Have you ever been alone walking or lying on your bed thinking about how lonely you are? Do you ever wonder why you are sometimes ostracized from the group? You can experience loneliness, mentally or physically. It can also drive you out of your mind. In John Steinbecks, Of Mice and Men, Crooks, Candy, and Curlys wife have little to no friends and are forlorn. In the story, Curly is very over-protective of his wife and she feels very alone. “Think I like to stay in the house all the time?” she asks the guys, when they avoid speaking to her.
In this quote, she is fed up and fears being abandoned by the guys because of her jealous husband. It makes her angry to be shunned by the only people she gets to be around. She also says, “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.” She is obviously frustrated and lonesome.
She doesnt have any girlfriends, theres only the guys. In conclusion, Curlys wife is alone and she has no one to talk to but the guys, and they dont want to make Curly mad by talking to her. One other person who feels abandoned by the group and banished from having friendly company, is Crooks. He comments as he talks to Lenny, ” A guyll go nuts if he aint got nobody.” Crooks has no friends, no one has a nice word, and no one even visits him. He is happy that Lenny is talking to him, because no one else will. He also says, “If a guy gets too lonely, he gets sick.” Crooks is alone and getting older.
He is sick, and he tells Lenny this to help him to understand that he should do anything to not be alone. In conclusion, Crooks is sick of being alone and feels he is going to go nuts. Finally, Candy is lonely after they took his dog, but the idea of moving in with George and Lenny helped him cope better. When they wanted to kill his dog he said, “I been around him so much…” Candy had his dog for a very long time; the thought of getting rid of it hurt him. When hes talking to George and Lenny he says, “I aint got no relatives.” Candy is all alone with no family. The thought of being with friends and being alive made him really happy.
In conclusion, Candy is much happier when he finds new friends and is given the opportunity to move in with them. In the book, Of Mice and Men, the three above characters are the loneliest. They are either old, feeling abandoned, or over-protected. No one should be by himself or herself. Loneliness is the worst punishment. People are not naturally kind to people or things that they do not understand.
The next time you’re laying in your bed alone, think about how it would feel to be there and alone forever.
