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Assignment Stack the Deck includes five literary analysis papers. Each assignment includes a prompt, previewing questions for active reading, and a citation sheet for notetaking as students read the novel. Here is a student response from Of Mice and Men. It was written by a student in one of Herb Hrebic's classes. Loneliness in Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, is a story in which a dominating idea of inescapable loneliness prevails. This loneliness is perhaps summed up and emphasized most by Crooks, an alienated ranch hand, when he whines, "A guy needs somebody to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, a guy gets lonely an' he gets sick." Of Mice and Men is filled with characters such as this, who are unable to find a way out of their lonely lives. The loneliness in this story builds and builds and never is allowed to escape. By never allowing its escape, Steinbeck effectively forms a solid backing for the characters and events in his novel. If loneliness could be thought of as an illness, Lennie, a "bindle bum" and grain "bucker" at the ranch, would perhaps have a milder case than some of the others. Lennie's loneliness chiefly stems from the fact that he is both mentally retarded and very big and strong. His retardation sometimes causes others at the ranch to shun him, even to the point of thinking he is "cuckoo." Since Lennie cannot think as quickly as the other men, he is often set aside and isolated from them. He is unable to take an active part in conversations because George, Lennie's best friend and traveling companion, in the only one who can understand him. Furthermore, Lennie is frequently off in his own dream world and is constantly preoccupied with dreams of the farm which he and George someday hope to buy. As a result, Lennie is unable to face reality at times, a fact which puts him even more out of touch with the real world and with other workers. Lennie is just like a big baby because of his retardation. He refuses to defend himself and often cannot be held responsible for his actions. This irresponsibility, combined with Lennie's abnormal size and strength, causes many of the other ranch hands to shy away from him. The men are afraid of Lennie because they know that if his great strength were ever to go uncontrolled, it could easily overwhelm one of them, as it did in Lennie's fight with Curley, the son of the ranch boss. At first Lennie backed into a corner to shield himself from Curley's blows, but Lennie later broke Curley's hand with one squeeze of his powerful fist. Because of Lennie's irresponsible actions, trouble often results for George and him such as it did when Lennie innocently felt a girl's dress in the town of Weed. Lennie was accused of rape and he and George were hunted down by the townspeople before they finally escaped. This constant rejection by others only serves to increase the depth of Lennie's loneliness and adds to the total theme of loneliness in the novel. Crooks, the Negro stablehand, is another lonely character at the ranch. The chief cause of Crook's loneliness centers on the fact that he is black. Most of the men constantly put down Crooks and use him as a scapegoat, even to the point of calling him the "n" word. Because of his color, Crooks must live by himself in a small room in the barn, and except for playing horseshoes, cannot associate with the others. Crooks becomes so accustomed to this constant isolation, that he is suspicious of any man who suddenly tries to make friends with him, such as Lennie. When Lennie accidentally stumbles onto Crooks' room one night in the barn and tries to sit down and talk, Crooks becomes so suspicious that he actually tries to drive Lennie away before giving up and allowing Lennie to come in. Crooks' deformed back deprives him of working with the other men, thereby denying him his last opportunity for personal contact with them. While the other men work together in the fields "bucking" grain sacks or harvesting crops, Crooks must sit all alone in his little room in the barn mending harnesses and doing other menial labor. Crooks is perhaps the only man on the ranch who does a substantial amount of reading, vainly hoping it will help him pass his lonely hours. Unlike Lennie, Crooks has no dreams for the future, which gives him the feeling that he is trapped on this lonely ranch for the rest of his life. Curley's wife is perhaps the loneliest person of all on the ranch. Since she is the only woman on the ranch, she is set apart and perhaps suffers an even greater degree of isolation than Lennie or Crooks. Curley, her own husband, ignores her. Curley does not regard his wife as a person needing love and companionship, but rather as an object which can be put aside, pushed around, and then restored with a few apologies or promises. Instead of being attentive to his wife, Curley is frequently going out with "the boys" instead of with his wife. A vivid example of this is portrayed in the movie version of the novel, in which Curley's wife hands Curley a theater schedule showing that her favorite movie is playing. Curley responds, "I saw it last night in town with the boys." Curley and his father, the ranch boss, are so caught up in their work that they rush off early in the morning, leaving Curley's wife alone at the ranch house all day. As a result of this and Curley's constant bragging about his fighting skills, Curley's wife has no love for her husband and wishes to leave him, but her final escape route is blocked since her father is dead and her mother doesn't want her. Curley's wife tries to find companionship with the other men on the ranch but they ignore her or try to brush her off fearing that if they are caught associating with her, they will lose their jobs. The ranch hands are also just plain sick of her running about the ranch looking for Curley, telling her that "home is where she belongs." Curley's wife's loneliness finally becomes so severe that she resorts to fantasizing herself as a famous actress just to feel wanted and more popular with others. The characters in Of Mice and Men each experience varying degrees of loneliness, but Steinbeck forcefully combines the personal isolation of each character to produce a powerful theme of loneliness. Any building must have a firm foundation in order to stand. Likewise, the novel, Of Mice and Men is based on a theme which forms a firm basis for its characters and settings. Without a firm underlying theme, a story would "crumble" in the reader's mind just as a building would crumble if its foundation gave way. By incorporating such a firm foundation into Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck has painted a truly realistic picture of what it means to be lonely and have no one with whom to share your thoughts and feelings. This portrayal of loneliness is just as vivid today as it was more than 40 years ago when the story was created.

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