Curley's Wife Loneliness

We are alone in the world, but not everyone experiences loneliness .In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, most of the characters confess that they have suffered from profound loneliness. This loneliness is different with each character. Curley’s wife is lonely because of her isolation. The old man Candy, is lonely because of his best friend, his dog has died and Crooks is lonely because of his race. All of these characters are described as sad and hopeless individuals. This kind of work attracted people who are loners, as George says: “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place.”(13) Each of the character has a slightly different type of loneliness.

Curley’s wife is lonely because she is all alone on the ranch; far away from her friends and any distractions in the town. Curley’s wife fits into this theme. She is isolated from the men on the ranch because she is female, but also because she craves attention and the men do not want to get in trouble with Curley by giving his wife the wrong attention. Steinbeck describes her in an unflattering way and the other men use

Because of lack of companionship, he often sits by himself alone and is left behind. Candy is friendly with Lennie and George even though he does not know them very well, "I 'd make a will an ' leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain 't got no relatives or nothing…" (59) This quote shows that Candy is all alone because he had no one else to leave his money to. He is very depressed and has no desire to live: “I wisht somebody 'd shoot me..." (60). Also, he says, “I won’t have no place to go” (60) because he knows that he is old and useless with only one hand. Since his dog was shot, he feels that his fate is similar. He knows that his working life is nearly done and he has no sense of optimism about the