In Of Mice and Men, set back in the 1930s in America, John Steinbeck is trying to pull out loneliness and isolation as the main themes. The two main characters, George and Lennie, travel together and alone. Lennie is the dependent one in this relationship; it becomes clearer as the story continues that he suffers from some sort of a mental disability. Together, they manage to find work at a ranch in the Salinas Valley where they meet all kinds of people that have something in common: Steinbeck’s theme, loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck expresses his theme through almost all of his characters personalities and actions. One of the characters whom is probably the loneliest and most isolated is Curley’s wife, the bosses son (Curley)’s wife. Throughout her life, all she wanted was to feel loved and appreciated. Curley is so scared of losing his wife, that she is kept away from the other men on the ranch as to not get into any trouble. However, she does this anyways because of how she feels. ‘”…Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.”
Lennie said, “Well, I ain’t supposed to talk to you or nothing.
“I get lonely,” she said. “You can talk to people but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?”’ –p.g 86-87
There are many paths isolation can take. For Curley’s wife, it took the path of desperation on top of loneliness. For other characters in this book, it took a far more drastic turn, like Lennie. He faced isolation in ways he did not see but he feared being left by the one person he knew cared about him: George. George was always Lennie’s safety blanket. He was always there to protect him and keep him in line. So to think of a world without George was terrifying for him. He started to have hallucinations when he thought of the idea. ‘…and out from Lennie’s head there came a gigantic rabbit…
But the rabbit repeated softly over and over, “He gonna leave you, ya crazy bastard. He gonna leave ya all alone. He gonna leave ya, crazy bastard.”
Lennie put his hands over his ears. “He ain’t, I tell ya he ain’t.” And he cried, “Oh! George- George-George!”’ –p.g 101-102
Isolation and loneliness may lead to desperation and eventually, insanity.