Why Is Curley's Wife Lonely

“A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you… a guy get’s too lonely an’ he gets sick”(Steinbeck 72-73). While African American man named Crooks made this comment in the book, this statement can also be applied to anyone who is lonely. If someone does not have companionship, terrible consequences occur within them. Many people of different varieties in the 1930s’ during the Great Depression, experienced awful circumstances that forced people to resort to desperate measures for money because of the many different causes and effects the Great Depression. Which resulted in people becoming ranch workers, migrant workers, or even homeless (these are all lonesome jobs). Candy, an old handyman

She is the owner of the ranch’s son’s wife as well as the sole woman on the whole ranch and described as “trouble” to many men. Because Curley’s Wife is a female without a given name , on a ranch full of men, people may not think of her highly. As a result of people judging her based on these facts, one might assume that her intentions are flirtatious when talking to the men rather than plainly being sociable. Therefore many of the men do not want to speak to her, because they misinterpreted her intentions. For instance, when Curley’s Wife came to the bunkhouses to meet some of the new men, once she left they did not have nice things to say: “‘She’s purty… ‘Yeah, and she’s sure hidin’it. Curley got his work ahead of him. Bet she’d clear out for twenty bucks”(32). Later that night, the same men continued to gossip about Curley’s Wife saying, “ I ain’t seen that much of her’... ‘Well, stick around an’ keep your eyes open. You’ll see plenty. She ain’t concealin’ nothing. I never seen nobody like her”(51). In addition, these pieces of dialogue illustrate that Curley’s Wife isn’t treated like a human as much as she is treated like trouble, all the men want to avoid. They believe she is promiscuous based on her appearance and body language, when in actuality she is just attention seeking. When Curley’s wife is severely judged by the men on the ranch, Curley’s Wife has absolutely no one to converse with. She expresses these feelings of loneliness when she said to Lennie, “I get lonely,’ she said. ‘You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to to anybody?”(87). Understanding that men on the ranch as a group treat Curley’s Wife poorly, it can be inferred that the men as individuals treat her fairly: “If I catch any one man, and he’s alone, I get along fine with him. But just let two of the guys get together an’ you won’t talk… Ever’one of you’d