Theme Of Loneliness
American author Robert M. Pirsig once said “Physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's psychic distance”. This theme of loneliness is a recurring theme in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The characters Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife all live in a constant struggle against loneliness. On the ranch, they are either isolated from the other ranchers or from people who they are similar to. This loneliness affects how Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife live their everyday lives.
Crooks is one of the loneliest people on the ranch. He is an African American stable buck who sleeps in his own room away from the bunkhouse. First, he tries to seclude himself from the other ranchers. Hiding from the others, he …show more content…
After his dog is put down by Carlson, he is left alone with no friends other than George and Lenny. He is so jealous of what George and Lennie have with their friendship that he offers to pay almost all of the money necessary to buy the small amount of land that George and Lennie planned on buying. Candy proposes “[Suppose] I went in with you guys. [That is] three hundred [and] fifty bucks I [would] put in”(59). Costing only five hundred dollars, the land could almost be paid for entirely by Curley with his savings from his time working on the ranch. If he did go in with George and Lennie, he would be giving them all of the money that he had made during his time on the ranch, showing how desperate he is to no longer be lonely. In the scene when Lennie kills Curley’s wife, Candy is most worried about if George and him will still be able to get the small ranch. George said that they probably would not obtain the land and this severely disappointed Candy. Left behind by the other men going to find Lennie, Candy is stuck with the dead carcass of Curley’s wife. He then lays down in the hay and covers his eyes with his arm, most likely hoping for the same fate as her to put him out of his misery caused by loneliness.
The effects of loneliness in Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s Wife in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men are very prominent. Steinbeck obviously sees loneliness as a personal feeling that is extremely arduous to eliminate once acquired. People who are lonely will tend to push others out without realising it, leading to them being even more lonely than they were
Crooks is one of the loneliest people on the ranch. He is an African American stable buck who sleeps in his own room away from the bunkhouse. First, he tries to seclude himself from the other ranchers. Hiding from the others, he …show more content…
After his dog is put down by Carlson, he is left alone with no friends other than George and Lenny. He is so jealous of what George and Lennie have with their friendship that he offers to pay almost all of the money necessary to buy the small amount of land that George and Lennie planned on buying. Candy proposes “[Suppose] I went in with you guys. [That is] three hundred [and] fifty bucks I [would] put in”(59). Costing only five hundred dollars, the land could almost be paid for entirely by Curley with his savings from his time working on the ranch. If he did go in with George and Lennie, he would be giving them all of the money that he had made during his time on the ranch, showing how desperate he is to no longer be lonely. In the scene when Lennie kills Curley’s wife, Candy is most worried about if George and him will still be able to get the small ranch. George said that they probably would not obtain the land and this severely disappointed Candy. Left behind by the other men going to find Lennie, Candy is stuck with the dead carcass of Curley’s wife. He then lays down in the hay and covers his eyes with his arm, most likely hoping for the same fate as her to put him out of his misery caused by loneliness.
The effects of loneliness in Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s Wife in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men are very prominent. Steinbeck obviously sees loneliness as a personal feeling that is extremely arduous to eliminate once acquired. People who are lonely will tend to push others out without realising it, leading to them being even more lonely than they were