‘Well, jus’ forget it, I didn’t mean it. Jus’ foolin’.
I wouldn’t want to go no place like that’
and the reader is led to think that Crooks does not believe he is good enough for the group or to be part of George and Lennie’s dream. This is also demonstrating that he does not know how to treat others as the way they treat him is all he has to work from. People are disrespectful to him and he does not know how to act in the passage where Lennie comes into his bunk in an attempt to make friends. He answers this kind gesture with;
‘You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room.
Nobody got any right in here but me.’
This part of the novel is where we see a ‘nasty’ side of Crooks but it is not him intending to be unkind to Lennie it is just his way of coping and not sure how to go about friendship as he has always been used to having no one. The reader is led to believe that Crooks is fascinated with the relationship Lennie and George have. Crooks says;
‘Well, s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then?’
and asks this question so that he can make the others in the novel feel as he did when he was lonely and having nobody with him and is striving for others to appreciate what it feels like.
Steinbeck puts across to the reader that Candy is the character who puts himself down a lot and feels he can’t interact with the others in the ranch as he is disabled with having only one hand. What is meant by this is that he gets invited to go out with the others from the ranch but he feels he doesn’t have the right to be accepted. This is quite possibly that he is sad and lonely because he is searching for the right person to be friends with. He is scared of losing his job not even to mention his whole life; this is best seen in this quote;
‘They’ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out
no bunk-houses they’ll out me on the county.’
The relationship with his dog was all that Candy had and with the dog being the only thing he owned and confided in he felt even lonelier when it was taken away from him. Candy shared none of the dreams anyone else in the book and in a way wants in on George and Lennie’s dream by offering money,
‘Maybe if I give you guys my money, you’ll let me hoe in the garden even after I ain’t no good at it. An I’ll wash dishes an’ chicken stuff like that.’
All these characters are the same as they have the same feelings of loneliness even though they are surrounded by people. Another character with this feeling of inner conflict is Curley’s wife. At the start of the essay Curley’s wife is a flirt to everyone and acts a sort of ‘tart’. She uses her image to gain attention off everyone inn the ranch to entertain herself and console her loneliness. This backfires on her as she is known for being a flirt so none of the characters will talk to her. In the passage where Curley’s wife walks into Crook’s bunk-house and starts talking and Crooks says;
‘Maybe you better go along to your own house now. We don’t want no trouble.’
This shows that no one wants to talk to her as she is known as a tease and for bothering others.
Curley’s wife spied Lennie as being a soft natured person who could possibly stop the loneliness she is going through and so she talks to him but asks him to stroke her hair; when she starts to yell he holds her tighter. This results in her death. This can be seen as a misfortunate but also as putting an end to her suffering.
Curley’s wife was fortunate in many ways; she was beautiful and could attract the attention of almost anyone with eyes. The way in which Steinbeck fundamentally brought her across at the start of the novel was as a ‘whore’ but further in the novel describes her as being lonely so the reader sympathises; her case of loneliness was the most severe in the novel. She would do anything in her power to fix her one downside; being lonely.
Curley’s wife talks about how she had a dream once and she could have been in the ‘pitchers’. She shows her loneliness by saying she COULD have been in the ‘pitchers’ and she obviously knows that this dream cannot be achieved as she is stuck on a ranch with a husband that is hardly ever around. E.g.
‘Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes – all of them nice clothes like they wear. An’ I could sat in them big hotel, an’ had pitchers took of me’
notice in this passage she repeats that she ‘coulda had nice clothes’ to show how important it was to her and for her to talk as if she ‘could’ have been is sad that she knows it is not going t happen because she married Curley.
Throughout the story, ‘Of Mice and Men’ Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife make the reader discover sources of discrimination, solitude and loneliness. These characters try to cope with this loneliness by concentrating on the relationship between Lennie and George. In many ways they are jealous of this bond. They all try their best to fit in and are not wanted for different reasons or feel they are not worthy to be wanted. What they don’t realise is they would not be lonely if they felt they were worth something and did not dwell on appearances.
