How Does Steinbeck Present Curley's Wife Theme Of Loneliness

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“I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain't wanted in my room”(Steinbeck 68). The stable buck, Crooks, says this in Steinbeck’s famous classic Of Mice and Men. Everyone feels a sense of loneliness at some point, and in this novella, Steinbeck displays the loneliness prevalent in the 1930’s. The stock market crash not only crashed the economy, but it also divided the country. Thus, people are very strongly judged by the color of their skin and women are often viewed as property despite having equal rights under the law. At the same time, the elderly are forced to take menial jobs and are not getting the care they need. Noticeably then, the theme of loneliness is revealed in Steinbeck’s novella through the isolation and

She appears to be very flirtatious and dresses nicely for being on a ranch. Because she is the only woman on the ranch, Curley’s Wife feels alone very often, so she seeks attention from the men on the ranch. Steinbeck first introduces Curley’s Wife as a very flirtatious and presentable figure to show that she is seeking attention: “Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house and red mules…”(31). Later on, Curley’s Wife,”put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward. ‘You’re the new fellas that just come, ain’t ya?’’(31). Reading this section of the novella, the reader can infer that Curley’s Wife is flirtatious and seeks attention. Since Curley’s Wife is the only woman on the ranch, she doesn’t get treated the same as the other men. She gets ignored and stay in the house away from everyone:”Think I’m gonna stay in that two by four house and listen how Curley’s gonna lead with his left twict, and then bring in the ol’ right cross?”(78). She explains that while everyone else is out she is just; “Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs- a n***** an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep- an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else”(79). Near the end of the novella, the reader learns that Curley’s Wife wasn’t trying to be flirtatious by dressing the way she did. She describes that she dressed the way she did

Crooks lives by himself in the shed. He is in bad shape because he is old and has to do a lot of work on the ranch. Since Crooks is black he gets treated differently than the other men on the ranch. He has to live in a barn with the animals, he is not allowed to talk and have fun with the other men, and he gets ignored. When Steinbeck first introduces Crooks, he describes the room he lives in. Crooks lives inside a shed where the animals lived. He described his bed as a “long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung”(66). Crooks had to sleep on hay, like the animals in the barn. Steinbeck also talks about the supplies that Crooks had were shared with the horses: “Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses”(66). Later on in chapter four, Crooks meets Lennie for the first time. He tells Lennie about about how he wasn’t allowed to be around the other men on the ranch because he was black: “‘’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink”(68). Crooks also mentions that the reason he isn't treated the same is because; “there ain't a colored man on this ranch an’ there’ jus’ one family in Soledad’”(70). Around the same time chapter four, Crooks talks about no one will listen to his opinion because he is black and they don't believe him: “If I say something, why it's just a n*****