Motif Of Loneliness

The motif of loneliness is explored throughout John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, not only through the main characters, but the secondary characters as well. Of Mice and Men has many examples of discrimination. Some of the best examples are racism and sexism, which is why two of the characters are shown to be lonely. Crooks, the stable hand, is black, which makes all the others on the ranch want to have nothing to do with him. Similarly, Candy is outed since he is an old cripple. The men treat Curley’s wife the same way they treat Crooks, but they treat her this way because she is a women. Due to the fact that Crooks is black, the other guys exclude him from many things. Crooks is a perfect example of how racism can cause loneliness.

Candy lost his right hand in a ranch accident, which is why the owners “give me a job swampin’” as he says (Steinbeck 59). He believes he will that he will be “can[ned] purty soon,” so he wants to go with George and Lennie (Steinbeck 60). When Carlson wants to shoot Candy’s dog, Candy does not want him to. He says “No, I couldn’... I had ‘im too long” and “I had him from a pup” (Steinbeck 45). Candy does not want to give up the dog since he has had him for so long, and the dog is one of the only possessions he has left. Being old makes some of the other guys not like him as much. Even though they do not actually say it, it is implied when one of them says “I wisht somebody’d shoot me if I got old an’ a cripple” which is exactly what Candy is (Steinbeck 45). Candy is quite old and is missing a hand so although Slim is describing his dog, he is also inadvertently describing Candy. In the same way Crooks is lonely because of his color, Curley’s wife is lonely because of her

One character, named Crooks, is lonely because he is people are biased due to his color. He is not the only one to be the product of intolerance. People are discriminatory towards Curley’s wife because she is a female. Candy is lonely because he is a cripple who is only still around because of pity, so is most people avoid him. All three of them are lonely because of something they do not have control over and cannot fix. Crooks is black and that is not something that can be changes. Just like how Curley’s wife is a girl and Candy lost his hand in an accident and everyone grows old. Things like this still go on today. While sometimes it is not as obvious other times it is easy to see. These days people face intolerance in some places because of their sexual orientation , something they cannot control. Prejudice can cause people to be lonely. When people judge others without knowing them then exclude those people; the people being excluded cannot make