Candy, an old handyman, aging and left with only one hand as the result of an accident, worries that the boss might fire him from working at the ranch. The only one that “understands” him, and he can talk to, is his dog. Everywhere he goes, his dog follows. When all the men are having a little chat in the ranch house, Carlson and Slim convince Candy to let them kill his dog. Reluctantly, he agrees. After a couple days, Candy realizes his mistake: he is never getting his companion back, and is possibly going to be lonely forever. With no one to talk to now, Candy decides to tell George how he feels, “He said miserably, ‘You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs’” (Steinbeck 59). Candy comes to a realization that life doesn’t have true meaning without his dog. Now that his best friend is dead, he has no one to talk to. Another character that experiences loneliness in this book, is Crooks. Crooks is a negro stable buck and cripple, who lives all alone in the harness room. Since he is black, he is separated from the other workers and lives in a little shed of the wall of the barn, all by himself. Just like Candy, Crooks has no one to share his …show more content…
As Hedonist Poet once said “Loneliness is dangerous. It’s addicting. Once you see how peaceful it is, you don’t wanna deal with people”. You never realize how lonely you are until it’s the end of the day and you have a bunch of things left to talk about, but no one to talk to. Everyone feels lonely at some point in their life, but it all depends on how much they try to gain that love and companionship