Of Mice And Men Crooks Loneliness Essay

Loneliness is a deserted island. A time of extreme loneliness was the 1930’s. In the 1930’s the stock market suffered a terrible crash, leading to the Great Depression. This depression caused the loss of many American jobs and plunged the nation into a era of great hardship. Desperate for work, many people took on the roles of migrant workers, traveling from farm to farm every few months. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, set on a Californian farm during the Great Depression, displays not only the loneliness of the migrant workers, but the solitude of those who live on the farm permanently. Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy are some of the characters that experience a sense of isolation despite having a permanent position on the farm. Loneliness

Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and is segregated from everyone else. By having his room separate from all the other workers, Crooks is being excluded from them. Furthermore, Crooks has the disability of a crooked back. His crooked back prevents him from working in the fields. Since he cannot work in the fields, Crooks has limited social or work contact with the other men. In Crooks’ room Crooks converses with Lennie about his feelings. Bothered, he laments over how he can “play horseshoes til it’s dark” with all the other workers, but then he has to go “read books” all by himself(72,72). While Crooks does not despise reading books, he wishes that he had a companion to confide in. The deep mistrust that Crooks feels towards others, though, is one of the reasons he does not have a friend to talk to. Lennie creates excitement in Crooks because Crooks can trust Lennie since he knows that Lennie will never repeat what he says . However, this feeling is short lived. Soon after his discussion with Lennie, Crooks realizes that he is still alone and that Lennie will not always be with him. As it is with Crooks, physical characteristics can play a part in the isolation of people, even if those people have a fixed place to