There are two characters that we never get to know the name, they are the boss and Curley's wife. The boss does not seem to be friends with any of the men, maybe to keep his place as higher than everyone else, or in case he has to sack one of the workers. However, there is proof that he is not friendly person as he does not seem to understand friendship between two people. Such as where George told The Boss that they travel together, he replied "What stake you got in this guy? You takin' his pay away from him? (p.43). This show that nobody understands friendship, as it does not exist on the ranch.
Curley's wife is controlled by her husband, who does not let her speak to any of the men on the ranch, which leads her into being lonely. Even though Curley's wife is mentioned frequently, we never know what her name is. This just shows how people do not care for others, leading to loneliness. I think all the men do not consider her as a normal human being, but an object. None of the men are too scared to talk to her in case Curley becomes jealous and wants to start a fight.
She has no female friends on the ranch, so the men are her only option, but they do not want to become friends with her. She spots out Lennie and wants to start a friendship with him as all of the others fear Curley and will have nothing to do with her. She says to Lennie "Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever once in a while?" This shows that she is trying to tell Lennie that she desperately needs to talk to somebody as she hardly does ever talk to no-one because they do not listen to her. I do not think that She should be as lonely as she is, because she has a husband, but he ignores her and just goes out to brothels once in a while, where she is not allowed to go anywhere, but stay in the house. I am given the impression that she is living in two lives. In reality she is living in a boring ranch, with no companionship in isolation. However, she also believes that she would make it to the movies one day. She says to Lennie "I aint used to livin like this. I coulda made something of myself... maybe I will yet "(p.124) because she is so lonely, she wants to think of herself as having a future ahead of her, but of course she doesn't. When Curley's Wife is killed by Lennie, Steinbeck describes Curley's wife as a prettier figure. He writes "the meanness and the plannings of the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face." (p.128) this shows that now Curley's wife is dead, she now looks happy and has escaped from her loneliness...
Candy is an old ranch worker who is disabled due to an accident in the past. He is now a swamper, who's only companionship, was his dog, until Carlson shoots it for him because it is old and useless, just like Candy. Later on in the book, he wishes he should have shot the dog himself, which is similar to the tragic fate with George and Lennie later on in the book. When his dog dies, he searches for new friendship as he does not want to grow older and older being lonely. He hopes George and Lennie will become these friends, as when he overhears them talking about their dream ranch he offers his savings into that farm, and makes George and Lennie's dream begin to turn into reality.
I believe all the other characters on the ranch, such as Whit, Carlson, Slim and Curley, are all also lonely, but they seem not to care. Curley, however, even though he has a wife, seems to be lonely. Not very many people like him as he is not a very nice man. He wants to keep his place on the ranch by looking down on people, and by keeping his wife away from the other men. This has led for him to have no friends. This is probably why he goes to a brothel with other ranch men, as you have to be lonely to go to a cat house.
George and Lennie seem to be two lonely men. George has to always keep an eye on Lennie and therefore Lennie is a burden to him. Lennie on the other hand is lonely, but he is too dim to understand. He seems to live in his own world, and evolves everything around whether it pleases George or not. But they have something that all the other men have not got, and that is a true friendship. Lennie is there for George to keep sane, while George is there to help Lennie.
George likes to talk to Lennie most of the time about their dream ranch. He says to Lennie that guys like us are the loneliest people in the world but he comments on themselves "With us it aint like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us...” (p.32) this just shows that they both enjoy talking to each other, making each other happy. But later on in the book, George loses Lennie, as he kills him himself.
When one of the members of a friendship is removed, there is much misery. When Candy lost his dog, he kept thinking about him. He felt he should have shot his dog himself, not a stranger. When George had to shoot Lennie, he felt terrible.
He had just shot his best friend, his only friend in the world. Because of this, he has to live the rest of his life alone and knowing that he killed his only friend. But I think he did the right thing. I think it shows their strong friendship. George did what was best for him and for Lennie; a she could not watch Lennie die miserably in pain, getting brutally killed by George. He wanted George to die peacefully, thinking about the thing he loves about the most-rabbits. He knew Lennie would have died in slow and cruel way if he left it for Curley.
After George killed Lennie, it seems that he would have a better life without him, but really he would have a worse life and would turn out like the other ranch workers. He will suffer from loneliness and will have no true friends. Of course, his dream will never come true as he could not proceed with it without Lonnie. I think the simple moral to the story is everybody needs someone to talk to in order to survive. Curley's wife died because she had no one to talk to. Crooks say he feels sick sometimes because he is so lonely. It is obvious that he will not live a happier life and will probably die soon. And Candy, he is old and lonely and is associated with his dog. Stein beck writes he will go into the same direction as his dog, which is probably true. It is obvious that all the workers on the ranch will die a sad and lonely death, mainly because they had no friends. If this book taught me anything, it`ll have to be, everybody needs a friend to talk to, no matter what race, sex or age, you have to have companionship to prevent you from suffering from loneliness.
