Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

There are many themes present in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, ranging from commentary on the world as a whole, to the simple fraternity of male friendship. Even though all the themes found in the book are all important, and without them the book wouldn’t be what it is, one of them stands out from the rest, a bright and shiny rock in the bottom of a lake bed. This raw uncut gem among the jewels is the raw uncut emotion of loneliness. the deep insistent yearning for human companionship. The need to interact with people is one of the prime reasons many of the situations that happen, happen in the first place. Candy is one of the lonely characters. Candy is an old swamper who only has one companion, an old dog that he’s had since birth.

On one hand, Crooks is a crippled black stable boy, isolated from the rest of the workers because of his race. On the other hand, Curley’s wife is a pretty white woman, the wife of the son of the boss of the ranch, isolated from the rest of the men because of her gender. They are the two opposites both in the same situation, unable to do anything about this situation because of nature. Crooks deals with his problems in a very different way than how Curley’s wife handles it. “‘S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunk house and play rummy ‘cause you was black. S’pose you had to sit out here an’ read books. Books ain’t no good. A guy needs someone - to be near him’”(). Crooks deals with his need by ignoring it. He does this by reading books, or, occasionally playing horseshoes, but it always returns to books. He still has that sickness in him, the need to have someone, but he pushes it away, because he can’t do anything about it. Steinbeck writes, in response to Curley’s wife threatening him “Crooks stared hopelessly at her, and then he sat down on his bunk and drew in on himself”(). When he can’t do something about it, he forces it down until it’s nothing. He couldn’t do anything to stand up to her blackmail because of his skin color, so he drew it in until nothing was there. “Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego- nothing to arouse either like or dislike” (). Though that was a