of mice and men

Loneliness
Loneliness affects more than the immediate person, it can destroy friendships and trusts, or encourage and strengthen a person to go beyond their comfort zone. In the story Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, loneliness plays a significant role in the novel throughout certain characters. Some readers may have concluded that Steinbeck made them less important than other characters in the book, since they were left out by most. Of Mice and Men clearly demonstrates that loneliness destroys people as with Curley’s Wife, Crooks, and between Lennie and George.

Throughout the book Of Mice and men, the novel demonstrates the impact of loneliness though Curley’s wife. Loneliness is damaging to Curley’s wife because she is portrayed as an inferior character. Curley’s wife isn’t even given a name in the story. Towards the end of the novel Steinbeck made Curley’s wife sound like a very sweet and innocent women, who caused no harm in the world before she died. He said, “She was very pretty and simple. And her face was sweet and young” (Steinbeck 93). It is clear to readers that Curley’s wife knows her beauty is her power. She uses her power to flirt with other ranch hands to make her husband jealous even though she was in ingenuous person.
She expressed to the readers that even though people can be lonely, we all establish and show that we have our own humanity.

Another character, Crooks, is a laid back mellow person who doesn’t really want to be bothered. He is another character that Steinbeck represents loneliness within the novel. He had been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatments that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives. Since he became stultified and wasn’t allowed in the bunkhouse since he was black, he wasn’t able to communicate with other ranch hands and lost the ability to bond with others. Crooks said, “I was just supposin’. George ain’t hurt” (72). Lennie freaked out on Crooks since he depends on George to make every decision for him, and when he thinks George really did leave him he very worried. Lennie and Crooks create a new bond that slowly releases the pressure of Crooks into making him feel at ease and more talkative to the rest of the ranch members which creates better relationships once Crooks allowed his walls to be torn down.

Some people may say that George was very lonely after he shot Lennie. They were both really close friends when Lennie’s Aunt Clara had passes away. George may have drowned Lennie, like it mentioned in the beginning of the novel, and said a lot of mean words to him, but deep down inside George was very distraught without Lennie in his life. Steinbeck early on said, “George pushed himself back from the river, drew up his knees and embraces them. Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right” (4). George was a role model to Lennie. He portrayed like an older brother that Lennie never really had, who protected him, watched over him and made sure he was safe. Although George had to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his best friend by shooting him in the head, George handled it very strong. George showed courage since he did not want Lennie to struggle because if he didn’t shoot Lennie then Curley would most likely come after him and kill him himself.

To summarize, Of Mice and Men clearly demonstrates that loneliness is shown deeply within Curley’s wife, Crooks, and between Lennie and George. Although Steinbeck didn’t make them the most important characters in the novel, they all were very important to the book. If they would not have been mentioned so often in the novel, the reader would not be able to get the big picture hidden inside.