Loneliness in Of Mice of Men by John Stienbeck

926 Words2 Pages

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” - Mother Teresa Loneliness is the sadness resulting from being isolated or abandoned. Being lonely is almost always directly connected to relations between people, or the lack there of. Mother Teresa once said “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” In John Steinbecks classic novel, Of Mice And Men, the three characters, Crooks, Curley’s wife and Candy struggle with loneliness in different forms because of characteristics that they can’t control. All three characters deal with their loneliness by searching for companionship with others on the ranch and this works out differently for each of them. Crooks is an African American stable-hand on the ranch, who because he is black is very isolated and lonely. He is the only black man on the ranch and is segregated from the others on multiple occasions. All Crooks wants is to be able to do daily activities with the other ranch workers, even simply a game of cards. However, since Crooks is black, he is not allowed into the bunkhouse, and is forced to live alone in the barn. He wants to feel like someone cares about him, "Don't make no difference who the guy is, long’s he's with you. I tell you, a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." (80) Lennie finds Crooks one night in his room when he is playing with the new puppies on the ranch. After Crooks tries to play a joke on Lennie, Crooks realizes that Lennie is slow and thinks like a child, therefore can’t understand that he is just playing a joke on him. Crooks then invites Lennie to stay with him for a while, and forgets about his loneliness for one night. Crooks looks to Lennie for companionship; he sees that si... ... middle of paper ... ... buy the land. This dream helps distract Candy throughout the novel of the harsh reality of his life. Like Crooks, Candy finds companionship and happiness in the other ranch workers. He also finds comfert in the dream that though unrealistic, helps him forget about his lonely life. Lonleiness is a big theme in the book, most of the characters experience it in some way shape or form; and all of them have a way of channeling it. nevertheless, the only people whose lives really change change during the novel are the ones who make an effort to fight their struggle. Those who do nothing about it, stay lonely. Like in real life, if you dont fight a problem, it’ll never go away. The old Greek saying "God helps those who helps themselves" describes the esence of the novel very well because it displays the fact that maybe the only thing keeping us lonely is ourselves.

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