Crooks
The most lonely character in the whole book. Where Curley’s wife had Curley and Curley had his wife Crooks has no one. No one to speak to, no one to be with, no one to converse with and no one to keep him from going mad. He was completely alone. Because of this he didn’t know what was right and what was wrong. He even tries to explain this himself. He can’t tell if he’s dreamed something or not and he doesn’t know how to behave around other guys.
In chapter 4 Crooks gets the chance to be horrible to some one else. He turns on Lennie and starts to be really nasty to him suggesting George won’t come back. I think all those years alone have made him feel that he is always picked on and now he has the chance to pick on someone else so he does. But he then backs down for fear of Lennie losing his rag. Crooks enjoys talking to Lennie because he knows that none of it will come out and he can tell Lennie anything he wants to. He confides in Lennie and begins to trust him with secrets he has never told anyone. Crooks starts to describe his earliest memories and he begins to reflect on his own life. After picking on Lennie Crooks has a new found confidence that makes him feel almost equal to Lennie and Candy. As Lennie describes his ‘dream farm’ Crooks is very cynical about it and he doesn’t believe it will happen. But when Candy comes in and joins in the conversation Crooks realises how close they are top their dream. This inspires him and he wants to join in.
Crooks is feeling good at this point and he feels self-assured that he can take on anything. But then Curley’s wife appears and starts to stir everything up. The atmosphere in the room becomes tense and nasty. Crooks starts to get annoyed because he was having a good conversation which he doesn’t often get which made him feel very good about himself and Curley’s wife has started to tear everything apart. He starts to get almost angry and stands up to her telling her she ¡§got no rights messing around in here at all. Now you jus’ get out, an’ get out quick.¨ But he forgets about his place in life and he is shown where he belongs by Curley’s wife. She starts on him ‘You know what I could do if you open your trap? OK Well, you keep your place, then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.¨ Crooks has no reply to this. Then the old insecure Crooks comes out. Crooks drew into himself and reduced himself to nothing. He then has no personality, no ego, nothing to arouse like or dislike. This is a sign of the loneliness Crooks has experienced in his life. He must have done it before in order to be so good at it. All the time he has spent by himself he has convinced himself that he is worth nothing and nobody cares about him. This is a form of torture for Crooks.
Curley's Wife
You never learn the name of Curley’s wife, which shows how she is thought of in the farm. I think she is regarded as one of Curley’s possessions. She is always heavily made up and sometimes dressed up. She mostly wears sexy clothes, which attracts the farm workers. ¡¥She had full rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her finger-nails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.¡¦ I think that all of this shows that she spends a lot of time on her own and that she doesn't go out much. But when she does go out of the house to talk to ranch workers she tries to make an impression by using make-up etc. “She’s purty!¨ said Lennie, “Yeah and she’s sure hidin’ it.¨ George says sarcastically. George means that Curley’s wife wants the attention of everyone. She wants everyone to notice her and to fancy her.
Curley’s wife is seen by some as ¡§jail-bait¡¨. This means she is very provocative, she dresses herself up to attract some ranch workers and then Curley would duff them up or get them canned. This is not what necessarily happens but it is what all the workers believe what will happen is they do anything to her. This is why George warns Lennie away from Curley's wife. “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does OK I never seen a piece of jail-bait worse than her. You leave her be.¨ George warns Lennie away just in case he gets to close to her and Curley gets annoyed and starts a fight with him.
I think that she is very lonely. As she is the only woman on the ranch she has no one to talk or gossip to. She tries to talk to some of the workers but they are scared of what Curley would do to them. This definitely adds to her loneliness.
She always claims to be ‘looking for Curley¨, which I think, is an excuse to chat up the ranch workers.
But definitely, the main reason she feels so unhappy and alone is because of her husband. He forces his wife to feel alone because he forbids her out of the house and, I am pretty sure he beats her. Also, he visits brothels and this makes her feel inadequate. For Curley’s wife Curley was second choice and he acts like it. She does have several dreams of a better life. When men promise her careers in acting and film she believes them but I think that they just wanted her to sleep with them.
Because her dreams fail she marries Curley. Now she is trapped on this ranch with no one to speak to apart from Curley who is not much comfort although he does try with his “glove full of Vaseline¨. This makes her feel isolated.
When she dies P98. It shows her loneliness disappearing from her face. When she is alive she is troubled and her face is always full of emotions but when she dies all that goes away from her. And she is left happy and trouble-free.
George Milton
George is Lennie's companion, and was asked to look after Lennie by Lennie's Aunt Clara before she died. Since then, he has travelled around, looking for work with Lennie.
George is a kind man. He travels with Lennie and helps him to survive although Lennie is more of a burden than a help, and creates many problems for him. He is also friendly, and almost immediately makes friends with Candy, Carlson, Slim, and the other ranch hands.
He has matured a lot since the incident he relates to Slim where he made Lennie jump into a river just for fun. He realises that Lennie depends on him, and needs him to survive. George often insults Lennie and 'gives him hell', but he doesn't really mean it. Although he often talks about how well off he could be without Lennie he secretly doesn't want Lennie to leave, and when Lennie offers to do so in the first chapter, George virtually pleads with him to stay. This is because George also depends on Lennie to a certain extent for his unconditional friendship.
George is intelligent, as Slim points out in chapter three, but also modest in denying being smart. He expresses his desire to be different from other ranch hands who merely work for a month and then spend all of their money, but also realistically realises that his dream of owning a house with Lennie (or anyone else) is unlikely to ever come true.
Overall, George is an intelligent and kind character. He is thoughtful enough to realise that the best thing for Lennie is to shoot him, for the alternatives are even worse, and compassionate enough to kill Lennie himself.
Lennie Small
Lennie is a massive, extremely strong man, who has no living relatives. He travels about the country searching for work with his companion, George. Lennie's Aunt Clara had asked George to take care of Lennie if she ever died.
The most obvious feature of Lennie's character is that he seems to be retarded somehow. He is a man who has the mind of a child. Slim is one of the first characters to notice this, remarking that Lennie is
'Jes' like a kid'
and Curley's wife also comments on how he is
'Jus' like a big baby'.
Lennie doesn't know his own strength, and this is one of the things which lead to his eventual downfall. He realises that he is strong as a bull, but he can't judge how much force to use for certain actions. That is why he kills his pets, when he only intends to pet them and play with them.
It is this inability to judge his strength, combined with his desire to pet things and Curley's wife's desire to be petted and admired which leads to Lennie's inevitable death. The ability to judge one's own strength is one of the first signs of maturity, and it is important that Lennie doesn't have this ability.
Despite the major flaws in his character he is amiable and friendly, and doesn't do any of the bad things he does on purpose.
He has a poor memory, and has to repeat things to himself many times to remember them. Even then, he still forgets them.
He has a sort of blind faith in George, trusting in George to protect him and look after his welfare. For example, remember the incident George describes to Slim when he told Lennie to jump in a river and Lennie obeyed, without a thought to his own well being. This illustrates Lennie's trust in George, and also his immaturity.
However, it must be noted that Lennie can still be quite crafty, as when he cunningly persuades George to tell him the story about the rabbits by threatening to leave him.
Conclusion
Loneliness is a disease. George had Lennie to and Lennie had George to combat the terrible affects 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 that that made her talk to the farm workers and Lennie this lead to her death.
Loneliness is a part of human nature whether we like it not, as with everything, there are winners and there are losers
