recruits behind the shed,” this quote shows the father cannot destroy them .They differ in the way they felt powerless however as in Nettles the father is feeling powerless because of a physical threat whereas in Harmonium it is an emotional threat of the inevibility of death and unspoken feelings that makes the writer feel powerless.
A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" Crooks the black stable buck said this quote. In my opinion I would say that crooks would be one of the loneliest characters in the novel. Crooks has to go through life on the ranch without any real friends and no one to talk to.
Mother Teresa once said, "The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved." Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein touches on some key issues surrounding loneliness and abandonment. Society is harsh. If you don’t fit the mold of someone normal, you are cast away brutally and forgotten. Factors like this still stay true today.
Stein’s only purpose are his wife and children. The camp changes Elie, it breaks the link he used to have to his father. Even though they seem inseparable, they are alone when it comes to survival and endurance. Elie’s only wish upon seeing the beating is to get away in case the supervisor attacks him. This moment demonstrates that in the camp survival comes before anything else, even one’s family.
Steinbeck describes Crooks’ living condition to be, “For being alone…Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men” (67). Crooks’ deformed back deprive him of working with the other men, thus denying him an opportunity for personal contact with them. Next, Crooks becomes accustomed to seclusion and begins to be suspicious of any man who tries to make friends with him. Crooks cannot go in the bunkhouse of the white ranch hands; therefore, he turns Lennie away from his own place. His longing for company wins over and he then invites Lennie to accompany him (68).
We are first introduced to the theme of loneliness when George is talking to Lennie about life on a ranch and how men on a ranch live compared to how they live, saying "Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place……..With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us” Lennie eagerly finishes George’s description of them saying “But not us!
He’s all stiff with rheumatism. He ain’t no good to you, Candy.
You’re a nice guy. I don’t know why I cant talk to you, I aint doing no harm to you”(87). Which all show how and why shes lonely. Candy is our third and last character who is lonely. Hes lonely cause his only friend and family is a dog.
Compare how a characters voice is created in “My Last Duchess” and ONE other poem. The characters’ voices in “My Last Duchess” and “The River God” are created in very similar but also different ways. In both poems we can see that the characters are created as quite lonely in, “My Last Duchess” and “The River God”. The writer of “My last Duchess” uses euphemism to display his loneliness to the reader. “This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together.” This quote creates a sense of loneliness to the reader seeing as the speaker is saying that “all smiles stopped” implies that the person who smiled is no longer alive but now dead.