Everyone needs friends in order to achieve happiness. Friends offer people support and comfort. Having a companion can make people feel like they belong and help to keep them from feeling lonely. People who are lonely are more prone to feelings of insignificance or worthlessness. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, many characters, such as Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife, wish to escape their state of loneliness through companionship. Crooks is the loneliest character in the novel. Crooks is completely isolated from everyone else due to his race. He lives in a shed that is separate from the bunkhouse and can never join in on the games that they play. He conveys his feelings towards being separated from the other workers when he says,
Although discrimination is still present during the time period of the book, Crooks still attempts to make friends. Others treat Crooks unjust because he is different from others given that he is black. He does not know how to treat others because of the way others treat him; with disrespect. Furthermore, he does not know how to vent his frustration and as a result, lashes out at others because they are cruel to him. Crooks is not allowed to participate in daily events with white people. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people (the ones who offended him.)
Mother Theresa once said, "Loneliness is a man's worst poverty." Without friends and companions, people begin to suffer from loneliness and solitude (Dusenbury 38). Loneliness is an inevitable fact of life and cannot be avoided, as shown prevalent through each of the characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Each and every character in this novel exhibits loneliness. Lennie was isolated for being mentally handicapped, Candy was isolated for being old and disabled, Crooks was for being black, Curley's wife for being a woman, and George for having to care for Lennie and being unable to socialize with others because of Lennie's consistency of getting into trouble from town to town.
alone just to try make some money. This was a very bad period in the
know how powerful he is and likes to pet animals. The other men on the
The great and famous author john Steinbeck once said, “All great and precious things are lonely.” In the Steinbeck book Of Mice and Men, many of the characters show their loneliness in many different ways. Candy, Curley's wife, and Crooks all show perfect examples of how they are lonely. The characters in of mice and men show that loneliness is a problem that must be overcome in order to live a happy, fulfilled life.. all three of these characters know what is feels like to be lonely.
In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, companionship plays an important role. It seems like a lot of the characters in the novel need someone that they could talk to, someone that they could listen to or someone that needs to listen to them. Also someone that they could count on in times of needs.
“‘A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is… I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick,” (Steinbeck 73). In this statement, Crooks, a character in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, divulges what effect loneliness can have on a human being. In the novel, the two main characters escape to a ranch where they must face the conflict that seems to follow them. Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression, Steinbeck brilliantly portrays the loneliness and suspicion that was common during the time. Much like in everyday life, we can see the way in which loneliness drives people to become isolated, crave companionship, and refuse to express emotion.
The power of novels can allow readers to learn significant lessons about humanity and life experiences. Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” set in Americas great depression of the 1930’s, explores the human need for company and the impact of loneliness. This is shown through the characters experiences of power and powerlessness on a barley ranch in California. Steinbeck shows his readers the need for compassion in times of cruelty, emphasised by the desperation of the era which the novel is set.
The full extent of Crooks's suffering is made clear in chapter 4 when Crooks lashes out at Lennie. Viewing Lennie as a symbol of all the white men who had hurt him, Crooks strikes out in anger, saying "You got no right to come in my room... Nobody got any right in here but me."(68) Steinbeck states that "Crooks's face lighted with pleasure in his torture. "(71)
As a result, Crooks and Curley’s wife present loneliness in Of Mice and Men because they are unwanted. Their environment and different backgrounds affect how they are treated. This empty feeling makes them get sick, driving them to find a friendship to escape the loneliness. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck suggests that everyone needs a friend to talk to, no matter what age, race, or gender, to prevent from suffering
Crooks also feels a great deal of loneliness, as he is an outcast on the ranch. He lives in his own room where hardly anybody ever bothers him. He is never invited to play cards or do anything fun with the other guys. One day a curious Lenny asked, “Why ain’t you wanted?” Crooks replies “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They think I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me” (pg. ). Crooks’ attitude towards this is shown when he saw Lennie playing with his puppy outside of Crooks’ quarters. Crooks states that “if me, as a black man, is not allowed in the white quarters, then white men are not allowed in mine” (pg. ). However this is merely a front as the more open side of Crooks is shown later on in the book.
In his novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck depicts the essential loneliness of California ranch life in the 1930s. He illustrates how people are driven to find companionship. There were so many moments of loneliness and sadness throughout the novel, including many deaths. Following the deaths, they were very unexpected making the novel more intense and latch onto it more.
Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned. John Steinbeck brought up the theme of loneliness in many characters in Of Mice and Men. Crooks, Curley?s wife, and Candy expressed the theme of loneliness in many different forms throughout the story. Early in the novella George said, life working as ranch hands is on the loneliness lives to live, for these people finding friendship seems to be impossible.
“A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. ‘I tell ya’ he cried. ‘I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” (Page 72-73) As you can see, Crooks also spends most of his time alone because he is black. He is not allowed to enter the bunk house nor go to town with the guys. He is not allowed to enter the bunk house, he is not allowed to go to town with the guys and nobody likes him because he is black. This shows that he has no friendship and his whole life is filled with loneliness. His case is different from Lennie’s.
Is there a level of understanding that characters have in the development of this story. The author John Steinbeck was born in February 27, 1902 in the Salinas Valley. He was the only boy of four children. He had a middle class family that lived in a small community. The Salinas Valley would later be the location of many of the short stories and books he published. Both of his parents believed in showing their children culture and often went to San Francisco to see theatre. His family also had a lot of options of books to read at home. Steinbeck went to Stanford University there he majored in English, but he didn’t get a degree. Steinbeck was wedded three times in his life the last time was to a woman named Elaine Scott and that lasted until the death of Steinbeck. He died in 1968. The common emotion felt by most of the characters in Of Mice and Men is loneliness. Being lonely is something none of the men wants to happen and the men being lonely are extremely symbolic. The men don’t want to be by themselves. Neither do they want to be left behind by society. Steinbeck wanted to show how life was during the Great Depression. Steinbeck showed how people remained affected by the misery and what people had to do to make it through the tough times. He showed how people had to make decisions not just for themselves but for the well-being of others.