In the novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck demonstrates the effect of isolation through prejudice, broken dreams and the setting. All of these aspects of the story lead to the characters suffering from isolation which inevitably result in the characters suffering from loneliness.
Prejudice is one of the main causes for isolation in Of Mice and Men, as several characters are shown to have been suffering from prejudices. “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?” Curley’s wife is a method and a character that Steinbeck uses to sum up the life of an average 1930s, American woman, who suffers from sexism and loneliness. Curley’s wife feels that because she is a woman, she isn’t allowed to go near the workers on the ranch and she often complains, as shown in the quote, that she feels that she should be allowed to talk to the workers. This prejudice makes Curley’s wife isolated from everyone else on the ranch, and because she is the only female on the ranch, she doesn’t have anyone else that she could empathise with. Steinbeck uses the complaints by Curley’s Wife to show that she is being affected by loneliness and isolation.
Another character that Steinbeck uses as a method to show what isolation does to people in Of Mice and Men is the stable buck, Crooks. Crooks suffers from another prejudice – racism. “I ain’t wanted in the bunk house” is a line Steinbeck uses to demonstrate how Crooks feels about the prejudice against him. Isolation has caused Crooks to accept that he is different from everyone else and that he shouldn’t be included with the rest of the workers because he has a different skin colour. The method used in this scenario is to show that because of prejudice during the Great Depression, the victims of racism have given up fighting against it and have just accepted that society will always segregate black people from white people. “He can’t turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too.” Crooks is talking about himself and this has also demonstrated the effects on Crooks, by showing that while he has accepted being separated from white people; he dislikes it and wants to stop suffering from the loneliness and isolation that racism causes.
Another method that Steinbeck uses to demonstrate the effects of isolation on people is to show how many characters in Of Mice and Men have a dream that they want to fulfil in life but they don’t end up achieving it. This leads to the characters feeling isolated and depressed, and this is an example of how Steinbeck wants to show what happened to Americans during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Steinbeck uses Curley’s wife in chapter five as a method to show how isolation has caused her to confess her feelings to Lennie. “If I went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet”. Curley’s wife believes that she could become an actress and make it to Hollywood. However, she didn’t make it and she ended up on a ranch instead, where she is the only female. This has caused her to be depressed and disappointed because she has realised that her dream will never come to fruition. Steinbeck uses this to tell the audience that she is suffering from isolation and depression because her dream has been broken.
George, together with Lennie and Candy, had a dream of owning his own land and being able to settle down. As told by Crooks – “I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes,” – many Americans had the same dream as George, Lennie and Candy have, and they failed to achieve it as well. Crooks also said “crazy with loneliness.” This implies that the reason why Americans have this dream is because they are lonely and isolated. This can be said for George, who is always getting in trouble because of Lennie; however he still travels with him because he doesn’t want to be lonely. Steinbeck uses this situation to show that the effects or fears of isolation can cause people to dream irrational and improbable dreams because they are that desperate to avoid being lonely. Towards the end of the novella, George says, “I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.” This implies that George never actually believed that he would fulfil his dream yet he had still hoped that he would. Steinbeck has used to George as a method to show how isolation and fear of isolation causes people to dream of a better life but those dreams will always diminish and lead to loneliness and even more isolation.
The setting of the novella is in a place called Soledad. Soledad is a fitting name for the area in which the characters are because Soledad is a direct translation for solitude. Solitude represents the feelings of some characters like Curley’s wife and Crooks, as they suffer from isolation. It is clear that Steinbeck used the name Soledad as a method to demonstrate and set the theme of the novella – which is isolation – to the audience. The setting of the novella is also the ranch which can additionally lead to the inhabitants being in even more solitude, especially for characters like Curley’s wife. “I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this.” Curley’s wife expresses how she doesn’t belong in a place like the ranch and she shouldn’t be living there. These feelings of hers come from the solitude and isolation of being the only female in the ranch. Steinbeck has used the ranch as a method to show how it isolates people and what effects it has on them.
To summarise my points, Steinbeck has demonstrated how isolation has affected people in Of Mice and Men by showing how his characters suffer, along with their feelings and reactions to being lonely. Prejudice is a definite cause of why some characters, like Crooks and Curley’s wife, are affected by isolation and Steinbeck has used prejudice to demonstrate how it makes people feel lonely and envious of other workers on the ranch, who have more rights than they do, and are allowed to be included in discussions and games with the others. Setting is used as a method to show that the effects of the ranch and Soledad is making the characters feel isolated and causing solitude in the ranch. Steinbeck’s method of showing the audience how the characters’ dreams are broken creates an idea of how isolated and demoralised people felt during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Characters’ broken dreams affect them by causing them to feel disappointed and diminished which ultimately leads to them feeling unwanted and lonely. All these methods are linked and when they are all executed together, they clearly cause people to suffer from isolation and the audience can see how it affects them. Steinbeck uses these methods demonstrate the effects of isolation on people in his phenomenal novella, Of Mice and Men.