Loneliness Within
Loneliness in this day and age isn’t displayed very openly by teenagers. Loneliness is when a person feels as though they are all alone in the world.
Teenagers usually become lonely when they don’t have any friends or they don’t conform to society. They don’t usually display loneliness because it may show that they are weak. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a story about migrant workers who dealt with loneliness everyday during the Great Depression. The characters in the story who suffered the most from loneliness are Crooks and Curly’s wife. Crooks is the only African American migrant worker and he is known for his crooked back and love of books. Since he is the only black male on the farm he is isolated from the other men, which triggers his loneliness.
Although, just like teenagers today, he is surrounded by people, he suffers from loneliness because he is different. Crooks is isolated from society but he also acts as though he wants to be isolated; in the story when Lennie attempted to come keep him company he pushed him away. Teenagers today are also trying to conceal their loneliness. In society they try to hide their emotions because just like Lennie, they are trying to convince people that they aren’t vulnerable. Curley’s wife is the only female in the story and the migrant workers isolate her because they don’t really understand why she acts disreputable.
She is only acknowledged by her husband who is possessive of his flirtatious wife. Being isolated and having a possessive husband drives Curley’s wife to seek comfort in the dream of one day being a movie star. Similar to Curley’s wife teenagers often look for love in other places if they feel they aren’t receiving the love they need from their family. This is a tragic problem because when love is not found through desperate measures unfortunate events occur. For example Curley’s wife was killed accidentally by Lennie in her search for affection, which is similar to what happens to teenagers today when they search for affection to no avail and they end up committing suicide. The characters in Of Mice and Men are just like teenagers today because loneliness stems from being a social outcast.
When people try to conceal loneliness they usually act as if everything in the world is okay but in reality it’s not. Curley’s high heeled boots, which he wears to feel superior to all of the migrant workers, when in all reality he isn’t, is a symbol of the great measures to which people will go to hide their loneliness . Teenagers are isolated today because they are homosexual, or they have a child at a young age or they don’t wear the same clothes as everyone else. Loneliness in teenagers is like an empty vase, without the main attraction, they aren’t anything. This is also like the loneliness for the migrant workers as well because without each other they are nothing but a bunch of empty vases.
