Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife all suffer 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. He reveals his loneliness; "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you”.
This 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. Crooks expresses his feelings of segregation; "Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm Black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me!" You can tell Crooks is angry by the short, sharp sentences.
Crooks loneliness results from rejection. Others treat him unjust because he is different from them. Crooks isn’t allowed to participate in daily events with white people such as card games. In the era the novel was written it was the norm to segregate black and white people. In today’s society this would be known as racism. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people who have offended him. He is striving to achieve sympathy and understanding from others. Crooks would work for nothing if it meant communicating with others. He even offers his services to Candy to work on “Their dream ranch” to join in on the friendship and dream shared by Lennie and George, in order to leave behind him his lonely life.
Candy, like Crooks is an outcast because his age and physical disability make him different from the rest of the men on the ranch, but he always tries to communicate with them as much as he can. Candy has one true friend in the world, his dog, which he cannot even talk to. However, when his dog dies, he has to look elsewhere for friendship. He hopes that these friends can be George and Lennie.
Because of his age and disability, he has a feeling of uselessness. “They’ll call me purty soon”. Candy thinks that nobody wants to be friends with him because of this disability. Eventually, he tries to find friendship by attempting to join the dream of George and Lennie. Candy offered his services to become a part of George and Lennie's friendship and dream, this is one of Candy's desperate attempts to find a place in society and meaning in life by making himself useful to someone, by proposing the various things he could do to show that he is in fact useful and could bring a lot in the dream as well, “I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some” “you’ll let me hoe in the garden” An, I’ll wash the dishes an, little chicken stuff like that?.
After Candy lost his dog, he felt much more lonely than he was before. The dog was something that Candy had owned and confided with within his years. Candy and his dog had the same relationship that George and Lennie had shared for so many years. He offers everything that he had to support the friendship including money, he offers the biggest share of money to realize the dream as well as services hoping that the pair will let him help out. An interesting sentence is “Maybe I can give you guys my money, you’ll let me hoe in the garden”, in exchange of a financial contribution to the dream ranch, he can help out and work on the ranch, but the real meaning of the sentence is, in exchange for my money, we will have a close friendship. Candy tries to buy Lennie and Georges friendship, or at least a share of it, but money will never buy genuine friendship.
Curley's Wife's loneliness has a different source, her husband causes it. Even though Curley's wife is mentioned frequently, nobody asks what her name is. Nobody wants to talk her because people are afraid of Curley, he is jealous and would start a fight with anyone who tried approaching her. She does not like Curley, and furthermore he doesn’t talk to her at all, and there's no one in her life with whom she can share her feelings, and longs for companionship. But because she is Curley's Wife, most of the ranchers avoid talking to her, and she notices that she is being rejected and ignored and asks them several times what is wrong with her, and why doesn’t she have a right to communicate like everyone else does "What's the matter with me? Ain't I got a right to talk to nobody?", and that no one cares about her "Seems like they ain't none of them cares how I gotta live".
She dresses the way she does to gain the attention of the ranchers and to sooth her loneliness. These acts give her a sense of relief and made her feel wanted so she can share her personal concerns and experiences, she notices that Lennie finds her “purty” and tries to talk to him and get close to him several times. You get a real sense of the American accent by the way Steinbeck expresses certain words like ‘purty’. Her death could be thought of as a misfortune, but as a positive thing as well because it ended her suffering, being the only woman in the ranch and having married a man like Curley she was inevitably destined for loneliness. Curley's wifes case of loneliness was the most severe. She struggled in her society to find somebody that she could befriend in vain.
The relationship between George, Lennie, Candy and his old dog. Both George and Candy are lonely, even though they have companionship. Candy can’t talk to his dog, and George can’t have a really serious conversation with Lennie either. Even though they have companionship, they need something deeper and more meaningful. Also interesting is the similar fate of Candy’s dog and Lennie who will both be shot in the back of the head unsuspecting of what is going to happen.
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, that we much treasure as it keeps us away from loneliness. Loneliness affects many of the characters, and Steinbeck seems to show that it is a natural and inevitable result of the kind of life they are forced to lead. The workers are caught up in the trap of loneliness, they never stay in one place long enough to form permanent relationships. Even if such relationships existed, they would probably be destroyed by the demands of the way of life at that time.
Karen Lee
