The Concept of Loneliness in Of Mice and Men

There is only one thing that you need in life and that is friends. Without having friends people will suffer from loneliness. Loneliness can lead to many things in life. In Mice and Men, by john steinbeck, the characters Candy, Crooks and Curley’s wife have some form of loneliness. They always wonder about George and Lennie’s relationship because they don't have that in there life. During this book, Mice and Men, John Steinbeck shows a person of loneliness through the whole story.

“A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t matter who the guy is, longs he with you. I'll tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick. (pg.80)

“They can play cards there, but i can't play because i’m black. They say i stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me.” (pg. 75) Crooks says that if they want him to stay away from them then he says that they need to stay away from him also.

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“You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me.'(pg.68) Crooks has to live in a barn and he isn’t allowed in the bunkhouse because he is black. Nobody likes living in a barn, and he also he only works with horses. Crooks spends most of his time at night reading and staying away from the others because of the way they treat him. He is treated as a outcast like he doesn't belong there.

He finds friendship from the way he can, through books he reads. Crooks thinks that George and Lennie’s relationship is so amazing because of how close they are. But Crooks has been lonely for so long he can't deal with another person and trying to be there friend.

“I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.” (pg.71) Candy has no family members. The only thing he had was his dog. He had his dog since he was a pup. He used to herd sheep with him. That dog went everywhere followed him around. That's the only family that Candy ever had. Everyone else at the ranch was jealous about the companionship that Candy and his dog had so they tried to get rid of that. THey told him to kill him, that he smells. That he is suffering and too old. They told him he just should shoot him and he did but he didn’t, someone else did. He said he regretted that and that he should have done it himself instead of someone he didn't want to. After his dog got shot he has no one around.

Curley's wife is the only women on the ranch. She has nobody that will talk to her; her own husband won’t even talk to her. She is bored and lonely, but she always tries to talk to guys on the ranch, behind curley's back. Whenever she tries to they always push her away and not give her attention.Curley does not want her talking to other guys because he knows that she isn't loyal to him. Curley always tells his wife to stay in the house and not leave. She doesn’t even want to be married to Curley. She’d rather be in the town being in the movies not at the ranch. “I tell you, I ain’t used to living like this. I coulda made somethin outa myself.” (pg.87)

The one thing that is most important in life is friendship. If you don't have friends you become lonely. In this book many characters show signs of loneliness. For example, just because Crooks is black he has no one to talk to and isn't allowed in the bunkhouse. He is treated differently. He is lonely. So are many other characters in this story. George and Lennie had a very close relationship which made a lot of people jealous just like how candy had a good relationship with his dog and they convinced him to kill his dog because he was old. So during this story it shows a lot of signs of loneliness.