Loneliness Jessica Burke
Steinbeck shows how people are driven to try and find friendship in order to escape from loneliness. Steinbeck creates a lonely and blue atmosphere at many times in the book. He uses names and words such as the town near the ranch called "Soledad", which means loneliness and the card game "Solitaire" Which means by ones self. He makes it clear that all the men on the ranch are lonely, with particular people lonelier than others.
The loneliest person on the ranch has to be Crooks, who suffers from extreme loneliness because he is black and he is living in a ranch and the surrounding area which is very racist. He lives by himself, because the other men do not like him. He does not take part in any of the social activities in the ranch and is left out completely. He is so lonely that he turns to books, which soon becomes boring and he will become lonely again. He is so desperate for company and for someone to talk, even though he does not really show it. When Lennie comes into his room, he just talks and doesn't care if Lennie is listening or not, because he is so desperate. Crooks says to Lennie "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick" (p.105) This shows that he desperately needs a friend to talk to and he is at the point where he is becoming emotionally sick of it. In a way this point made by Crooks shows that George and Lennie support each other from being very lonely, even if Lennie is as thick as an ape, he still disables George from being lonely. George and Lennie have something which all the men on the ranch envy and that is friendship.
