I have talked about how lonely the ranch workers in general are, but Steinbeck focuses in particular on three characters: Candy, Crooks and Curley’s wife; he may do this to try to put across a message to the reader, speaking out against Ageism, Racism and Sexism respectively. I will talk about Candy first:
Candy is the oldest employee at the ranch and he knows it. His best friend was his dog, which has now been killed by Carlson. In the scene in which Carlson is persuading Candy to let him shoot the dog, Carlson gives a logical argument “he jus’ suffers hisself all the time”, Candy however just says that he’s “had ‘im so long - had him from a pup”. This is Candy trying to hold onto his companion, who he’s become attached to and doesn’t want him dead. Carlson however, persists and the dog is killed. Candy now has no real companions on the ranch and is worried about his future “They’ll can me purty soon.”, he explains to George and Lennie how he has “no place to go, and can’t get no more jobs”. In Chapter 3 Candy’s glimpses hope as he offers to put in some money to help George and Lennie buy their dream house “s’pose I went in with you guys?”. As he does so he again underlines his loneliness - “ I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing”. With his dog dead Candy is desperately grasping for some sort of companionship and for a while it looks as if their dream may be realised. Unfortunately though, Lennie kills Curley’s wife and their dream is shattered.
Crooks is the only black man on the ranch, the book was written in 1937 where racism and black/white segregation was still commonplace. Crooks is deliberately written as being black as a method for Steinbeck to speak out against the evils of racism; Crooks is clearly very lonely, even by ranch workers standards. Because he is black he must sleep in his own “little shed” and isn’t allowed in the bunkhouse with all the other workers “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse”. In Chapter 4, the reason for this ostracising is made clear “’cause I’m black, they play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black.” The other ranch workers may think that they have no close friends, but Crooks isn’t even allowed to be around them (except while working or playing horseshoes), which is something the rest of the characters take for granted- he explains to Lennie “You got George. You know he’s coming back. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse? Suppose you had to stay out here and read books. How’d you like that? Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody – to be near him. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. You know he’s coming back.” This is Crooks most emotional outburst and is used effectively to really show through the loneliness that he in particular is feeling – the other workers have other guys “just to be near them”, which many of them take for granted. Steinbeck uses Crooks for other plot devices as well such as giving a small insight into how the book finishes. “Nobody never gets to Heaven and nobody gets no land.”
Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is given no name. Curley’s wife is continually referred to throughout the book as “Curley’s wife”. This is completely intentional and is used to show women’s insignificance at the time. Like Candy is the only old person on the ranch and Crooks is the only black person on the ranch, Curley’s wife is the only woman on the ranch. As the only woman on the ranch she has no girly friends to talk to and is thus very lonely. Her only real contact is Curley, who she doesn’t even like, describing him as “he ain’t a nice fella”. Curley doesn’t help the situation by continually keeping her under check and stopping her from talking to the other ranch workers “I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad” The ranch workers are scared of Curley so they don’t like to talk to his wife, George describes her as “jailbait”. When she tries to talk to Crooks, Lennie and Candy, Crooks tells her “Maybe you better go along to your house now, we don’t want no trouble.” Curley’s wife often uses “I’m looking for Curley” as an excuse to talk to the other guys at the ranch. When Steinbeck first introduces Curley’s wife she is portrayed through the ranch workers eyes “Bet she’d clear out for twenty bucks”. Not until the ending of the book do we see why she acts so flirtatiously – she just wants someone to talk to and she uses her body as a way of getting a guy’s attention. “I never get to talk to nobody, I get awful lonely, how’d you like not to talk to anybody?” She tells Lennie.
It is interesting how, in chapter 4, when all the other ranch workers are at the Cat house, that Crooks, Curley’s wife, Lennie and Candy all meet in Crook’s house. Lennie is the only one who has a real companion (George) yet he doesn’t appreciate it until he sees how lonely the others are and empathises with them: “You got George” Having them meet is Steinbeck’s way of showing the reader how lonely they are – the people who would normally have ostracised them aren’t in the ranch at the time, and so Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife, the three most lonely people, all feeling left out and lonely meet and talk to each other. Though it would seem that they would enjoy talking to one another, they are all so used to being wrapped up on their own, that, particularly Crooks and Curley’s wife, are not at all friendly to each other; Curley’s wife tells Crooks how she “could get him strung up on a tree so fast it ain’t even funny”. This is a reference to the lynchings of black men, which were common at the time. This, again, is Steinbeck speaking out against racism and implying that many blacks were framed for their crimes.
In conclusion all of the ranch workers are lonely; all except Curley have no wife, few have close friends or companions and they live very lonely existences. There are a few however, namely Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife who are especially lonely because they have been cut off from the rest of the characters Steinbeck uses his book to speak out against sexism, racism and ageism.
