The Theme of Loneliness in Of Mice and Men

“Eek a mouse!” a commonly used quote compared to, “Of Mice and Men” a quote nobody would use in today’s world or the past because it relates men to rodents. Steinbeck uses this to relay how men are murine because they are under the thumb of other men and authorities with their dreams and lives. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, three main themes are recurring throughout the story, which is loneliness and its link to friendship, companionship/friendship and how it can overcome loneliness, and American dreams and how they correlate with loneliness and companionship. They all tie into one another and are used by John Steinbeck to create an amazing story with great insight.

Loneliness is a theme portrayed in Of Mice and Men and was quite prominent throughout John Steinbeck’s lifetime. He uses his knowledge to allude to the fact that everyone experiences loneliness in his novel, besides when companionship/friendship is present:

“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. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us” (Steinbeck 15).

This quote is used to strengthen Steinbeck’s idea that loneliness is already in the world and is prevented through friendship in a very pleasant way, but it also shows how George and Lennie have a special relationship with one another. He also uses this quote to expose how people are suffering in their lives through their isolation. In the novel, George reminds Lennie of just how lucky they are to have each other, to offer safety and comfort to each other. John Steinbeck tries to relay that men in his society don’t have a well-maintained/healthy bond because the world understands very little about them:

“A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin’books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’what ain’t so. Maybe if he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether it’s right or not. He can’t turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can’t tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here. I wasn’t drunk. I don’t know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep an’ then it would be all right. But I jus’ don’t know” (Steinbeck 71).

A quote spoken by Crooks on the evening in which Lennie visits him, Steinbeck includes this to show that, in Crooks’ isolation, he longs for a friend because he can’t even enter a white man’s card game because of his disability. Crooks also shows his frustration in his quote, but in it, he also displays his vulnerability. John Steinbeck includes this quote to further his point that a man’s loneliness can stem from many sources, one being the allure of promised farmlands for themselves and companionship.

Companionship, for the lonely man, was part of their American Dream because it allowed them to be truly happy with what they had achieved. John Steinbeck cleverly shows how he views companionship as a prized possession and a way to combat loneliness. “Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is” (Steinbeck 23). This is a quote added to the novel to paint an idea in the reader’s mind that companionship was not common among men; instead, it was rather rare. It also shows that people believed that a relationship between a man and another man was purely for the benefit of one another’s interests and not for the benefit of health for them. Steinbeck also includes, “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you” (Steinbeck 15) to show how Lennie viewed his relationship with George as not purely instrumental for himself but to help each other. He eludes that friendship is beneficial and enjoyable to all men if they are not in it just for themselves. But friendships are only part of the American dream.

The American dream changes often and is influenced by man’s personal experiences. Steinbeck establishes his idea in Of Mice and Men that the American dream differs from person to person, but can also be very similar and strived for. “S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing.” Old Candy nodded in approval of the idea. “We’d just go to her,” George said. “We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say, ‘We’ll go to her,’ an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.” (Steinbeck 59) This quote used presents the fantasy of the farmland that George wanted with Lennie and how he relied on it to give him his drive. John Steinbeck shows that the American dream worked towards and was the flame for men’s passion to pursue their dreams. Though most men simply wanted their land, some men, George and Lennie, wanted to buy land and be freed from their boss/ “owner”. They wanted to pursue happiness and become self-reliant when they fulfilled their dreams, which was the typical American dream but pursued it in a much different way. Steinbeck also adds:

“I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land” (Steinbeck 72).

 to extinguish the hope of Lennie by Crooks as he compares him to “hundreds of men”. He uses this quote to hide that Crooks believes that the American dream is impossible to meet and is bitter because of it. Steinbeck tries to relay the point that oppression of the American dream comes from not only those who have power and strength but also those who are weak, who seek to attack the weaker ones. The American dream was a recurring theme not only in the novel but also in John Steinbeck’s life.

“Men are like mice,” a quote nobody would think about using in today’s world or the past because it compares men to rodents, but I see differently how this could be used. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, there are three main themes portrayed throughout the story, which are loneliness and its correlation with friendship, companionship/friendship and how it is used to overcome loneliness, and American dreams and its relationship with loneliness and companionship. The themes all relate to how the quote “men are like mice” conveys how men are like mice because they are under the thumb of other men and authorities with their dreams and lives. The writer John Steinbeck creates not only a stupefying story, but he also shows his insights into the world he was living in to help the American people further grasp his ideas. “Eek, a mouse” a commonly known quote that doesn’t allude to men being like mice, but men are more murine than we can imagine.

Works Cited

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Penguin Books, 2017.