Of Mice and Men All the characters in the novel are lonely. Choose three characters who are lonely and show how Steinbeck develops the theme of loneliness through his portrayal of their situation.

By Danny Lee, Oliver Lewis and Charles Manzon

Introduction

There are many characters in the novel who are lonely, but the characters that show the most significant amount of loneliness are Candy, Curley’s Wife and Crooks. Steinbeck develops the loneliness of the three characters throughout the novel by showing the interactions they have with one another and the monologues that each have to outline how they feel alone in the world. It could be argued that Candy goes through the most pain and suffering of being lonely, but all characters show significant pain and loneliness.

Loneliness: CandyCandy is one of the more significant characters in the novel that represents loneliness. Candy is isolated because of his disability and also because of his dog. Furthermore, when his dog gets shot he thinks that he does not have much to live for. He cannot work with the other ranchmen and now has lost his only companion. John Steinbeck makes Candy seem much lonelier with some of the choices of language in a way to present him into a character that he is. Candy is caught under other ranchmen due to the fact that he is essentially ‘useless’.

"You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me..." - This quote shows how much his dog meant to him and that since his dog has been shot, he has lost all hope in life. He expresses his feelings saying that he would rather die than live alone without any companionship. “He leaned forward eagerly” - Candy hears of the dream and regains motivation to live, forgets sadness over loss of his dog – uses the dream as a chance to regain companionship as Lennie and George does.

Curley’s wife

- Curley’s wife is the only female on the ranch, prominent aspect of loneliness - Everytime we see Curley’s wife, she is looking for Curley “You boys seen Curley?”- “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley else he gets mad” This

quote shows how lonely Curley’s wife is in the novel. She can’t talk to anyone but Curley. However in the novel she is never seen interacting with Curley, this emphasizes how alone she really is

- Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife seem lonely by making her always enter the narrative alone, and always looking for someone

- In ‘the weak chapter’ Curley’s wife still attempts to convey her power to the other weak characters, but this is really an attempt to try and seem superior to someone even though she is still classed as a weak character

Crooks ● Crooks is portrayed as a lonely black man

that is treated like a slave for the other skinners , he got no friends apart from the animals that live with him.

● Crooks is segregated to a point where hehas no power over anything due to him being the only black man on the ranch.

● "Long as you won't get out and leave me alone, you might as well set down." It could be argued that crooks wants the company of other people and feels lonely, this lonelinessconvoluted his sense of friendship and kindness. The words ‘leave me alone’ portrays the idea thatloneliness is not a pleasant thing for him to live with

Crooks ● “You got no right to come in my room” We could argue from this quote that Crooks is trying to create

a sphere of power over Lennie, trying to taking advantage of that power seeing that Lennie is weak in the mind. The words ‘you got no right’ could be described as a sign of intelligence from crooks, this could be said that he is smarter than the rest of the skinners due to his immense collection of books that he reads.