Crooks is particularly lonely the main reason for this is because he is black. Crooks is the only black worker on the ranch is rejected by the other white workers. He has a separate room from the others which can have its good points but this is why he is extra lonely. Crooks was not allowed to eat sleep or play cards with the other workers.*
Curley’s wife is lonely because she is on a ranch full of male workers who Curley didn’t let her communicate with. She was the only woman and found times on the ranch hard. She was also passionate and wants more from life.
Candy is lonely because he is an old man who has been working on the farm all his life and has little to show for it. Candy had his dog but the dog was getting old and had to be put out of its misery. Candy is extra lonely because he has lost his hand and can only take part in the light work around the ranch. This makes him different from the other workers.
“He pointed with his right arm and out of the sleeve came a round stick like wrist but no hand.”
During the great depression of the 1920’s many men had to leave family and loved ones to search for work. The men were constantly on the move looking for work to support their families back home. There was never any time to make friends or get emotionally involved with the work. During these hard times the wandering men would often come across hard characters. These times produced a hard character of person. People had o be hard because they couldn’t afford to pay people if they was not doing the work. Money was hard to come across and people had to be protective over everything they own. The only way to make money during these times was to work hard and that’s what they had to do. If you were unable to work then you were no use to anyone even yourself. This all leads to the fact that every one at this time is lonely and loneliness would have been an appropriate title for the novel.
All of the charters in the book are lonely in different ways.
Curley’s wife is lonely because she is the only lady on the ranch.
Being Curley’s wife means she is not allowed to talk to the workers or interact with them in any way. Curley gets jealous and violent when he sees other workers talking to her. Once the workers see his anger they leave him well alone because they don’t want any trouble.
Candy is lonely because he is the oldest of the workers. Candy is extra lonely because he has lost a hand and can’t do the same work as the others. Candy is extra lonely because he has just had his only friend, his dog put down.
Candy is lonely because like most of the other workers he has no one. He is the only black worker which makes it even harder for him because he has absolutely no one to talk to and no one who will speak to him.
Curley is lonely because he is the boss’s son who no one likes. He treats the workers poorly and always causes trouble. Curley is an ex boxer and thinks he is better than all the other men on the ranch.
Loneliness would have been a good title for the novel but in my opinion it is more of a theme for the novel rather than title.
The main characters, George & Lennie are different from the other characters in the novel. They are the only characters that are not lonely.
George is the smaller of the two men and acts like a mother to Lennie. George feels he has to look after Lennie because he had strong connections with Lennie’s aunt and it’s what she would have wanted. Lennie looks up to George and copies what he does we see this when they are drinking down by the stream.
Lennie does what George tells him to and will not do anything until George say’s he can. It’s hard for George looking after Lennie and he often wonders why he bothers. Sometimes looking after Lennie can be hard and it’s always left down to him to sort things out. Being together brought good things out the two people, together they had a dream of living in a marvellous house with stables, rabbits, and lots of land. They believed because they were different and have each other that the dream may come true,
but deep down George knows that the dream is impossible.
I believe that I have shown through my discussions of the characters the novel and the times it was set in that in that loneliness would have been an appropriate title, however I feel ‘ Of Mice & men’ is a better title because what the novel is about is more of a mystery to the reader. The title ‘loneliness’ will have perhaps seemed a bit boring to the reader.
