The racial discrimination from the 1930s in America highly affects him, “ they play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all stink to me”, this quote shows that Crooks gets bitter because of loneliness. When Crooks scares Lennie about George not coming back, Crooks “face lighted with pleasure in his torture”, this quote demonstrates what George meant when he told Slim: “I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good… they get mean”.
When Lenny visits Crooks, Crooks says a few things that verify his loneliness and how much he wishes he could be accepted. ‘Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody - to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.’ This quote shows how being black has affected Crooks, because he has nobody to turn to. Although this shouldn’t be the case, just by the colour of his skin Crooks is leading a miserable life.
English Essay - Of Mice and Men In this essay i will write about how Steinbeck uses the recurring theme of loneliness throughout the novel 'Of Mice and Men ' . I shall write about the different characters in the novel and how they have this one trait in common , Candy , Crooks ,Curley's wife and George are all effected by loneliness and is shown as a destructive force . I will also write about how the setting represents loneliness by the language that Steinbeck uses to create effect . In the novel we find out that Crooks is very lonely and isolated because he is different than other people. He is ignored by everyone on the ranch because he is black , this makes his character bitter and mean"Books ain't no good .
In 'of Mice and Men', Steinbeck presents George as an extremely lonely character. George is lonely because he is constantly attached to Lenny and cannot leave him as he is completely dependant on George, due to the fact that he is mentally disabled. This also means that George has no other friends in case Lenny tells them something about their past lives by mistake. Despite this, when George complains about what having to take care of Lenny does not allow him to do, such as, “ Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool”, and Lenny offers to leave him alone and 'go off in the hills and find a cave' to live in, George replies, "No—look! I was jus' foolin', Lennie.
Candy is lonely because of his old age although it is somewhat helped by the fact he has a dog but as we know, he is left high and dry after the residents of the bunkhouse choose to eradicate it for it was in pain and also smelling. Curleys wife throughout is negatively portrayed to the reader by the workers on the ranch and therefore is not left with anyone on her side, ultimately, making her lonely despite having a husband. The fact that Lennie is so incapable of getting along with people who he doesn’t already know well, this leaves him almost completely reliable on George in the book. Last but not least, Crooks is left without companionship on the ranch for various reasons. In the novel, the ranch is a huge symbolism of loneliness.
Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, a guy gets lonely an' he gets sick." (Crooks) Steinbeck also portrays loneliness through characterisation. He uses sexism, racism and ageism to get him message across. Of Mice and Men is filled with characters such as this, which are unable to find a way out of their lonely lives.
This highlights the main theme of the novel: loneliness. Living alone in his room Crooks craves the company of others but, because of his coloured skin and the era he lived in, he is shown to be separated from the other ranch workers and thus suffering from loneliness more than his colleagues. Because of his skin colour, Crooks is shown to have “kept his distance and demanded that other people kept theirs.” Steinbeck describes how crooks wants others to stay away from him and reciprocates their feelings towards him but, later in the novel, he reveals that he is very lonely all by himself and would like to have someone to talk to. However, because he is so used to being shunted away by society, he pushes everyone away from him before they have the chance to do the same, portraying him as a “proud, aloof man”. Again, this fact highlights Crooks' loneliness and, even though he has convinced himself he doesn’t need anyone else, he knows the pleasure of having company and this is something that can’t be replaced by the many possessions he has acquired.
In “Island” the narrator states that he is “scarce from everything else.” Even though Johnny has friends who care for him, he still feels alone. Not even his parents love him, so that makes him feel hopeless. In The Outsiders Ponyboy says, “If you can picture a little dark puppy that`s been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you’ll have Johnny.” The little dark puppy can be interpreted as Johnny because he does seem like an alone, lost, pitiful puppy. When he was younger, he wasn’t treated the correct way, so as he got older, it affected him deeply. Johnny feels alone and isolated wherever he goes no matter how many people are surrounding him or who the people are.
All the characters suffer with unhappiness in their lives because none of them can escape the misery of being on their own. While starting the novel we are told by George ‘Guys like us that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.’ By this George means if they didn’t have each other, than he and Lennie would be all alone. While the novel continues to the first introduction of the ranch, everyone seems lonely. Crooks experiences the most isolation because the society is extremely racist. He
The character of Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife all have to endure different types of loneliness and sadness. One very lonely character in this book is Crooks. Crooks is an African American doomed to spend the rest of his life in isolation. He is constantly bullied by other people on the ranch because he was black and apparently ‘stinks’. Nobody allowed him neither to be in the bunk house, nor to play card games and he had to sleep in a barn.