Mice and Men Isolation in Steinbeck's of Essay

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Mice and Men

Isolation in Steinbeck's of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men is a novelette by John Steinbeck that is filled with isolated characters desperate to latch onto the American dream. The dream of the protagonists, George and Lennie, is to have a place of their own in Depression-Era southern California. Things look promising as the itinerant workers get jobs on a farm, make friends, and devise a plan to make the dream possible. The problem, however, is that George and Lennie get in the way of themselves -- Lennie by being Lennie, and George by abandoning his role as "brother's keeper" for a night on the town. An accidental death suddenly has Lennie running for his life (which, George decides, he has no chance of saving). George, therefore, shoots and kills his friend before the mob can have at him. George is left to cope with the loss not only of his friend but also of the dream -- and he wanders off to be consoled by another one of the same fold, who has also harbored dreams. In the tale, Steinbeck offers a view of isolation in the midst of the dream-like panacea of Americana: a kind of Hobbesian-take on the American world. This paper will explore Steinbeck's creation. It proposes that Steinbeck's vision of America was of an orphaned people wandering without the shelter of friendship/fulfillment, isolated from life and each other, with only what Eugene O'Neill would call "pipe dreams." What Steinbeck appears to say is that isolation is the common fate of all in Of Mice and Men.

Nina Baym notes that Steinbeck "expresses his sense that America's best times are past and locates value in…socially marginal characters" (1740). Such a sense is immediately given in Mice and Men when George and Lennie appear (wandering) on the scene like a couple of stray sheep who have gone away from the flock. Thirsty, Lennie (the simple, large, dim-witted innocent) stoops to drink from a stagnant pool of water.

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George, who knows not to drink from water that is not running -- even commenting on the water's scum -- decides to follow Lennie's example and drink as well. "You'd drink out of a gutter if you was thirsty," (3) says Lennie truthfully. The sentiment he expresses is one of acceptance and humility -- but it also tells something of the two: they are practically drinking from the gutter; they are thirsty; and (for all they know) good times are over.

The difference between Lennie and George, however, is in their attitude toward life. Lennie is too simple to even remember the object of their journey, while George is too bitter to be hopeful that anything good might ever come of it. Yet, these are not two-dimensional characters created by Steinbeck. They are complex, and their complexities are expressed in unique ways: for example, Lennie may be slow, but he himself is not without his dreams: he longs to be part of the soft, simple side of nature -- to hold it and caress it; George, on the other hand, may appear cynical and lousy -- but the fact is that he takes care of the innocent Lennie and keeps him from coming to harm. Unfortunately, from a Hobbesian viewpoint, both are doomed to failure, for inside Lennie is a giant strength that cannot be controlled, and inside George is a selfishness that wants only to be free of its responsibility.

Steinbeck himself based these characters on real people and described meeting and working alongside the real-life Lennie:

Lennie was a real person. He's in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He didn't kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how….....

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