Brendan Ritter
Ms. Stiso
English 8/9 Odd
16 December 2007
In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men there are many themes. This novel is about two migrant worker friends who have a dream to have their own farm one day. One of the major themes of this novel is loneliness. Three characters in this novel that experience loneliness a recognizable amount are Crooks, Curley’s Wife, and Candy.
Crooks is the stable buck. His name is Crooks because one day working on the ranch, Crooks was kicked in the back by a horse. This event left him with a crooked back. He is the only African American man on the ranch and is forced to stay in a separate part of the ranch. Since crooks is cut off from interaction with the other men on the ranch and also because of the existing prejudices against African Americans at this time, he doesn’t have any friends on the ranch. To coop with his loneliness, Crooks reads. When Lennie came into his room, he acted as if he didn’t want Lennie in his room, but in the inside he really wanted to just talk to someone for a change. A quote from the novel where Crooks expresses his loneliness is “Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody – to be near him.”
Curley’s Wife is known as a very flirty individual. She is married to a man named “Curley” and has been married to him for 2 weeks and already has “The eye”. She is known as a `tart’, someone who has loose morals. She deals with being alone by going out of her house and pretending to be looking for her husband all the time, but is only really wanting to be with the other guys on the ranch. She really doesn’t love Curley, he was just a way to get out of her mother’s house. A quote from the novel where Curley’s Wife expresses her loneliness is “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?”
Candy is the old swamper. He lost his hand on the farm One of his only friends was his dog. His dog symbolizes him because they are both old and useless. Later in the novel Candy’s dog is shot by Carlson, who is the boss. Candy knows that he is just like his dog, and they will try and get rid of him soon too. To coop with his loneliness Candy makes friends with George and Lennie and wants to take part in their American dream. A quote in the novel where Candy displays his loneliness is “When they can me I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I wont have no place to go, and’ I cant get no more jobs.”
Of Mice and Men’s major themes were Loneliness and the American dream. These three characters experience loneliness. Each character has their own was to deal with loneliness and is able to give themselves a sense of relationships with other people to not feel so lonely.