‘God awmighty, that dog stinks. Get him outta here, Candy! I don’t know nothing that stinks as bad as an old dog. You gotta get him out.’
Carlson is a very overpowering person and Candy is put in his place and doesn’t say anything back to Carlson The feeling of loneliness starts to set in when Carlson suggests to Candy that he were to shoot his dog.
‘Why’n’t you shoot him, Candy?’
When Carlson said this Candy immediately felt sick inside. The thought of his only true companion not being there anymore and that it would just be him, alone in the world. He then reveals his affection for his dog.
‘Well-hell! I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup.’
He reveals to the others that it his only true companion in the lonely world. When he is tying to stop Carlson from shooting the dog, he is trying to ask many questions to try to think of an excuse why the dog should not be shot. For example, will it hurt him? The Candy picks up a magazine and tries to draw all the others into a conversation about an article, which he had found. The others find it interesting but Carlson is not a fool, and he understands what Candy is trying to do. When Carlson was leading the dog outside,
‘Candy lay rigidly on his bed staring at the ceiling.’
He couldn’t bare to watch his dog being led out to be shot When the shot sounded all heads turned towards Candy.
‘He continued to stare at the ceiling. Then he rolled over and faced the wall and lay silent.’
There was nothing he could do now, and there was no life long companion for any longer. He had been shot. Further on in the novel Candy is talking to George and Lennie, and reveals to them the future that faces him, like his dog he is useless.
‘I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs.’
He is trying to get a sympathy vote from George and Lennie this is because he wants them to let him in on their dream. Their dream of owning their own plot of land. He is tying to tell them how lonely and depressing his life will be now without having his companion with him anymore. He explains to George and Lennie that when he die he will make a will and leave his share to the both of them because he has no family of his own.
‘I’d make a will an’leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, ‘cause I ain’t got no relatives or nothing.’
This shows that he has been very lonely for a very long time. He is an old man and must have had younger relatives who may have deserted him, to get on with his own life. He asks to be involved with George and Lennie’s dream because he feels that if he is involved with it, it will get rid of his loneliness.
The second character who I am going to talk about is Crooks. Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and is therefore discriminated against that fact that he is black. He is used to it and accepts the fact that people tease him and leave him out of everything they do. He is used to this and does not know any difference. He is also discriminated against because he has a crooked back and is segregated from all the other ranch workers. Crooks is always referred to either ‘the stable buck’ or ‘nigger’ Before we meet him in the novel, Candy gives George and Lennie information about the character.
‘Got a crooked back where a horse kicked him. The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck don’t give a damn about that. He reads a lot. Got books in his room.’
From this, we understand that whenever Curley (the boss’s son) and his dad get mad then they will always blame Crooks for whatever has happened. Even though they do not know, Crooks makes out that he does not seem to care what they think. When all the others go out in the evening George tells Lennie to stay behind, (which Lennie does not mind), but Crooks is also left behind. This is what usually happens and he is used to being discriminated against. Therefore, when Lennie wanders into his room, he immediately sees him as a target and someone whom he has more authority over. He takes advantage of the situation and a vulnerable character.
‘You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me.’
He would never normally question anybody or their actions but this situation is different. He knows that Lennie will never attempt to be horrible to anyone. Lennie does not understand the fact that Crooks is not wanted because of the colour of his skin.
‘Why ain’t you wanted?’
Lennie’s innocent and naïve character is revealed when he asks Crooks this question. He feels lonely. He is secretly very pleased of the company but would not want to show it. Although this could be thought of as that he is so used to being on his own he that he does not like human company. He is a very lonely man and would like to have a friendship with someone, just like George and Lennie do.
‘It’s just the talking. It’s just bein’ with another guy that’s all.’
Crooks explains what friendship is all about and he wishes that he had some friends instead of being a social outcast. He then talks to Lennie about the fact that George may never come back from town again and that he will abandon him.
‘I said s’pose George went into town tonight and you never heard of him no more.’
He was saying this as if he had some kind of private victory over Lennie. He torments him with this thought and enjoys having power over someone at last.
‘Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture.’
Crooks takes pleasure in tormenting Lennie saying that George may not return. He is jealous of the friendship of George and Lennie. Crooks is isolated, lonely and has nobody. When Curley’s wife enters the room, there is almost an instant change in hierarchy as her presence makes Crooks feel small and worthless.
‘Crooks had retired into the terrible protective dignity of the negro.’
He feels threatened by her dominating personality. He sees a white person and immediately knows that he will always be second to them.
The third character who I am going to be talking about and relating them to the subject of loneliness is Curley’s wife. For a start to show her position in the novel, she is only ever known as Curley’s wife, she is never given a name. We can almost immediately see that she will be a lonely character because she is the only woman who is on the ranch. There are no other women on the ranch for her to socialise with or to form relationships with.
‘Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her.’
She can only become friends with the other men, but she cannot even do that as her husband is very masculine and too over powering for her to compete with. He is always looking for a fight with someone.
‘His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious.’
His body language demonstrates that tries to look tough and that he is eager to fight. The first appearance that we get of Curley’s wife is that she is a tart.
‘She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes heavily made up. Her fingernails were red, she wore red mules and red ostrich feathers.’
The colour red is very often associated with tarts and this is what she is. She is always trying to attract the attention of the other men, which Curley does not like at all. She is very lonely and feels that this is the only way, which she will be able to make friends with the other men. Curley’s wife’s first appearance can also be threatening to other women. Women may find her threat when it comes to other men. She meets no other women in the novel, but she does not realise that the way she conducts herself around the ranch is driving away any potential friends. Every attempt of friendship is failed because of her place in society. When she is talking to Lennie and Crooks she is really trying to convey across to them the fact that she really has nobody.
‘Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?’
She is really trying to relate to the other characters in the conversation and she tries to make them think that she is just like them. Lennie who is childlike and not at all like the others, and Crooks who is discriminated against racially. She is also different and it reflects the fact that she is the only woman on the ranch, that her dream is not wanting to own a piece of land, but to be an actress. She dreams of stardom to take her away from her lonely life now.
‘Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all them nice clothes they like to wear.’
Curley’s wife is not used to revealing how she feels, she enjoys the company. The suspense is building; we feel that something is likely to go horribly wrong. She dreams of being in the movies, wearing nice clothes and to be famous but her dreams were shattered, by marrying Curley. A husband who is always very wary of what his wife is doing and who she is talking to.
The last and final character I am going to relate to loneliness is George Milton. George is the friend of Lennie. They are the two ‘new guys’ on the ranch at the beginning. The story is all about them and what happens on the ranch. At first, at the very beginning of the story, George seems like the most unlikely person for loneliness to affect, yet in the middle and at the end the fact that he always has to look after Lennie starts to get to him. George always has to look after Lennie just like a parent would do with a child.
‘Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night’
George shows how he cares about Lennie. He does not show that he is alone of permanently annoyed with Lennie, but if you look further into the facts you can see how this would lead to him being lonely. George would get lonely from travelling around with Lennie. He was glad to finally meet some people with the same mental age as him, whom he could have a proper conversation with. It seems as if he is used to speaking for Lennie on his behalf.
‘He ain’t bright. Hell of a good worker, though. Hell of a nice fella, but he ain’t bright. I’ve knew him for a long time.’
George feels that Lennie is not able to speak for himself. George feels lonely because he seems the kind of character who needs a companion to contribute to things that they do, and Lennie is not like that. He gets so used to himself that he feels alone in the world. Slim also expresses the amount of loneliness which itinerant farmers have to endure.
‘Hardly none of the guys ever travel around together. I hardly never seen two guys travel around together.’
This shows exactly how much George endures.
‘I ain’t got no people.’
George casts aside the fact that he has Lennie for a companion. He shows here that he would prefer to go around by himself. He usually gets annoyed with Lennie and sometimes talks about him behind his back.
‘Lennie’s a God damn nuisance most of the time. But you get used to goin’ around with a guy an’ you can’t get rid of him.’
George cares for Lennie but George does not like to show this in front of the others on the ranch. At the end of the novel, when George killed Lennie, you would think that after he would have been upset about it and would be in shock about what he had done. George is a very emotionless person and does not like to show people how he is feeling. Therefore, at the end you cannot really tell what he is feeling.
‘I just done it,’ George said tiredly.’
He is answering Carlson’s question to how he managed to kill George. It describes him as saying it tiredly. This makes him sound as if he is not that bothered about what has happened and the fact that he has just killed his best friend. George is very different in the way that he deals with loneliness. He makes out the fact that he will feel more alone with Lennie. He feels freer without having the burden of Lennie on his shoulders all the time.
Loneliness is a major theme in the novel. Each character explores how the theme of loneliness affects their lives and how they cope with it. George seems like the kind of person who would be less lonely when he is without Lennie. He is free of all the responsibilities of two people instead of just one. Candy feels that he will not have to feel lonely for long, if he contributes to the dream of George and Lennie’s. Although when Lennie kills Curley’s wife he realises that the dream is all over and he is back to where he started. Crooks is used to being lonely and does not really know any different. He does not have any friends on the ranch and by the sound of it, he has not had any friends before. I think that he is a very nice person and could make a very good friend. Curley’s wife is the one character who shows the most amount of loneliness. She is always being deserted by her husband and never seems that she has anything to do. Curley married her to show everyone that he has a wife. It is like a competition, who has the most power and assets, one being a wife.
The final and most extreme loneliness there is displayed at the end of the book Death. The people in the book sound like they are used to death and being around it, from working on a ranch. Death is a very strange thing when loneliness is concerned. The people who are left behind are usually the ones who are the loneliest, rather than the person who passes away. It’s not the fact that people are not with other people to make them feel lonely, but when death is concerned, the people who die will never be coming back and that can be the worst part of loneliness that anyone could ever feel.
