Of Mice And Men: Loneliness Essay, Research Paper

Of Mice and Men: Loneliness

Loneliness is one of the main emotions Of Mice and Men. Lenny must have

been lonely and George too. When we meet them in Of Mice and Men they already

know each other and George has already saved Lenny from getting into trouble.

Candy was lonely too because he has his dog that he couldn’t bear to part with.

Crooks is lonely because he doesn’t live with the white people and is usually

alone all day. Curley’s Wife is lonely because she’s always around the guys,

looking for Curley or looking for something that she left there as an excuse to

talk to someone. At one time Slim and Whit must have been lonely, but they’re

friends when we meet them. As you can see, loneliness is one of the key factors

to this story. Everyone in this story was or is lonely.

Loneliness affects a lot of the characters in this story. One of the

lonely characters is Crooks. Crooks is lonely because he’s black and no one

wants to be near him. This was when blacks were segregated from whites. No one

ever went to visit him. Also, because he’s black, he has his room out in the

stable with the horses. The other (white) guys have their bunks in a one room

house type of building. The loneliness affects Crooks so that he remains in his

room when he has some books to read. He also usually rubs his own back with

liniment because a horse kicked or threw him when he was younger. Another thing

that showed his loneliness is that he had his personal belongings scattered

around the room. He also had this stuff scattered around the room because he

was crippled and was a stable buck, which meant he was more permanent then most

of the other people. Also, because he was alone he demanded that other people

keep their space too.

Another character that’s lonely is Lenny. Lenny’s lonely because George

is usually yelling at him. Lenny and George are friends, but Lenny tries to talk

with other people to make friends besides George. Lenny doesn’t like to be

around George after he gets mad at him. Lenny would try to make or be friendly

to anyone. He makes friends with Crooks when nobody else would. Lenny also shows

loneliness by his desire to pet things. This shows that he needs a friend who

understands him. Lenny wants to have a friend that will understand him, too

One character that’s lonely but doesn’t seem to be is George. George is

lonely because he’s always yelling at Lenny. He’s also lonely because he can’t

talk to Lenny the way he wants to in an adult manner. Usually when the two have

a conversation, George has to repeat everything he says two or three times to

Lenny so that Lenny understands and doesn’t forget. George makes friends with

Candy, Slim, and Whit to hopefully have a conversation with someone of his

intelligence. He puts up with Lenny because he knows that if he’s left alone,

Lenny will probably die.

Another lonely character is Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is found

running around looking for Curley. Mostly, she’s trying to find someone to talk

to. She would usually only see Curley after he was done with his job and for her

that’s too long to go without talking to someone. What she did was hang around

the guys and try to start a conversation with them. The guys don’t talk to her

because she’s nothing but trouble. When Lenny shows up, she tries to make

friends with him and does. On the other hand George stays away because he knows

that she’s nothing but trouble. She’s trouble because if Curley found her

flirting with the other guys, he raise hell about it.

Thus, many of the characters in this book are lonely and they seem to be

searching for a friend to talk to. Some of them do make friends but some don’t

make friends. The lesson we can learn is to be care who you talk to and make

friends with. Some are there to help you and some are there to hurt you.