Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck explores the theme; the pain of loneliness. Steinbeck uses the characters words, and events to give vivid details of this theme. George Milton and Lennie Small go to the town of Soledad looking for work. What some may not know is that Soledad in Spanish means “solitude” or “alone”. Saturday night all the men except Lennie, crooks, and Candy go into town to drink and be with women. Lennie wondered into Crooks room looking for someone to talk with, and immediately Crooks exclaimed, “You ain’t got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me” (68). Crooks is isolated from the other men because he is black. They do not allow him to enter the bunkhouse or go anywhere with them unless they are playing Horseshoes, because he was very good. Therefore, Crooks has no one to talk to and has to find things to occupy him, “a guy sets alone out here at night, maybe reading books” (73). As Lennie and Crooks get their conversation going Crooks expresses his emotions of loneliness to Lennie saying, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody” (72).

Curley doesn’t allow her to talk to anyone, “you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley” (87). She tries to befriend the men by flirting with them but they all know the consequences that may come. When the men are away she tries to talk with Lennie, but because George warned him about her he tells her that it isn’t a good idea that they talk. “Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” (86). Lennie’s’ urge to feel on something soft (her hair) to feel safe results in her