Crooks’ loneliness is more noticeable because he states to Lennie, “ A guy needs somebody-- to be near him” (74). Crooks is African American, and is discriminated by the other men on this farmland. He doesn't have any friends, so all he can do is his job and then come back to read or sit by himself, alone, watching the men in the bunkhouse play cards and have fun. George’s loneliness is hidden but still present. George would love to leave Lennie and have his own life without having to babysit his friend.
In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are extremely close friends. George always looked out for Lennie. Lennie always stayed with George because he has no other family besides his aunt who passed away. George and Lennie moved to a new ranch in California. Things were going pretty satisfying until Lennie’s disappointing actions led them into a tight position.
Although George and Lennie frequently talk about their dream of owning their own land, it is foreshadowed that this dream will never materialize. While the rest of the ranch hands are in town for the night, Lennie goes into Crooks’s room and he tells Crooks about their dream of
Lennie gives George a loyal companion and somebody to lean on. Lennie never doubts George and he looks up to him. While Crooks and Lennie are talking together Crooks says, “A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain 't got nobody. Don 't make no difference who the guy
George and Lennie share an unbreakable bond, despite their contrasting appearances and personalities with George being “small and quick”, while Lennie is “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes and sloping shoulders” (Steinbeck 2). Even though they are so different, their personalities complement each other, and their undying friendship gives them hope and companionship in their desperate situations as migrant workers. Furthermore, throughout the novel, it is apparent that George takes care of Lennie through every obstacle he finds himself in, even though he is incapable of doing the same for George. Steinbeck also characterizes Lennie as innocent and animalistic to connect him to nature. He compares Lennie to animals in the barn describing the way he drinks water as, “snorting into the water like a horse”, and saying he “dabbled his big paw in the water” (Steinbeck 4-5).
Lennie and George’s environment has also left them to feel lonely despite having each other “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family” (Steinbeck 13). There however is a downside to their relationship. As mentioned before Lennie makes bad decisions and doesn’t understand a lot, this makes it hard to have a conversation that doesn’t just make you feel like you are talking to yourself. In the book, it was displayed when Lennie was talking to Curely’s wife the only female on the ranch who was telling a story about their past when all Lennie could like about was bunnies and she even asked him if he only thinks about
From the very beginning, George has strongly expressed “God a’mighty if I was alone I could live so easy” (Steinbeck 11). He himself granted his wishes, and now that Lennie is gone he has no one to worry about anymore. However, Lennie and George created a compelling friendship that a lot of people wish they had during this time period. The friendship he had with Lennie is slipped away from his fingertips; he does not have anyone to talk to or have anyone to travel with. When George and Lennie first got to the new ranch, Lennie was feeling uneasy about the place as he admits “I don’t like this place, George.
This theme is seen through the entire novella, George and Lennie end up the same way the book started, Lennie’s lack of self-control caused Lennie to make a mistake once again, and again it made Lennie’s life be threatened. Lennie’s and George’s dream was not an uncommon neither, as Crooks states, "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an ' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an ' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an ' they quit an ' go on; an ' every damn one of 'em 's got a little piece of land in his head. An ' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it.", and by the end of the novella, both George and Lennie are doomed to the same fate as anyone who has had the same dream as them(74).
However he first tells Lennie about their dream, about tending rabbits, living off the land from the crops, and shoots him. Friendship and Loneliness is shown here where George is Lennie’s best friend, and everyone else stays away leaving Lennie alone. Other times in the novel the reader witnesses many other characters face this same factor of isolation. Some examples are,
Both Lennie and George have a similar idea of what they want for their American dream and that is to someday owning a farm. If they achieve this it would offer protection and financial care. Crooks tells them that they won’t be able to achieve their American dream and this ends up being true for them. Lennie explains their dream and says " 'Well, ' said George, 'we 'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we 'll just say the hell with going ' to work, and we 'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an ' listen to the rain coming ' down on the roof... '"
Lennie and George had plans for the future and what they wanted to do in their lives: “‘O.K. Someday- we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and-’ ‘ An live off the fatta the lan’,’ Lennie shouted” (Steinbeck 14). George can never reach his dream of living with Lennie on a couple of acres and have the stability their lives need.
Moreover, the men living on the ranch share mutual dreams: To George, this dream of having their own place means independence, security, working for themselves, and, above all, being "somebody." To Lennie, the dream resembles the delicate creatures he pets: It means to him security, the duty of keeping an eye on the rabbits, and a place where he won't need to be scared. To Candy, it means security for seniority and a home where he will fit in. For Crooks, where he
During Crooks and Lennie's conversation, Lennie says that George is with the other ranch workers in town tonight. Crooks says, "'I said s'pose George went into town tonight and you never heard from him no more'" (Steinbeck 71). As Crooks gets to know Lennie, he notices that he talks very highly of George. Lennie mentions that George and the other ranch workers left the ranch to go into town, as Crooks did not know because he's isolated from everyone on the ranch, and wouldn't know if they went to town. Crooks messes with Lennie, saying that George'll never come back, which upsets Lennie.
Everyone on the ranch is faced with the difficulty of not only making money during the depression but also steering clear of loneliness. The novel Of Mice and Men demonstrates how loneliness can negatively affect someone's life by making them feel isolated and alone because they have no one to talk to and are lacking human connection. While on the ranch, George and Lennie meet a black man named Crooks who is shut out by the men on the farm and doesn't have anyone. Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and the other men on the ranch don't let him go in their bunkhouses, so instead Crooks lives in a small section of the barn.
(Steinbeck 80). Crooks is talking to Lennie about if George were to never comeback and support Lennie. He says this because then he would be like Crooks as he does not have anybody to interact with socially. Another example of Crooks being lonely is in the same conversation with Lennie, “ S 'pose you had to sit out here an ' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books.
