Sarah James Mrs. Lewis AP Lang. October 21, 2013 Isolation of Crooks In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men isolation is the central theme throughout the text. Many of the characters are alone and have no one who truly cares about them, but the most isolated character is the stable hand, Crooks. Crooks is black, which sets him apart from all other characters, and is looked down on by almost everyone due to this. He has his own room in the barn because he is not permitted to sleep in the same room as a white person.
Everyone gets lonely now and then for reason maybe even unknown to ourselves. In the story "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, 3 characters face being lonesome throughout the book. Candy, Crooks and Curley's Wife are the ones facing this problem. Candy feels like he's not useful and he's a burden to other and Crooks says he's being discriminated against for be black. Whereas Curley's wife feels lonely because she IS alone with nothing to but sit in her house and has no one to talk to and gains sympathy based off that.
Do the characters get what they deserve in the End? During the novella of mice and men Curley’s wife is alienated, spoken behind her back, called vile names and singled out from the rest of the ranch, since she is the only woman there. Throughout the novella she is constantly giving hints on how lonely she is even in her own marriage, by the end of the book she is accidentally killed and freed from the life she so dearly hated. However, another view on her death could be negative since when she dies she does not get the life she deserves for being kept in a place she doesn’t want to stay or even she does deserve her death since she is vile for not committing to her marriage vows by being a coquette. Curley’s wife is clearly a very unhappy
(…)” Even though all these circumstances can make Jennings think negatively, he has held strong and maintained a positive attitude to the children and some nuns. One foster family that took Jennings for a period of time was The Carpenters. They were cruel parents that made Jennings into a slave to them. They hardly fed him, they never loved or cared for him, and they never showed any appreciation. For example, Mrs. Carpenter only fed him muck that was cold and awful.
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.
Within the short story "The Painted Door" Ann shows that she experiences feelings of depression, and isolation. Ann's negative mood is apparent through the story and can be seen at any time during the story. Ann's husband is named John and through the story she says many sarcastic and condescending comments, "plenty of wood to keep me warm - what more could a women ask for" (Ross 288). It is clear that Ann is unhappy with John and not satisfied with him. She does not want John to go to his father's house to check on him because she does not want to be left alone in the house when there is a snowstorm is taking place outside.
The orphanages are not the only places Jennings experiences alienation and isolation. He is also exposed to it when he is sent to numerous different foster homes. For example, when he goes to stay with the Carpenter family, Mrs. Carpenter either makes stay at a little table or in a cold dark room, either way Jennings is all by himself. He has nowhere to go and has to endure her constant torture until he is sent away by Mr. Carpenter. Lastly he experiences it when sleeps in the zoo at night when nobody is around except for an occasional patrolling guard.
For instance, when Curley’s wife tries to talk to Lennie in the Barn while he avoids her, she says, “I get lonely, I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad”(42). Curley is careless with his wife since she is always solitary and had no one to talk with because of Curley’s jealousy. Curley is not a good husband since he constantly does not let his wife to speak with George or any other worker of the ranch because he gets upset and jealous. Also, when Curley’s wife is talking to Lennie, Candy, and Crooks in Crooks bunk she states “I think I know where they all went even Curley”(37).
this very discontent feeling would further add to the very isolation the Glaspell is trying to portray. How is anyone to feel connected when they much live with a foul personality? “He was a hard man” (Glaspell 181); “Like a raw wind that gets to the bone” (Glaspell 181). He gave his wife a dispirited sense of being. She probably felt smothered by his bleak nature and with the fact that the farmhouse was too isolated for anyone to want to visit, Mrs. Wright was left alone.
George is the dominant male in the relationship , because of Lennie’s disability it causes they both very much trouble back in Weed and on the ranch they arrive too after escaping. Also Lennie’s disability causes himself to be put aside from others on big events. While all the other ranch hands go to town, Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s Wife are left behind. They’re left behind because to all the other strong and healthy men they’re outsiders. Lennie is considered as an outsider because of his mental disability.