Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

“Well, you keep your place then, n*****. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” (Steinbeck 81). In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the readers are following the life of Lennie and George, who are migrant workers during the Great Depression. Migrant workers, unlike Lennie and George, primarily travel alone, and they go from job to job. George and Lennie have been together since they were younger, as Lennie would come along with George while he worked, so they had become inseparable. Lennie got them kicked out of many jobs, but they landed a spot as a ranch hand bucking barley. Once they became acquainted with the farm, Lennie and George become friends with a man named Crooks, but before that, they are introduced to the ranch by Candy. As the story progresses, a theme of isolation, discrimination, and loneliness on Candy, Lennie, and Crooks is revealed.

Crooks was a very out of place person, he was said to work in the barn with the mules making sure they were okay, he even had his own room. Steinbeck 66. Most of the time, Crooks felt lonely. The whites/workers on the farm thought that Crooks stunk, but Crooks thought the same about

As Crooks says, “A guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” (73) Crooks has been among the several people in Steinbeck’s novel

The character of Crooks is used to symbolize the social standing of the black community occurring during the time at which the novel is set. Crooks is a lonely African American on the farm that feels out of place. As George and Lennie explain their dream to Crooks he brushes them off and says that no one around here can implement their dreams. This realism gives the reader an impression that Crooks has absolutely no hope. However, Crooks may be pessimistic, but yet even he has a dream, which is the hope of one day experiencing the joys of his childhood again. Crooks' character is portrayed as very lonely in the novel, this is evident when Crooks explains, "A guy needs someone." (Mice 77). Crooks is telling the reader the need of human interaction. This realism that Steinbeck uses shows the reader the harsh realities of the black community during the time of the depression in the 1930's

Don’t make no difference, who the guy is, long’s he with you.’ I tell ya’ he cried, ‘I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick.” (Steinbeck 72-73) Crooks spends most of his time alone because he’s black. He’s not allowed to enter the bunk house nor go to town with the guys.

Because Crooks knows that he would face discrimination if he were to hang out with the others, he has no choice but to stay in his room. When Crooks is in his room, the only activity he can do is read books. This stirs up his need for having friends because of being so lonely. “ ‘Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black… A guy needs somebody- to be near him… a guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody (72)’ ”. Here, it is acknowledged that because Crooks gets very lonely, he is longing for someone to be with. This eventually becomes his dream to have that bond like Lennie has with George. Steinbeck explains how if you are forced to be alone, you are always longing to be with someone. This need to be with someone from feeling lonely becomes the dream of Crooks.

Have you ever had a dream so large it almost felt unreachable? Did you give up on that same dream? As most people know, feeling isolated is inevitable. When we are forced upon with these feelings there is no telling of how we will react. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the characters are faced with the resentful feelings of loneliness, which causes them to give up on their dreams.

Is Loneliness a way someone could be hurt or killed? In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck loneliness is a prominent theme, and causes of pain or loss. Curley's wife is the only women on the farm and Curly forces her not to be with any other people, Crooks is the only black man and is forced to live in the stable place and be alone, and candy is an old man missing a hand which makes him not be able to work very well, he feels he has no importance to anyone. There is only one women on the whole ranch and its Curly’s wife, this cause her to be lonely for a few reason one of which is that she has no other women to talk to makes her feel like an outcast and very lonely. Another reason that she feels lonely is that even when she tries

Because of this, Crooks has been discriminated from the other white men. He separates himself because of this. Finally, when George and Lennie come around to spend the night in Crooks’s room, he is joyous to finally have some companions. For example, Crooks says in the novel, “ A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s

Loneliness is an unavoidable fact of life that not even the strongest can avoid, but too much of it can be really unhealthy. Humans need friendship to remain mentally and physically healthy. “Social isolation and loneliness can, among other things, undermine our capacity to think clearly, and regulate our emotions, as well as paranoid experience of others” (Carly Frintner) In the novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses the devices of characterization and tone to develop the theme that loneliness is the destruction of one’s mental state state and happiness. Characterization is a device that Steinbeck uses to develop this theme because it allows the reader to see the deeper parts of a character.

In the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, exemplifies the theme of loneliness, and is expressed through many characters in the novel. Crooks is lonely in his own way. Crooks is isolated because of his race, he lives by himself because he is the only black man on the ranch. He is physically separated from everyone else and has his own room in the barn, because of his crooked back he has limited social work or contact with the guys as he tends the horses. His loneliness forces him to acquaintance with lennie, when he tries to talk to him, crooks tries to shut himself away from lennie, the way people have been treating him in the past has caused him to put a chip on his shoulder and try to isolate himself from the world and anybody

Moreover, Steinbeck shows Crooks’ social capabilities being affected through his living conditions. Every other worker lives inside the bunkhouse except him. The reasoning for this is shown through a conversation with Lennie, Crooks states “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse...They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink” (68). With Crooks living in his own quarters, Steinbeck is representing how he is being deprived of the social interactions that take place inside the bunkhouse. Crooks can not create certain relationships and simply play cards like everyone else can all because he is black.

Crooks brings into perspective the loneliness experienced by all the characters in "Of Mice and Men" by saying "a guy gets too lonely, an' he gets sick." He is telling of the need for human interaction, the need for company and the need for someone to care and provide security. The oppression Crooks experiences in living in a barn and not in the bunkhouse where he could play rummy as one of the group leads him to this desperate plea to be realised as equal. Just because when he cuts himself, the blood he bleeds is looked upon as different from a white perspective, this does not mean he is not entitled to benefit from human nature. John Steinbeck is portraying here the feelings of Americans of his day and age: their aloneness and their salvation - in the American Dream.

Just as Havisham and Curley’s wife’s isolation is because of their gender, Crooks in “Of Mice and Men” is presented as the epitome of the frustration and loneliness caused by isolation. However, Crooks’s isolation is not due to his gender, but his colour and race. In “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck presents Crooks as an isolated character due to his race. He names Crooks as Crooks because he has a crooked back and he is called “Nigger” implying that he is unimportant. Steinbeck portrays Crooks’s loneliness through “this is just a nigger talking a bust-back nigger. So it don’t mean nothing” and “nobody’d listen to you”, these can be inferred as Crooks has a low status in the ranch, no one has ever listened to him. This can also be referred to the

Crooks shows his isolated situation by refusing opportunities on multiple occasions to be around people, which could be a cure to his solitude. In chapter four Crooks is talking about how it has been for him living as a crippled African American. While he is talking to Lennie, Old Candy comes looking for Lennie, and Crooks says “irritably” that Old Candy can “come in if he want[s]”. (Steinbeck 74) Crooks’ whole speech about growing up black in racist America, and how that was for him to be African American and crippled proves that he is lonely. He confides to Lennie that he is lonely, saying that a person(himself) gets “too lonely” that he gets “sick.” (Steinbeck 72) So the reader knows that Crooks is lonely, yet he still is not trying to interact with others, which could help him with his loneliness. This is Crooks just making hasty and ill thought out decisions, because of his isolation. Crooks also proves his isolation with his patronizing of Lennie. He suggests to Lennie that “George” might “not come