Who Do You Think Suffers the Most in Steinbecks "of Mice and Men'

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All these characters suffer a form of loneliness whether it’s from being a different race, a different gender or a different age.

Crooks is isolated mainly due to his race; he is excluded because he is black and disabled. The isolation is not only a mental one for Crooks but also a physical one because he has to sleep in the stable. He suffers because he is paranoid people are out to harm him so it is difficult for him to form relationships with other people even if they are genuine. Crooks has no identity and inherited his name from his ‘crooked back’, this suggests he is not your average ranch-hand. He suffers with pain from his back but also suffers from the isolation on the ranch.

Candy is isolated because of his disability as he cannot work alongside the other men and is reduced to the role of a swamper. Once his dog get’s shot, he suffers terribly as he has little else to live for and is desperately lonely. Candy has no power and is afraid of the future. The only way out for him is to jump on George and Lennie’s dream.

Lastly, out of these three characters I think Curley’s wife suffers the most as she is the only woman on the ranch and has no one who will talk to her, including her husband. She suffers from boredom, but her attempts to engage the attention of the men only serve to push them away further. She doesn’t even have an identity, she is ‘property’ of Curley and has no real sense of purpose. In the end, Lennie breaks her neck. She heartbreakingly dies without a name because no one cared to know who she really was.

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