Crooks is the loneliness person on the ranch. Crooks is a Negro. “He kept his distance and demanded that other people kept there’s”. The reason for Crooks keeping his distance from the other workers is that they are discriminating against him because of his colour. An example of this in the novel is seen when the workers tell Crooks that he has a bad body odour due to his colour. The impact on the reader would be that of sadness for Crooks.
Curleys Wife has her reasons for being lonely. In the novel Steinbeck describes Curleys Wife as “a girl”. The reader’s impression on this would be that because Curleys Wife was described as a girl, not a woman, you would imagine that she is less capable of doing things for herself and others. Therefore the people on the ranch start to ignore her including her husband Curley, making her feel and become very isolated. Curleys Wife’s loneliness would have a huge effect on the reader. The reader would now begin to understand why she flirts with the ranch workers all the time. She flirts because she is lonely. She wants attention from people but Lennie is the only one that will give it to her.
Candy became lonely when his dog got killed. This made Candy lonely because on the ranch, his dog was his only bit of companionship. Candy has made friends with other people on the ranch that share his dream of owning a “bit of land”. Candy, because of his dream has made him not so lonely anymore because of the other people he shares his dream with. I think that Steinbeck is giving the impression that the dreams the people had actually brings them together and cures their loneliness.
Finally Lennie and George are not really “the loneliest guys in the world”. George and Lennie like the other ranch workers need each other. Because Lennie and George are always together in the novel the reader begins to think of them as two parts of the same whole. Steinbeck did this for a purpose. The intention being that the one thing that made Lennie and George close was their dream but infact it was there dream that pulled them apart. Lennie constantly fantasized about tending the rabbits, so when Curleys wife invited Lennie to stroke her hair Lennie’ dream fantasies started again. Lennie was enjoying stroking her hair so much he did it harder and ultimately ended up killing her. George had no choice but to shoot Lennie and if he didn’t the other worker would “shoot ‘im”. The reader would feel very sorry for Lennie because no one understands that he doesn’t mean to kill.
There are many characters in the novel that have companionship but it is not always continuous. Curley has his wife’s companionship but she doesn’t feel the same way. Curley’s wife doesn’t have any friends on the ranch. The ranch workers see her as “jail bait”. Seeing Curley’s wife always lonely would have great impact on the reader. The reader would feel extremely apologetic towards her.
George and Lennie have a strong bond of friendship. However when Lennie is on his own “he’s jes’ like a kid”. This is because George acts like Lennie’s father figure all the time. George is the person that “give hell” to Lennie if he has done wrong. The impact on the reader would be that of confusion. This is because if George was such a strong father figure to Lennie, how could he of possibly killed him? I think Steinbeck’s message to the reader is that loneliness is still present even though you have companionship. He has described George’s situation as a game of solitaire. The reader would pick up on this and realise that solitaire is a one-player game and George is now on his own. Once again Steinbeck has tried to give emphasis to the factor of loneliness. This is seen when Candy’s dog is killed. Candy new his dog was no good to him but he couldn’t bear to break up his friendship. So when the dog died Candy still had friends but still felt abandoned.
Some characters do not understand why the friendship of George and Lennie is so strong. For example when Lennie got killed, Carlson didn’t understand why George was upset. Also people like the Boss thought that George was “takin’ his pay away” from Lennie. This shows the reader that the people on the ranch haven’t had a strong relationship with anyone for a long time because they don’t understand why George and Lennie are close.
Different people on the ranch had different ideas about loneliness. For example Crooks believes if “a guy gets too lonely, he gets sick”. What Crooks is saying is that you get depressed. I think Steinbeck is trying to tell us that know matter what colour or race we are, we all have feelings and we all get lonely. That’s why I think Crook’s speech to Lennie is really a plea of help. Crooks wants companionship.
The main catalyst for uniting various characters is that they share the same dream that they were “gonna get a little place an’ live of the fatta the lan”. This dream of the men would have an impact on the reader. The reader would now see that they have found companionship. They all share the same dream and all want to help each other to make it possible.
In conclusion I believe that friendship is closely linked with loneliness. As you can see the people on the ranch that have friends somehow become lonely weather it’s though Lennie’s death or another additional cause.