Anna Valente

Of Mice and Men Loneliness and Isolation Analysis

Most people have felt lonely at some point in their life. In John Steinbeck’s novel Of
Mice and Men, several characters are lonely and isolated. During the Great Depression,
many migrant workers traveled alone and did not have a close relationship with anyone. In
Of Mice and Men, two workers named George and Lennie travel together to a ranch to work
there. George and Lennie aren’t very lonely because they travel together and they have
each other; however, several characters on the ranch have traveled alone and do not have a
close relationship with anyone. These characters demonstrate loneliness and isolation,
feeling alone without friends or help. This novel portrays the theme, or universal idea, of
loneliness and fatalism in multiple characters: Crooks isolates himself in his room all the
time, Curley’s wife just wants a friend to talk to, and Candy just wants true friends to keep
him company in his final years.
Crooks, the stable-buck and the only black man on the ranch, is a proud and aloof
man who keeps his distance from others. He is too proud to let others isolate him because
he is black, so he isolates himself in his room. However, when Lennie visits his room one
day, Crooks expresses that he likes company and wishes he had a friend to talk to. When
Lennie visits him, Crooks rants to Lennie that in the end no man cares about any other man,
and that nobody cares what he says because he is black. This is important because it shows
that Crooks thinks nobody cares about him and he is sick of it. He wishes that men actually
cared what other men had to say. Crooks then continues to tell Lennie that he doesn’t have
anybody and that he is sick of isolating himself in his room all day reading books. He says
that a man will go nuts if he doesn’t have anybody and will get too lonely and sick. This
reveals that Crooks is very lonely and just wants someone to talk to. This is a cry from
Crooks asking for a friend. When Lennie tells Crooks that him, George, and Candy will have
their own piece of land and they will live out their dreams, Crooks asks Lennie if he could
join them on the farm and work for them. This shows that Crooks doesn’t want to be
isolated anymore and wants to be surrounded by people who will actually care about him.
Crooks, in the end, is just a lonely man who wishes he had more company.
In the novel, many of the ranchmen describe Curley’s wife as a “tramp”; however, in
reality, Curley’s wife is lonely and just wants someone to talk to. Many of the ranchmen
don’t like to speak to Candy because they think that she is trying to get with them. They
don’t want to make Curley mad. When Curley’s wife enters Crooks’ room to talk with
Crooks, Candy, and Lennie, the men urge her to get out and tell her that they all know what
she’s trying to do. Curley’s wife then proceeds to tell them that while everyone is out at the
bar, she’s always stuck home with no one to talk to. This shows that Curley’s wife is sick of
being isolated in her house and wants to get out more. Curley’s wife then says that she
doesn’t understand why all the men avoid her and she just wants someone to talk to. This
reveals that Curley’s wife doesn’t talk to ranchmen because she’s a “tramp”; she talks to the
ranchmen because there is no one else to talk to and she is lonely. Another point in the
story where Curley’s wife expresses that she is lonely is when she talks to Lennie in the
barn after he killed the pup. When she tries talking to Lennie, he says that she should get
out or else the other men might get mad. Curley’s wife then says that she doesn’t
understand why she can’t talk to other men. She is sick of not being able to talk to anyone
because Curley will get mad. This reveals once again that Curley’s wife is sick of being
isolated all the time and she is just lonely. She feels as if she doesn’t have any friends.
Curley’s wife does not talk to other men to be a “tramp”; she talks to them because she just
wants a friend to talk to.
Candy, the crippled old-swamper on the ranch, is at the end of his usefulness and
often worries about what he will do if he’s kicked off the ranch. Carlson shoots Candy’s dog
with his Luger because it is smelly and is no longer useful. This makes Candy sad and he
becomes lonely since he no longer has his dog. When Lennie and George are talking about
their land they will get together, Candy interrupts them and asks them if he could join
them. He says that he will contribute $350 towards the farm and that he’ll work there. This
shows that Candy is lonely, and just wants to be surrounded by true friends who he can
trust. He says that he wishes that when they get rid of him at the ranch he wishes that they
would just shoot him. This means that Candy is scared when they kick him to the curb
because he has nobody to go to, and nobody will even care what happens to him what he
leaves. Candy is scared for the future and scared that he will end up alone with no place to
go.
Crooks’ cry for a friend, Curley’s wife revealing that she is sick of having no one to
talk to, and Candy revealing that he is scared that he will be alone when he gets kicked off
the ranch all reveal that ranchmen are lonely and don’t have any true friends. This was very
relevant in the Great Depression. Migrant workers had to move from place to place all the
time for work. They often traveled alone. This obviously made life very lonely, as they had
no true friends since they moved away from people they knew all the time. Loneliness
caused a feeling of hopelessness in many. This caused suicide rates to jump in the Great
Depression. Feelings of hopelessness are portrayed in Of Mice and Men, too- George and
Lennie have hope for the future, since they have each other, but the other characters, such
as Crooks, have no hope for a better life because they think they are destined to be alone
for the rest of their time. Loneliness and isolation can take over the life of a person and
make them lose hope that they will ever be happy again.