Of Mice and Men

Essay by Cl0ud7High School, 11th gradeA+, March 2005

download word file, 2 pages 3.0 1 reviews

Downloaded 25 times

"Friendship needs no words, it is a loneliness relieved of the anguish of loneliness." - Dag Hammarskjold. Without friends, people begin to suffer loneliness and solitude. In Of Mice and Men, the characters of Crooks and Curley's wife suffer loneliness stemmed from some form of rejection. Both of them are desperate to find an escape from their loneliness or some easy way to cope with their seclusion from the rest of the society.

Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation because the society that he lives in is racist. "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody... I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick" (qtd in Of Mice and Men). Crooks' loneliness is a result of rejection from everyone else on the ranch. He is forced to live alone in a barn, let to work with the horses. Crooks spends most of his time reading.

The only relationship he can find is with his books. When Lennie enters his room, Crooks is interested in Lennie's relationship with George. "Well s'pose, jus' s'pose he don't come back" (qtd. in Of Mice and Men). Crooks wants to make people understand and maybe even have sympathy for his situation.

Curley's wife is married to a man that gives her little attention and none of his time. Curley's wife dresses and acts like a "tart" to gain attention on the ranch in order to soothe her loneliness. Because she is the only woman on the ranch, her flirting causes the men on the ranch to want to avoid her. "Wha's the matter with me? Ain't I got the right to talk to nobody?" (qtd. in Of Mice and Men). The men don't want any trouble from her husband. Curley's wife struggles to find...