Crooks the Negro stable-buck experiences isolation because the society in which he lives is racist. He is segregated and ostracised because of his race and lives on his own, in a little shed off the side of the barn with nothing more than his books, the horses and himself for company. He states that “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you,” and “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse...they play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black.” This demonstrates that Crooks suffers from rejection from others and therefore puts his scale of aloneness at a fair greater level than Curley’s wife. Candy the crippled ranch hand, suffers from an extreme lack of interaction with other people.
Crooks is a bitter, cynical person, ‘being alone’ would not encourage him to be any other way. Similar to society Crooks is segregated from the ‘white’ ranch hands because he is a ‘negro.’ It is often a question in reader’s minds if this bitterness has come from him being a black man. Steinbeck’s description of Crook’s room makes the reader aware that Crooks is, ‘more permanent than the other men.’ This isn’t through choice, Crooks is aware of his status and knows that he will be unable to get work anywhere else; not only is he black but a ‘cripple’ as well. There
Whilst everyone else on the ranch, and America at the time, is struggling due to the Depression Curley seems careless, wreckless, continues to pick fights and make people feel even worse. It's almost as if he's completely outside of the Economic Struggle, which in fact suggests that Curley's a lonely character, and when in contrast with all the other characters his cruelty is emphasised. Due to this Economic Struggle having getting a job was extremely difficult, to have one and be wealthy was classed as the 'American
I tell ya,' he cried, `I tell ya a guy gets too lonely, an' he gets sick. '"(Crooks page 77, Of Mice and Men.) Companionship is a key element in John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men. The novel is based on two migrant workers, during the Depression. The two men travel around with each other, looking for work, but we soon learn that both of these characters, George and Lennie are two very different people for Lennie is mentally disabled, he has the mind of a five year old.
In the third chapter of the novel, Candy the old swamper is the centre of attention. He doesn’t have any friends, so has a dog for company, which unfortunately, later in the novel, Carlson bullies him into letting him shoot it. ‘God almighty that dog stinks, get him out of here… He aint doing you any good, or itself’. Out of desperation, Candy turns to George and Lennie. He becomes intrigued by their dreams of owning a ranch and tries to get himself included.
As the story progresses Curley's wife and Crooks admit their prolonged loneliness. George's loneliness is understandable because he has been given the responsibility to look after a grown man who lacks intelligence and common sense. He is also alienated by the other workers on the farm. George reminds Lennie that men like them, who migrate from farm to farm are the loneliest of all men. He explains to Lennie that they only have each other, "...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you..."(14 Steinbeck).
During this particular time blacks in America had no rights. Society viewed them as niggers. Because of this prejudice many of them, like Crooks "retired into the terrible protective self-respect of the negro". Lennie is a victim of social prejudice in the fact that, being retarded, he couldn’t socially interact without the natural ease of George. Women also had very few rights, like Curley’s wife had to be dependent on Curley’s dad and him for shelter.
All the men in the stable didn’t think he mattered because he was a black man, didn’t think he was intelligent enough to be playing cards with them although they were no better than poor Mr. Crooks, Making him live alone in a barn and treating him like a piece of dirt. Maybe if they had all experienced the loneliness that he had to endure maybe they would understand the way he felt. Today in society Racial Discrimination is every where but there are people trying to fight it. Poor or rich the black men are just as equal as we are they don’t deserve to be called vulgar names in which we try to establish ourselves as the dominate
-Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck- Loneliness and the need for Friendship Loneliness is an unenviable fact of life that not even the strongest can avoid. Everyone becomes lonely once in a while. It is a basic part of life. The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, illustrates the loneliness of life on a ranch during the Great Depression in the early 1930s. It also demonstrates how people are driven to try and find friendship.
The novel, “Of Mice and Men” is about the adversity of two men, a ‘wise’ George and a ‘dumb’ Lennie. Tragedy also strikes other characters throughout the story. Set in the Great Depression on a California ranch, the story depicts more than just the tragedy of Lennie but also the sadness and suffering of many individuals in a harsh world. Lennie has a mental illness which is the obsession of wanting to stroke soft things. Lennie is also a gigantic man who is unaware of his enormous strength and when under pressure, panics and often grasps onto things.