Have people ever encountered loneliness in life? People can become lonely if they have no family or friends around or if they don’t get along well with other people. Often times people lose their family and or friends to diseases and war. John Steinbeck has given many examples in the novel, Of Mice and Men, with a few characters that have encountered loneliness physically and mentally. The characters Crooks, Candy, and Lennie all have encountered loneliness and isolation.
Crooks is the first character who has encountered a lot of loneliness. Being the only black man can be hard and stressful. “ ‘They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, all of you’ stink to me.’ “ (68). Being the fact that Crooks is black he’s treated differently. He feels that he has to treat everyone how they tend to treat him …show more content…
Since Lennie has a disability it makes him more lonely than anyone. He doesn’t understand much as to why George gets mad at him. When George got mad at him he explained “ ‘ George, you want i can go away and leave you alone’ “(12) Lennie often feels when lennie get mad he doesn’t want to be around him, well take care of him so he says to George “ ‘ Well I could. I could go off in the hills there. Someplace I’d find a cave’ “ (12) Not only was Lennie scared of George not wanting him he was also clever. Lennie is able to manipulate George into hearing what he wanted to hear from George. Since Lennie has a mental illness he’s also picked on. Curley was upset with slim but instead took his anger out on Lennie because he knew he wouldn’t do anything, well he couldn’t, he didn’t know how. Curley started hitting on Lennie. “ Lennie gave a cry of terror. Blood welled from his nose. “ ‘ George’ “ he cried. “ ‘ Make ‘um let me alone, George!’ “... Lennie’s hands remained at his sides; he was too frightened to defend himself.”