Desolation In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men Essay
Everyone experiences desolation. Isolation can even drive people crazy. Even those with the strongest friendships, will eventually end in solitude. In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Candy suffer from loneliness. First, Curley’s wife suffers from loneliness because there are very few people who she can talk to. Curley’s wife gets very lonely as she explains that she, “‘can’t talk to nobody but Curley”’(87). When Curley’s wife needs to talk to someone, she can not because there is no one around to talk to. Curley is often on the move because he is in charge of everyone, which leads to Curley’s wife having to always ask people where he is, so she can rant to someone. When Lennie visits her she gets very excited because she has someone to talk to. With someone to talk to, “[she] [goes] on with her story quickly, before she [could] be interrupted,”(88) not caring if they are listening to her. Curley’s wife recieves a torture very similar to one in jail. …show more content…
He is scared to open up to others in fear of getting hurt, so he yells at them claiming that they, “got no right to come in”(68) his room. Crooks uses reverse psychology on everyone who goes into his room. He pretends he does not want anyone to come into his room, when he does want people to visit him. He is scared that if he gets attached to people, he will get hurt. As a result, he pretends he does not want to make friendships when he does. He feels inferior to others because of his race that he makes himself lonely by telling George to, “jus forget it” (83) because he “didn’ mean it” (83). George excites Crooks, making him want to go to the ranch with them. However, when Curley’s wife visits them she insults him, calling him worthless. This makes Crooks very upset and makes him feel unwanted and alone. Since Crooks rarely gets visitors and shuts out those who visit him, he has