Crooks enjoys talking to Lennie because he knows that Lennie doesn’t pay any attention to him. “A guy can talk you an’ be sure you won’t go blabbin.” Crooks knows Lennie will not repeat anything he tells him because Lennie will forget, so he confides in him. Crooks starts to describe his earliest memories and begins to reflect on his own life “I remember when I was a little kid on my old man’s chicken ranch. Had two brothers. They was always near me, always there.” After tormenting Lennie, Crooks has a new found confidence and dignity which makes him feel almost equal to Lennie and Candy.
Candy is an old man with only one arm. He had an old dog but agreed to let Carlson kill it. Candy was very attached to his old dog, as it had been with him since it was a pup. He reacts badly to the dog’s death, and feels guilty that he let a man with no sensitivity kill it. Candy is afraid that he will be sacked when he is no longer any use. He knows that he will have nowhere to go when he gets fired, so when he hears George and Lennie talking about getting their own place and living “off the fatta the lan”, he is compelled to ask them to take him with them, and offers them enough money so that at the end of the month they will be able to afford to buy the place. After his dog’s death, Candy seems desperate to leave the ranch. To make George and Lennie sure that he wants the place he tells them; “I’d make a will and leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, cause I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing. You guys got any money? Maybe we could do it right now?” To be a part of the dream he offers them hope for a better future. However Candy was very disappointed and angry when he found out the Lennie had killed Curley’s wife, “You God damn tramp … You dine it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t good.” When Candy found out that Curley’s wife had died, he realized that his dream was over. This is why he was shouting and curse Curley’s wife when she died.
Curley’s wife is another of the loneliest characters, as she is the only woman on the ranch and the men are all afraid to talk to her. Steinbeck deliberately doesn’t give her a name, as it shows that there isn’t anyone on the ranch close enough to her to know it and also to show that she is the property of Curley, this again is another type of discrimination back in 1930s. This shows she must have a really lonely life. Curley’s wife only flirts with the workers because it is the only way she knows to get attention. All the men on the ranch think that she has “got the eye” and that she is a “tart”. However, she is actually just an insecure, lonely girl, and this is shown when she tells Lennie “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely,” and asks “what’s the matter with me?” and “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?” Curley’s wife has more status than Crooks so she treated him, just like Crooks was tormenting Lennie. They all want to feel superior as they are so used to feeling inferior. The reason Curley's wife wanted to speak to Lennie in Chapter Five is that she doesn’t have anyone to talk to. She tells Lennie this, saying, “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” Curley’s wife talks to Lennie for the same reason as Crooks does; Lennie does not listen. Both Curley’s wife and Crooks have discovered that this is valuable. Everyone has secrets that they only want to keep to themselves but which can emotional pain like guilt or regret, and they need to tell other people their secret but they fear that the individual they tell may not keep it as a secret and tell others, which will cause more pain, such as embarrassment. Lennie though does not listen to what other people have to say, so he is not a threat.
Loneliness is like a disease. George had Lennie and Lennie had George to combat the terrible effects of it, but there were others who were not so lucky. Crooks was intensely unhappy, unconfident and seriously mentally damaged from the lasting affects of loneliness. Curley's wife was killed essentially by loneliness it was this that made her talk to Lennie which results in her death. Candy only ever had one person, his dog. After his dog died he only looked forward to sharing “The American Dream” with George and Lennie. After the death of Curley’s wife Candy had nothing. This is why he was so angry and disappointed.
Loneliness is a part of human nature whether we like it not, as with everything, there are winners and there are losers. Loneliness is not an immense problem to George and Lennie, as, like Lennie loves saying to George, “I’ve got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you.” George says about ranchers that travel alone, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family, they don’t belong no place.” One of the things that binds George and Lennie together is that they share the American dream, to buy their own land, and live off of the “fatta the lan.” The fact that they travel together makes them believe that one day they will really get enough money together to do this, and they nearly had the chance. The American Dream was the thing every man wanted, which was to have their own land. The reason loneliness was such a problem in 1930’s America is that no one ever settled anywhere long enough to make any ties or get to know anyone. I feel that Steinbeck portrayed this well.
