“‘A guy needs somebody-to be near him’”(Steinbeck 72) says Crooks in John Steinbeck’s novella “Of Mice and Men”. Many of the characters in the story are forced to face loneliness. Some have to because of their ethnic background, others because of a mental illness. One character is even lonely because of their gender. The main theme of the book “Of Mice and Men” is loneliness because there are many characters that face loneliness because of different reasons. However, they all cope with their loneliness in the same way, by talking to others about their past and future hopes and dreams.
One of the characters in “Of Mice and Men” that faces loneliness is Crooks. Crooks is the black “stable buck” who works on the ranch and is excluded from most activities that all of the white men living on the ranch participate in. Crooks is separated from the rest because of his race and is treated worse than any of the other characters. He doesn’t live in the
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I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ‘Cause I want you to stay with me’”(Steinbeck 13). Two other characters who are involved with the theme of loneliness are George and Lennie. Lennie is mentally disabled, so after his aunt (who was taking care of him) passed away, the task of watching over Lennie was given to George, who was a friend of Lennie and his aunt. While these characters never actually have to face loneliness, they travel around the state together to avoid it. Without George or anyone else to take care of him, Lennie would likely die, as he is not able to tend to his own needs due to his mental disability. Seeing the type of character George is, even though he can take care of himself, he probably would have been very lonely without Lennie’s company and would have felt as if there was no meaning to his life. After George was forced to kill Lennie at the end of the story, he certainly experienced loneliness for the first time in a long time, if not for the first time in his