However George and Lennie are unusual. Unlike the other ranch they travel around together. This was very rare for two men to travel together. George stays with Lennie because he knew his aunt Clara and promised her that he would look after Lennie who is simple-minded. George also uses Lennie’s friendship for security because Lennie is big and very strong and will protect him.
George also feels that Lennie made him seen “God damn smart alongside him” This shows that Lennie made George looked clever and important. When George and Lennie first go to the ranch the boss is suspicious of their unusual friendship with Lennie are striving to be different and not be lonely and seeking companionship.
Lennie is lonely because Aunt Clara died and he is simple; he relies on George to look after him. George knows that Lennie finds it difficult and makes him feel great by promising Lennie that they would raise enough money to buy a plot of land and that he would be able to tend rabbits.
When Lennie goes into Crooks’ room Crooks tries to frighten Lennie. He tells him that his friendship with George could be torn apart because he is jealous of their relationship. Lennie gets incensed, and tells Crook that “George wouldn’t do nothing like that” to assure himself of his friendship with George. Lennie is very protective of George and tell Crooks that “Ain’t nobody going to hurt George” Lennie likes to stroke soft things for comfort. George bought Lennie a puppy for a pet which sometimes gets him into trouble for example the time when Lennie was alleged to have raped a girl in Weed.
Candy is lonely because he is old and is known on the ranch as a “swamper”. Candy can’t move from ranch to ranch because like Crooks he is disabled and is of no use to anyone else. To get through his old age he has a dog which is his friend and companion that he looked after since he was a pup. The other men, all loners and migrant workers, cannot understand the idea of the friendship and simply want the dog shot because it is no longer of use and is creating a stink in the bunkhouse. Carlson tells Candy that he needs to get rid of the dog; they do not sympathize with him, Candy’s fondness for the dog as he pleads with him to drop the subject, “I am so used to him” and “he was the best damn sheepdog”. Eventually Candy agrees to Carlson shooting the dog. After the dog is put down Candy regrets his decision and says “I ought to have shot that dog myself George” because by Candy shooting the dog he would of felt a lot better instead of some else shooting the dog a further motive that Candy wanted shoot the dog was that only he was the one who raises the dog since he was a pup.
Further in the novel Candy tries to cling to George and Lennies dream of having a farm because it would get rid his loneliness and would have a future worth living for. Candy tries to make George and Lennies dream come true by offering some money for the deposit for the farm and says “I ain’t got no relatives or nothing”. Unfortunately the dream is shattered when Curley’s wife is killed. Candy, seeing the collapse of his dream, Candy takes out his anger of Curley’s wife corpse, “You wasn’t no good… I could of hoed the garden and washed the dishes for them guys” The dream would have been his “get out of jail free card” but now he is left on the ranch to live out his lonely old aged existences. He is left to rot.
Curley’s wife on the other hand has a completely different loneliness compared to Candy. Steinbeck stresses how inappropriate her appearance is, with her “full, rouged lips”, “heavily made up” eyes, “red fingernails” and “red mules on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.” She is immediately isolated because she is the only woman on the ranch. Steinbeck makes her seem companionless and secluded by never giving her a name.
Curley’s wife is also says in the novel that she could have been a Hollywood star and has sacrificed all that for Curley and even though she never achieved it. Curley’s wife is a flirt and tries to “chat up” the men on the ranch to gain their attention. Curley the bosses’ son is suspicious of this and is always checking up on her and get angry and tense when she flirts. She does this because she becomes bored and lonely and has nothing else to do. The men of the ranch know full well that she is trouble and try to steer clear of her as much as possible.
Crooks is lonely, he is isolated in the barn due to the racial discrimination of the 1930s. Crooks is a well educated man but also is a cripple and cannot depart the ranch. He only mixes with the other men on the ranch when they play horseshoe outside. Crooks is treated in an inferior and racist way and is often insulted by being called a “Nigger”. He is excluded from the companionship that exists in the bunkhouse between the men. He explains to Lennie that “They play cards in there but I can’t play because I’m Black.” When he comes to speak to Slim about the mule’s foot, he does not enter – “The stable buck put in his head” he is only allowed into the bunkhouse on Christmas night. “Crooks was a proud man, aloof man” because he has no choice but to tolerate his isolation. As a result he bitterly guards his enforced privacy. He tells Lennie that “This here is my room… I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room.” Crooks later regrets taunting Lennie and says “A guy need somebody”- to be near him and “a guy get too lonely”. Steinbeck uses Crooks’ character to illustrate that loneliness can destroy a person.
Throughout the novel “ Of Mice and Men” Steinbeck has clearly illustrated the theme of loneliness. He has shown that all the characters were lonely for different reasons. They were all affected by the social and economic difficulties of the nineteen thirties.
