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Loneliness in Of Mice and Men
Pauline Phillips stated “Loneliness is the ultimate poverty.” Throughout Of Mice and Men, this is proven to be true. Poverty is usually defined as being with little money. The word poverty reminds many of homelessness. Although poverty is not always defined in a financial sense. John Steinbeck describes loneliness as being the worst poverty someone could be in. Loneliness is evident and a main theme, in the novella, opposed to penury. Loneliness is displayed in multiple characters in various ways. Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy are all examples of characters affected by the ultimate poverty. Of Mice and Men takes place during the Great Depression, however, the characters acknowledge their severe loneliness more than the existing financial crisis. Steinbeck supports this idea through the loneliness of Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy in his writing.
Curley’s wife experiences the ultimate poverty substantially throughout the novella. She is thought to be the loneliest person on the ranch by many. She is unhappy and desires every bit of attention she can get her hands on. The ranch
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workers see her as a pest and trouble maker so they stay as far as they can away from her. “Well, I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?” (Steinbeck 77). She suffers no financial matters due to being married to the Boss’s son. This shows that even though she is not poor, she suffers substantially more because of the loneliness she suffers. Another character affected by loneliness is Crooks.
Crooks is discriminated against for being black. He is isolated from the other men in his own room. “‘Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, all of you stink to me” (Steinbeck 68). All the ranch workers forget about Crooks because they have ignored him for so long. They do not give him a second thought as long as he stays out of their way. Slim is the only one who sees Crooks because he is the boss of the men. When Lennie first greets him he is bitter and wants nothing to do with him. Soon he becomes fond of the conversation and enjoys it. “Crooks’ face lightened with pleasure in his torture” ( Steinbeck 71). Crooks has all his necessities to live and lives in comfort compared to the other Americans during this
time. The last character who is highly affected by loneliness is Candy. Candy is elderly and disabled. The men somewhat see him as baggage like his dog. Carlson shoots his dog and Candy is more alone than ever. He states he has had that dog for so long and does not want him gone. Carlson complains the dog stinks and that he is too old so Candy should get rid of him. The other ranch workers do not back Candy up so Candy eventually gives in and lets Carlson take his dog. Candy does not have close bonds with the other ranch workers so he worries he will get kicked out once he grows to old to do any good. Candy however has money saved up from doing extra work over the years. He is not in any shape going through a state of poverty. The ranch provides a roof over his head and food. If disaster strikes, he has his own money to back him up and keep him afloat. Steinbeck’s novel proves loneliness is the ultimate poverty through the harsh loneliness of multiple characters. Loneliness in present in all these characters and none of them possess any financial complications. The ranch provides for them all financially, however, also negatively impacts them. A rich man who is alone suffers the ultimate poverty rather than a poor man who is surrounded by family, friends, and a strong community.
Crooks also feels a great deal of loneliness, as he is an outcast on the ranch. He lives in his own room where hardly anybody ever bothers him. He is never invited to play cards or do anything fun with the other guys. One day a curious Lenny asked, “Why ain’t you wanted?” Crooks replies “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They think I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me” (pg. ). Crooks’ attitude towards this is shown when he saw Lennie playing with his puppy outside of Crooks’ quarters. Crooks states that “if me, as a black man, is not allowed in the white quarters, then white men are not allowed in mine” (pg. ). However this is merely a front as the more open side of Crooks is shown later on in the book.
Steinbeck clearly shows that Crooks never has any say on the ranch. No one cares about him. He’s just a “negro stable buck” (66). In this novella, No one ever talks to him except for candy. Lennie finally finds himself going into his room. While in there they speak about racial profiling. Crooks tell lennie that he’s the only African Americans on the ranch. He tells Lennie how he’s “alone out here at night” (73). He has nobody to talk to all he does is read books and think. The people on the ranch care less about his needs and wants, all they want him to do is to continue his work...
The first description of Curley’s Wife states that she gives multiple ranch workers “the eye” despite being “married two weeks.” From this we can instantly deduce that she is somewhat of a “tart” however if we evaluate further this could explain that she is lonely and not content with her new husband. The fact that she is giving other ranch workers “the eye” despite being married makes us feel no sympathy for her and instantly portrays her as endeavouring and potentially dangerous, although, on the other hand we can understand her restriction by Curley which makes us feel sympathy.
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses stereotypes and discrimination to convey a message of how the characters feel. A lot of the stereotypes and clichés are just common beliefs of the times, but a few are situational. To quote a quite distinguished reader, "Characters are ‘trapped’- either by what others think of them, or by their situation." A lot of the character’s feelings about themselves and what others think of them will lead to loneliness.
Crooks expressed feelings of loneliness through out Of Mice and Men. Crooks? loneliness is caused because he is black, at the time the story took place there was racism. Since Crooks is black he wasn?t able to socialize with the white men. When Steinbeck describes all of Crooks? possessions, it shows that Crooks has been at the ranch a long time and that his possessions are all the he cares about. In Crooks? room, Lennie comes to talk to him. Crooks is cautious at first, this was from the years of racism that Crooks endured, he learned not to associate with white folk.
In the touching and gripping tale of John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, he explains many themes throughout the books. One of the major themes is loneliness, which is shown throughout many different characters, for example, Curley’s wife, the stable buck (Crooks), and Lennie.
Curley’s wife is a complex, main character in John Steinbeck’s novella, “Of Mice and Men”. She is introduced as an insignificant secondary character, but evidently posses the importance of causing the end of the novella. Despite the weight of her role, her value is hindered because of the culture towards women in the 1930s. Steinbeck uses imagery, foreshadowing, and metaphors to show loneliness analyzed through a Feminist Lens.
Curley’s wife’s femininity may be seen as her greatest weakness or flaw to most, but she rapidly discovers that it is also her only weapon on the ranch and learns to use it to her advantage. Therefore, she puts up an alluring and sultry front in an attempt to receive attention, because she is aware that none of the men on the farm respect her because of her position as a woman. The men's blatant lack of respect for her belittles the miniscule amount of power she has acquired
Loneliness is the central theme in the novel Of Mice and Men. Many of the characters show signs of being lonely, some more than others. Loneliness haunts Crooks deep inside. Crooks accepts things the way they are though. Crooks does not talk to the other men and they do not talk to him. This causes the greatest amount of loneliness in Crooks out of all the characters. Rejection can cause most people to become crazy, as it
Curley's wife from the beginning of the story is tremendously outcasted from society . Curley's wife is a lonely wife that lives in a far place. She can't go anywhere because the ranch is so far away. She has no other women to talk to because there are only the male ranch workers on the ranch that don't want to talk to her .Since there are no women on the ranch she tries to talk to the ranch workers, but the ranch workers think that she is an “tart” or a “flirt”. She is also separated by sexism which is abundant at this point in time.
A novel which explores the the theme of loneliness is 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck. The characters George, Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife are used to show loneliness. In the novel the two main characters, George and Lennie, are starting a new job in California after being ordered out of their last job as a result of Lennie's childish behavior. They work as farm laborers and have always had a dream of they could own their own land. This dream they have is typically an aspiration that many people have but unfortunately never attain. Although, luckily enough they get offered money which by a character called Candy, and this sum of money boosts their chances of capturing their dream. However, the kindled hope they have soon evaporates, with tragic consequences.
An example of how the men are discriminative towards Crooks is that he is forced to live in a shack away from the bunkhouse and also Crooks says that "They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say "I stink" and "I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse." An example of when Curley's Wife is critical towards Crooks is when she looks into his room to see what Lennie and Crooks are doing and then she states, shaking her head, that they left the weak ones behind. Also, she threatens to have Crooks hanged because a black man should never talk to a white woman the way he just had. As a result of all of these discriminatory acts against him, Crooks feels unwanted and lonely because of his color and placement on the farm.
Racial discrimination has been around for a long time, judging people for the color of their skin. Crooks is affected by this because he is black. Blacks in that time were thought as lesser than the white people. The racial discrimination affects Crooks' life in only negative ways. He is plagued by loneliness because of the color of his skin. His lack of company drives him crazy. Only when Lennie comes in to his room does he feel less lonely. He talked of his loneliness using a hypothetical scenario of George leaving Lennie. Crooks' responds to this discrimination by staying in his barn and being secluded. He doesn't want anyone to be in there but deep down he does so he can have some company. He isn't wanted in the bunk house or to play cards with the others because he is black. This effected the story by letting people walk all over him, letting them think they can do whatever they want, and ultimately making the people think they have a lot of power when really they do not.
She needed people to talk to, like the others do. “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. I’ll tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick.” (Steinbeck, 72-73). Crooks has shown us that he truly needs someone however he can’t because he is different. This goes for Curley's wife as well. Those who are different are lonely because no one wants to get involved with them. When she is lonely, Curley's wife goes to talk to people but they never accept request. “I get lonely, you can talk to people but I can't talk to nobody but curly. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (Steinbeck, 87). Curley's wife explains that she is lonely. However, no one really notices it. She knows that she is claimed by someone she does not love. She only wants someone else to talk to him. Have her being viewed the way she was, was unlikely to happen. Being the woman on the ranch was awfully hard to live happy. She knew that they won't talk to her, so depression became a factor.
Crook’s was a black man who was considered a minority and that he “stinks” due to his color. All of the other men thought they were too good for Crook’s just because he was black and they were white. Crook’s wasn’t allowed in the bunk house with all the other men, he couldn’t even go out in the field with the other white men because he was black he had to stay at the barn. He was looked down on and Crook’s only dream was to fit in with the other men.