Steinbeck uses Candy as a foreseer of future events, when his dog is shot this foreshadows the future event of Lennies death.
Candy is lonely and isolated for many reasons, he is very old, weak and has a disability so cannot go to work with the other men as the lifting would be too much for him so instead he stays behind doing handy jobs around the ranch. He gets very lonely doing this and to relieve this boredom he seems to be inquisitive and talkative to the other ranch men and spread gossip, when George and Lennie arrive at the ranch he tells them about Curley having Vaseline in his glove for his wife, another example of Candys gossiping Is when he is telling George about how she gives the ranch workers “the eye”. Here Candy is trying to gain the trust of the workers to receive their friendship in return.
In the end he decides that he has had little enough and makes a desperate attempt to end his loneliness by joining the dream of George and Lennie to own a ranch of their own. But we do not find out the fait of this plan because we don’t know if ‘the dream’ will still be intact without Lennie being there. Candy’s dog is in a way what Candy is afraid of becoming, the dog is no good to itself or anyone around it, it is old and
smells out the bunkhouse and no one on the ranch wants it there, he is afraid he will become useless and completely isolated from everyone.
Crooks is probably the most lonely and most isolated character in the book, my first point and probably the most important one for his isolation and loneliness is his colour, Crooks is a negro and in the 1930’s racism was widely accepted in the U.S.A and all over the world, people like the ranch workers thought that black people were inferior to Caucasian people, the ranch workers take out their own misfortunes and problems on Crooks because they know there is nothing he can do about it. On page 80 Crooks for once stands up for himself but Curley’s wife puts him in his place again, she says “Listen, Nigger. You know what I could do if you open your trap.” She is saying here that if he talks to her in manner like he was when he stood up to her she could get him hung. This again shows how he is isolated as the other people on the farm have complete control over him. Because Crooks is black he shows resentment to all of his fellow white workers because they can do anything and have people
to talk to, where as he is limited to his own room by the barn and playing horseshoes in the yard, he hates this isolation because he has no one to talk to, because he is not allowed in the bunk house this is made worse. On page 72 Crooks says “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Doesn’t matter who the guy is, long’s he’s with you.” Then he says “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”
Only 4 pages later Crooks decides to do something about his loneliness and tries to join ‘the dream’, he tells George and Lennie that he’d come and lend a hand for nothing other than his keep. But he would be doing it for something else, his much needed company. But this newfound lifeline for Crooks is short lived as he pulls out of the dream after he stands up for himself to Curley’s wife.
Curley’s wife is mostly isolated because she is not regarded as a person but just as a possession of Curleys, hers and Curleys marriage is a sham, the two of them never want to talk and are always separated from each other, Curley still goes to a whore house. Loneliness is a big problem for Curley’s wife as none of the men want to talk to her because Curley gets jealous and could tell his dad (the boss) and then get them the sack. Curley’s wife needs somebody to talk to but everyone on the ranch she knows doesn’t want to talk, this result of this is great isolation and loneliness for her.
To try to overcome her loneliness Curley’s wife does many things, she is constantly flirting with the other ranch men by pretending that she is looking for Curley, however all this does is make the men think she is a tart. For instance when George and Lennie first arrive at the bunkhouse we see her for the first time and as usual she is looking for Curley Steinbeck talks about her make up and hair emphasising the fact that she wants to look pretty. Another way to get over her loneliness was to talk to the simple minded Lennie, she decided to take advantage of the fact that Lennie is not right in the head. She comes over to him and starts’ flirting
with him but Lennie doesn’t understand and falls to touching her hair. As Lennie likes touching things a lot this spirals out of control as once he has started touching her hair he doesn’t want to stop. This results in Curley’s wife’s loneliness taking her life.
Steinbeck put across the loneliness and isolation of these three characters and more very well in my opinion, it seems inevitable that loneliness will occur for the ranch men and Curley’s wife. I also like the subtle hints of loneliness on the ranch for example the way George plays solitaire over any other game he could have played with a pack of cards.
I think the loneliness and isolation is so inescapable because loneliness is something that can happen to anyone, and this is made worse by the fact there is so much discrimination in the 1930’s and on the ranch, and the fact that Lennie and George have a friend and someone to talk to emphasises the fact that the other men and women don’t.
