Loneliness is one of the main emotions Of Mice and Men. Lenny must have been
lonely and George too. When we meet them in Of Mice and Men they already know
each other and George has already saved Lenny from getting into trouble. Candy
was lonely too because he has his dog that he couldn't bear to part with. Crooks
is lonely because he doesn't live with the white people and is usually alone all
day. Curley's Wife is lonely because she's always around the guys, looking for
Curley or looking for something that she left there as an excuse to talk to
someone. At one time Slim and Whit must have been lonely, but they're friends
when we meet them. As you can see, loneliness is one of the key factors to this
story. Everyone in this story was or is lonely. Loneliness affects a lot of the
characters in this story. One of the lonely characters is Crooks. Crooks is
lonely because he's black and no one wants to be near him. This was when blacks
were segregated from whites. No one ever went to visit him. Also, because he's
black, he has his room out in the stable with the horses. The other (white) guys
have their bunks in a one room house type of building. The loneliness affects
Crooks so that he remains in his room when he has some books to read. He also
usually rubs his own back with liniment because a horse kicked or threw him when
he was younger. Another thing that showed his loneliness is that he had his
personal belongings scattered around the room. He also had this stuff scattered
around the room because he was crippled and was a stable buck, which meant he
was more permanent then most of the other people. Also, because he was alone he
demanded that other people keep their space too. Another character that's lonely
is Lenny. Lenny's lonely because George is usually yelling at him. Lenny and
George are friends, but Lenny tries to talk with other people to make friends
besides George. Lenny doesn't like to be around George after he gets mad at him.
Lenny would try to make or be friendly to anyone. He makes friends with Crooks
when nobody else would. Lenny also shows loneliness by his desire to pet things.
This shows that he needs a friend who understands him. Lenny wants to have a
friend that will understand him, too One character that's lonely but doesn't
seem to be is George. George is lonely because he's always yelling at Lenny.
He's also lonely because he can't talk to Lenny the way he wants to in an adult
manner. Usually when the two have a conversation, George has to repeat
everything he says two or three times to Lenny so that Lenny understands and
doesn't forget. George makes friends with Candy, Slim, and Whit to hopefully
have a conversation with someone of his intelligence. He puts up with Lenny
because he knows that if he's left alone, Lenny will probably die. Another
lonely character is Curley's wife. Curley's wife is found running around looking
for Curley. Mostly, she's trying to find someone to talk to. She would usually
only see Curley after he was done with his job and for her that's too long to go
without talking to someone. What she did was hang around the guys and try to
start a conversation with them. The guys don't talk to her because she's nothing
but trouble. When Lenny shows up, she tries to make friends with him and does.
On the other hand George stays away because he knows that she's nothing but
trouble. She's trouble because if Curley found her flirting with the other guys,
he raise hell about it. Thus, many of the characters in this book are lonely and
they seem to be searching for a friend to talk to. Some of them do make friends
but some don't make friends. The lesson we can learn is to be care who you talk
to and make friends with. Some are there to help you and some are there to hurt
you.