Of Mice and Men Loneliness Paper
Loneliness is an inevitable thing, and feeling of life that not even the strongest person can avoid. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates the loneliness of California ranch life in the early 1930's. Throughout the story, the reader discovers the many sources of solitude, primarily being discrimination and prejudice, resulting in isolation and loneliness. Crooks is a slightly handicapped lonely black man working on the ranch as a stable hand, who develops isolationism because of his color. Being black, he is forbidden to stay with the other guys in the bunk house, and is instead forced to live all alone in the barn, with only books for company. He does not have any friends at all because he is considered an outcast in their society because of his race, and the social standards of this time. He is not allowed to associate with any of the white men in the ranch. Crooks expresses his isolation when talking to Lennie, he says, " 'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me" (Steinbeck 68). Also after being isolated for so long he realizes that his dreams most likely won’t come true; so he gives up on the idea of going to Lennie and George’s future farm to live in a better environment. Through this you can see Crooks’ feelings towards their racist attitude which is one of the main reasons he is so isolated from the rest. When isolated from a group, loneliness develops quite often in a person. When Lennie wandered into his room, Crooks describes his feelings of being lonely to him. He explains how upsetting it was to not be able to share thoughts with another person. “A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that.” Crooks explained, “Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothin to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so. Maybe he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether it’s right or not. He can’t turn to some