One of the most important lessons we learn in Of Mice and Men is that Friendship and human interaction are two very valuable things, and that having them is as much as a right as it is a privilege

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"Guys like us, that live on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world." George means that if not for each other, then he and Lennie would be all alone, with no friends, like all the men like them, who are nomads working from ranch to ranch without making any friends, and living a lonely, solitary life. Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their own. But we can attribute another meaning to this sentence. George and Lennie are very different, physically as well as mentally, even thought they talk to each other, we can sense that they are both on a different level. George is a smart, quick-witted man, who seems to need mental stimulation from a companion, which he cannot have in his relationship with Lennie. And Lennie doesn’t always understand what George is talking about, as Crooks points out “Sometimes he talks, and you don’t know what the hell he’s talkin’ about. Aint’ that so ?…Jus’ talks on, an’ you don’t know what the hell it’s all about?”. Even though they have each other, they are still both lonely at a certain level, but as Crooks also points outs “it don’t make no difference”; what he means that it’s not what’s being said that is important, nor that the interlocutor understands clearly what the others talking about, the important thing is human contact and being there together. Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife all suffer injustices such as discrimination and prejudice, resulting in loneliness and isolation. They learn to cope with their loneliness through their interest in Lennie and George's friendship. In some ways they are even envious of the bond. Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation because the society in which he resides is racist. The quote "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" was his means of finding a personal connection to Lennie. Like Lennie, Crooks has a 'relationship' with loneliness. Crooks is rejected from every group of people and cannot socially interact with others, just like Lennie who can’t socially interact properly because of his mental-disability. "Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm Black. They say I stink.
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Well I tell you, you all stink to me!" Crooks loneliness results from rejection; others treat him unjust because he is different from them given that he is black. Crooks isn’t allowed to participate in daily events with white people such as card games. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people who have offended him Crooks is fascinated by the strength of the friendship of Lennie and George, especially how close they are. Crooks said, "Well, s'pose, jus' s'pose he don't come back. What'll you do then?" Crooks asks these questions because he ...

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