Of Mice and Men is filled with characters such as this, which are unable to find a way out of their lonely lives. The loneliness in this story builds and builds and never is allowed to escape. By never allowing its escape, Steinbeck effectively forms a solid backing for the characters and events in his novel. Lennie's loneliness chiefly stems from the fact that he is both mentally undeveloped and very big and strong. His retardation sometimes causes others at the ranch to shun him; even to the point of thinking he is "cuckoo."
In the novel Of Mice and Men, there is a farm hand named Crooks. He was injured by a horses kick to the back when he was younger. He isn’t ever allowed in the bunk house where the other workers sleep because he is African American. Even though that is really the only place he isn’t allowed you still don’t see him often because of his race. Yet another way these people are intolerant.
The environment in which the ranch is set upon is horrible and central of sexist’s attitudes towards women, which becomes a key area with Curley’s wife being the only women on the ranch. Every single man on the ranch was travelling alone, without any proper relationship with others. They looked after themselves and make no time for anyone else in their day to day lives. Until one day when two swift young men George and Lennie join the ranch. Every guy looks and thinks of it suspicious that two men can travel around together and have such a strong relationship.
I walk alone.” As sung in this Green Day classic, the men on the farm have known only solitude and hardship due to their inability to escape Naturalism’s clutches. George and Lennie thwart this cycle, however, by having one to look out for the other. George put it this way to Lennie. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family.
Curley made life really unpleasent for his wife on the ranch. He never had a proper conversation with her throughout the book and never cared how she felt. Curley kept “his hand soft for his wife” and went around showing off to other men about it. Curley is always resentful and angry towards everyone on the ranch, he has a problem with big men even though he is described as small in the book. Everyone on the ranch called Curleys Wife a ''tart'' because she flirts and the ranch men said ''Shes got the eyes''.
It was very hard to get a job during that time. Men had to travel by themselves to find work for themselves. These men were known as itinerant works. They had no fixed address, they belonged nowhere and they usually had no company – “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys I the world.” In this novel, the loneliness makes the characters change the way they behave. “A guy goes mad if he got no one to talk to.” The two protagonists, George Milton and Lennie Smalls, travel together to find work; when they do, they have to leave because of an ‘incident’ caused by Lennie.
Name Miss Connell English 1 (H) Due Date Loneliness in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men suggests that loneliness and isolation drive different social outsiders together. George is the first character in the novel to suggest that the loneliness itinerant ranch hands naturally face leads them to seek companionship. When he and Lennie settle in for the night before going to the Tyler Ranch, he says to Lennie, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.
Loneliness Loneliness, a mental and physical state of mind, affects many of the ranch workers differently by isolation from society that changes how a character thinks and behaves towards others, from “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. The characters experience a lot of hatred and separation due to their current era which includes racism, that totally isolates the whites from the colored, and sexism, which Curley’s wife goes through when she gets near grown men. Crooks, who works with the ranch horses, lives by himself because of segregation, and since he is the only colored person there, he feels loneliness, which makes him paranoid about any interactions he has with humans. Being lonely makes Crooks mean, he puts Lennie in misery, telling
He is ignored by everyone on the ranch because he is black , this makes his character bitter and mean"Books ain't no good . A guy need somebody to be near him . "Crooks mainly keeps his distance between himself and the other men at the ranch to ensure he doesn't cause any problems . When Lennie approaches him in his bunk house his first reaction to him is fuelled by envy by his and Georges friendship .Crooks teases Lennie and makes out that George wont be coming back for him *quote*. He only does this to Lennie to show him what it like for him having nobody there and how he needs a companion , like Lennie and George ."
This shows that Crooks' bunk is linked with the animals because his bunk is filled with straw, just like the animals. This is telling us that the men on the ranch think of crooks as sub-human, and they treat him like an animal and give him the same living conditions. Crooks again is linked to horses when the reader is told that there are 'a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses'. This sounds like they have all just been shoved together in one box and not caring for Crooks' at all. Steinbeck also suggests that Crooks is extremely lonely, when he quotes, 'Crooks could leave his things about'.