Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Loneliness is a power in itself. When you are lonely you realize what is really important to you, and you have time to think about your values. Your loneliness can become your greatest ally because you can grow stronger in yourself, and in turn, defeat a weaker individual. In Of Mice and Men, most characters use their isolation and loneliness to defeat a weaker character in the story.

Crooks form of loneliness is shown through the color of his skin. As the only black man on the ranch, he is not allowed into the bunkhouse with the others, and he does not associate with them. The way he hides his loneliness is by reading books and working hard at his job. Crooks being an African American made him a target for almost all of his life which,

Carlson is presented as a nice person in the novel, but doesn’t think about other people's feelings. He doesn't take time to understand them. Carlson was very different than the men of his time because he always wants to be practical and not sincere. We would infer that, at times, this would make him feel lonely and isolated. Carlson's character is meant to be brutally honest, not heartfelt. This is why it was he used his practicality to talk Candy into letting him shoot his dog. Candy’s dog was the weaker character.

Curly is the last character with a form of loneliness. His form of loneliness is similar to Crooks. Nobody on the ranch likes Curley because he walks around and tries to beat up ranch hands, when really he is not very big and always gets beaten. Candy explains it best when he says “Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy." Although he is small, Curley uses his strength to stand up for himself when he thinks Lennie is laughing at him. He then confronts him and tries to beat him up.

Loneliness can make people feel left out of less than, but it can also build them up into better people. All of these men had at least one thing that made them feel insecure about themselves. Fortunately, they used their fear to build them up and defeat a weaker character in the story. Loneliness is a power within