The theme of loneliness is what Steinbeck wants the reader to concentrate on, which is done through characters that are lonely for different reasons. Candy is an old swamper. He was assigned this job because he lost an arm and couldn’t do anything else. Candy tells us he has a dog: ‘I was just standing in the shade a minute scratching my dog.” This dog is very important to Candy because he had it from when it was a pup, and it’s his best friend- probably the only thing that stopped him getting lonely. But as Candy grew older so did the dog, and now the other men want the dog gone as it serves no purpose any more: “can’t eat, can’t see, can’t even walk with out hurting” they say. The other men are also quite sympathetic towards Candy, reassuring him they won’t hurt the dog and offering him new one. Candy does not want his dog to be killed as he tries to put it off by saying ‘maybe tomorra, let’s wait till tomorra,’ but Candy finds it hard to say no because he doesn’t have any influence over the other men- this is shown when the author writes: “Candy looked a long time at Slim to try and find some reversal.’
After this traumatic time, because Candy has compensation money he gets involved with George and Lennie’s dream saying he could cook and clean for them in the ranch they plan to buy. George and Lennie agree and the three of them become friends, but have to keep quiet about the plans so nobody can stop them.
The character Crooks, a stable buck, is lonely because he is black he is also isolated from the other men and kept in the barn where he ‘has books too.’ This shows us the he is an intelligent man as in those days you had to be well educated to read. Crooks illustrates some of the major themes in this novel, “they play cards in there but I can’t ‘cause I’m black.” This tells us that there was a lot of racism at the time because a man can’t play games with another man because of the colour of his skin. Steinbeck wanted readers to feel sorry for Crooks when he describes where he lives: “Crooks had his bunk in a harness room a little shed that lean of the wall of the barn,” the fact the he is kept with the animals shows us that the men think he should be treated like an animal. His relationship with other men is shown when Lennie stands outside of his room. At first Crooks is quite arrogant towards Lennie, but this is probably because he didn’t know how to react to someone that wanted to be a friend: as they got to know each other Crooks backs off and they start talking.
Curley is the bosses’ son. Curley’s wife is immediately isolated because she is not the kind of woman that would fit in on a hard working ranch, also she is the only girl on the ranch. Steinbeck does not give her a name in the story; she is always just ‘Curley’s wife’. Curley’s wife uses her position as an excuse to wander around the bunkhouse and also try to convince one of the workers to companion her, but the workers know she is too flirty to be a real friend.
In the barn Lennie is described as petting a dead dog that he killed: “why do you got to get killed?” he says. Lennie is in the barn because all the other men are playing out side. Later Curley’s wife appears. Lennie knows that shouldn’t be talking to her but Lennie gives into her persuasion and they start talking. Then Curley’s wife makes the mistake of asking Lennie to stroke her hair, Lennie loves soft things and doesn’t want to let go of her. She starts screaming for him to get off of her but Lennie doesn’t understand so he shakes her violently until he breaks her neck. After realising what he has done he covers her with hay and runs away. George and Candy found her first and with one look they both knew that their dream was over. The other men find out what has happened and want to kill Lennie. So now George and Lennie have no friendship and will just end up loners like all the other men on the ranch. In the end George decides he will deal with Lennie, sends the other men off in the wrong direction, finds his friend and shoots him dead.
