How Does Steinbeck Present Loneliness In Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men, the story portrays how it's not okay to live with loneliness. In the story Of Mice and Men, there are two main characters, Lennie and George. Their main goal is to raise enough money to buy an estate. Throughout the story, George and Lennie meet people as they work at a ranch. A recurring issue shown as the book progresses is that loneliness can be a problem for many people. For example, Candy is a character that shows this, Candy feels remorse in the fact that he should have been the one to kill his dog leading him to feel empty. Another character that portrays loneliness is Crook, this story took place during the Great Depression meaning racism was still a pretty big thing. Of course, this leads Crook to be outcast by other

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. Books ain't no good'" (Steinbeck 73), this shows how much Crook struggled and how tired he felt living like this. As a result, this leads Crook to be aggressive towards people, scared of opening up and then leaving him, for example. ‘Come on in and set a while,’ Crooks said. ‘Long as you won’t get out and leave me alone, you might as well set down‘” (Steinbeck 70). Although Crook isn't very nice to Lennie, he still ends up enjoying Lennie's company, especially because he lacks human interaction; he says "'Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody to be near him. He whined, 'A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody'" (Steinbeck 73) proving he was struggling. In short, Crooks is the loneliest character in Of Mice and Men because he is black, and nobody wants to be associated with him. Another character in this story is Curley's wife, She's often seen flirting with other guys at the ranch although she is married which she states by saying "'Nobody can't blame a person for lookin'" (Steinbeck 33). This proves that she was always looking at other people, specifically because she was lonely in her