Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

During the Great Depression, many migrant workers were not able to form friendships and relationships in their unstable work. This is shown clearly in the book of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The book is about two men that travel together and face many conflicts. Many of the people they meet believe George is taking advantage of Lennie as it was unusual for two people to travel together. Through characterization of Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife, Steinbeck portrays how loneliness negatively impacts humans.
Loneliness impacts Candy after all the guys gang up on him to kill his old dog and longtime friend, severing the bond between man and beast. Candy formed a special bond with his dog that the other guys do not understand; they do not have anyone that is loyal to them that follows them anywhere willingly. Candy ends up having another guy shoot his dog since he would not be able to pull the trigger. Later, Candy says “You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that”

(Steinbeck 58). Candy’s loneliness has made him feel like the only way out is to die. George and Lennie decide to let Candy in on their dream of the farm. Candy is so happy that he is no longer lonely he has people to talk to and friendships that will last. Until Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife and Candy finds her body. Candy goes straight to George thinking that this would affect their plans for the farm. So George and Candy come up with a plan, but it will not allow them to get the farm in a month as they were hoping. Once again making Candy lonely since he had big hopes on the Dream of the farm.
Furthermore, Crooks is affected by loneliness since he is African American and all the guys see him as inferior to them. One night Lennie was in the barn and saw Crookss’ light on and decided to go talk to him. Crooks way not expecting anyone to come to his room and he got mad at Lennie. Soon after Candy comes into the barn looking for Lennie and finds him in Crooks’s room. ““Come on in. If ever’body’s comin’ in, you might just as well.” It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger” (Steinbeck 73). Crooks tried not to enjoy it for he knows that it would not last. Candy during the conversation makes this comment showing how truly alone Crooks really is ““I been here a long time,” he said “An’ Crooks been here a long time. This’s the first time I ever been in his room” (Steinbeck 73). The other guys just look at Crooks as African American not as another one of the guys.
Likewise, Curley’s wife’s loneliness eventually leads to her down fall by becoming too friendly with Lennie.

Curley’s wife is the only women on a farm full of men and none of them will talk to her. One day she finds Lennie in the barn and goes to talk to him then again George told Lennie not to talk to her. So Lennie tries tells her he is not allowed to talk to her and she says ““I get lonely,”… “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 anybody? (Steinbeck 84). Lennie ends up talking to her and they start talking about their love of soft thing and things go downhill from there. She did not know the extent of Lennie’s love for soft things leading to her downfall. She lets Lennie pet her hair then he messes it up and she yells and Lennie tries to get her to be quiet, snapping her neck in the

end.
In end, loneliness has affected Candy in losing his dream, Crooks now not having anyone to talk too, and Curley’s wife with her demise. Steinbeck illustrates the effects of loneliness through the loss of something that is greatly important to those characters.