Isolation in of Mice and Men

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Explore Different Parts of ‘Of Mice and Men’ To Show the Development of the Theme Isolation In ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck, one key theme presented throughout the novel, is isolation. The novella is set during the Great Depression at a time of massive unemployment. The only work many men could find was on the ranches in California. The life of these migrant workers was very insecure and lonely as George says,’ Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world.’ However, ironically the loneliest characters in the novella are lonely for other reasons. These characters are isolated due to the gender, age or colour, are isolated from society or others on the ranch. Candy and Crooks are two secondary characters who are depicted as being isolated. Candy is isolated due to his age and disability whereas Crooks is isolated because he is a black man. Candy’s disability isolates him from the other men. ‘He pointed with his right arm, and out of the sleeve came a round stick-like wrist, but no hand.’ His ‘stick-like wrist’ singles him out from the other workers on the ranch who are all heaving bags of barley all day: “bucking barley”. He is the only man on the ranch that is weak, old and frail. When ‘but no hand’ is added to the description it emphasis more detail on how limited he is. It also shows how he is handicapped and as he is different from the others, maybe viewed as a weaker character than the other men on the ranch. The uses of commas are used to give slight pauses after ‘arm’ and ‘wrist’ to highlight the words relating to his disability. It’s due to this disability that Candy is given a job very different to those of the other ranchers: he is a swamper. This is one of the few jobs that he is able to do with one hand. It is a menial task and isolates him from the other men. portrays that Candy has trouble with socialising with other men since his

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