Invisible rules and barriers of society have always affected the way people look or think about one another. Society has invisible rules on what or who is acceptable and what is not. In the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, there are characters who isolate themselves from the rest due to social barriers. Of Mice and Men is about two best friends, George and Lennie going to work at a ranch to make enough money to buy a farm. The story follows mainly those two characters, but also adds the interaction with them and other characters to show how lonely each character was during that time. Steinbeck uses Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy to show that loneliness and isolation are caused by social barriers.
Crooks is a character that is shown to be isolated from the rest of the men at the ranch. He was the only African American on the ranch and he had a crooked back. This story takes place at a time where African Americans were free, but still discriminated against so Crooks is often isolated at the ranch. He makes that very clear when he talked to Lennie, “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse and you ain’t wanted in my room.” “Why ain’t you wanted?” Lennie asked “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink” (Steinbeck 68). Crooks was not welcomed to the activities the ranchmen participated in because he was black and they made that very clear to him, so he didn’t bother them, “He kept his distance and demanded that others kept