Loneliness - Of Mice And Men Essay

Submitted By ZaynMalik_AUS
Words: 699
Pages: 3

Loneliness is the state of being alone; solitary; without company; companionless. Every character in this novel combats with this situation. Crooks is a fellow 'black' member of the ranch, who is isolated from the rest of the workers due to his race. After the death of Candy's dog, he was left on his complete lonesome and in despair. Another lonely figure is Curley's wife, a newlywed, whom is forbidden to communicate with anyone other than her husband.

Steinbeck exposes the human suffering that is caused by loneliness through the character of Crooks. Crooks is the crippled, black stable buck, who suffers from racial discrimination, which is the fundamental cause for his extreme suffering of loneliness. Crooks is forced to live in a small shed, since he is not favoured by any of the ranch workers. He is not granted the privilege to associate himself with social activity with the other workers, therefore is completely rejected from the rest of the society. All this exclusion, contributes to Crooks mental health impairment. Regarding this, Crook's states “A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody”. Crook attempts to escape from this state, by preoccupying himself with reading books. However he confesses that it is not enough, as it continues to drive him insane. Overtime, his loneliness has developed in to a burden that he resumes to battle with, but he accepts that all his faith in the hope of a better life, has been vanished.

Candy is another ranch worker, who is a prime representation of desolation. He has only a mongrel dog as his companion, whom he owned since it was a pup. Candy's pet, used to be a fine sheep dog, however it as time passed, it weakened. Carlson saw that the dog had served its duty, and it was no longer useful of living any kind of life. After repetitive requests to kill the dog, Candy had finally half-heartedly accepted. The death of the sheep dog, was an absolute misery for Candy. He was in total awe and agony, after losing his only companion. He was now left on his complete lonesome, or friends of any sort. Candy soon realises that he ought to have killed his worthy possession himself, rather than someone else, "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog”. To breakout from his lonesomeness, he eagerly clutches on the idea of assisting George and Lennie with purchasing the farm house. Thus, this emphasises on the solitariness of the ranch workers.

Curley's wife, is another character which is admitted to be suffering from profound aloneness. Throughout the novel, her official name has not been revealed, which conveys that she is solely the possession of her husband,