Explain the Ways in Which Most of the Characters in ‘of Mice and Men.’ Are Presented as Being Lonely and Comment on How They Respond to Loneliness

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Crooks whether he could come in, Crooks said yes, and it was “difficult to conceal his pleasure with anger.”. He is happy because this is the first time any white male had really respected him, even just for a little bit. This shows again how badly he is treated normally, and again how he yearns for social interaction.

Crooks’s loneliness is demonstrated once again when he shows his desire to join George, Lennie and Candy in their dream of owning their own ranch. He asks Candy “if you guys would want a hand to work for nothing - just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to”. His jealousy and desire exposes his loneliness and fervour to cease to be treated derogatorily in the ranch, but rather be treated better and work for nothing except to stay in the ranch. This shows how lonely Crooks is as he knows that it is not probable that Candy, George and Lennie would let him stay in their ranch, but asks anyway because of how lonely he is. It also shows that Crooks is lonely because he has nothing to miss in the current ranch and would love to leave for a better life.

Curley’s wife is also an essential character. Her hurried marriage with Curley is evidence of her failed attempt to escape from her own spiral of loneliness. Curley fails to satisfy her emotionally or physically, which leads to her seek condolence with other men on the ranch, even those on the bottom of the social hierarchy of the ranch.

Curley’s wife’s loneliness is also shown early on the novel. At the start of the novel, as Candy was telling George and Lennie about Curley and his wife, “A call came, ‘Stable - Buck. Oh! Sta-able Buck.’”. Crooks, being black and a social outcast, is still sought out by Curley’s wife, which demonstrates her loneliness by showing her willingness to interact with characters such as Crooks.

Her loneliness is also shown by her appearance. She enters the bunkhouse with “full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers”. Her crave for attention is expressed in her appearance; she dresses extravagantly in an attempt to gain attention due to her loneliness. Curley’s failure to satisfy her led to her being lonely, which in turn led to her dressing so extravagantly.

Curley’s wife’s loneliness is once again displayed when she confides in Lennie. Again “she wore her bright cotton dress and the mules with the red ostrich feathers”, which again shows her crave for attention. She seeks company from the social outcast, Lennie, who is retarded, because she is so desperate for human interaction. Her outburst towards Lennie when he says that he shouldn’t talk to her because she’ll only bring trouble also demonstrates her loneliness. She asks Lennie “why can’t I talk to you? I never get awful lonely. You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.”. Being the only woman on the ranch, she tends to be more lonely, but not necessarily. But, Curley’s restrictions means that she rarely gets to talk to anyone else.

Curley’s wife may also be interpreted as lonely even before she came to the ranch. She says “a show came through, an’ [she] met one of her actors. He says I could go with that shows”, and “coulda been in the movies….because this guy says I was a natural.”. This could be interpreted that she is so lonely that she is willing to believe that a guy whom she’s just met, and would leave her home, risk being scammed and choose that over her education.

Another example of her loneliness is how much she brushes her hair. She tells Lennie that her hair “is soft and fine. ‘Course I brush it a lot. That makes it fine.”. It seems out of place that someone, who lives on a ranch, would pay that much attention to their hair. This may mean that because she is so lonely, it leaves her a lot of time to complete a tedious task such as combing her hair over and over again, on a ranch, thus her hair being soft.