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Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

439 Words2 Pages

“Sometimes it’s better to be alone, then no one can hurt you”. John Steinbeck illustrates throughout his novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ the secluded and detached ranch life in the early 1930’s and explores the lives of itinerant workers who share the same dream of escaping the lack of friendship as well as drifting from ranch to ranch desperately trying to make a living. Steinbeck shows that all his characters demonstrate isolation, although some suffer this more than others. By these ranchers living in the town of Soledad (Spanish for loneliness), the readers get the impression of the depressing environment and that the characters are constantly facing overwhelming challenges and stress of being alienated. Loneliness is the feeling of isolation …show more content…

Clearly Steinbeck’s novel demonstrates Crook’s character as being the main aspect of alienation as he is the only colored guy on the ranch and spends most of his time secluded in his room. ““Listen, Nigger,”” she said. “You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?” This shows that Crooks has no opinion among the other men just because he has a different skin color he is separated from everyone else and there is nothing he can do about it. Curley’s wife makes sure Crooks knows this and she displays much superiority and condescendment as anyone would believe her word over his even if it isn’t true just because he’s black. “I never get to talk to no-body, I get awful lonely”. Crooks experiences the isolation and lack of companionship more than anyone else as he is forced to live alone on the other side of the ranch so no one has to have any interaction with him. For example even when the ranchers come to play cards in the barn, he is not permitted to join in or converse with any of them just because he has different color skin. Clearly during the 1930’s the black people were seen as inferior to the white people and Steinbeck demonstrates this throughout this novel by showing the difficulties his character Crooks

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