When I lived in Mexico I had a ton of friends and I felt like I belonged. I lost most of my friends when I moved back to Chicago because I was not respected due to my accent. During the first year of my move, I was really lonely just like some characters in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck are. Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie try to find friends or someone to talk to to heal their feelings of loneliness. Characters experience isolation throughout the story because of race, mental problems, and gender. Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie attempt to fit in in situations but somehow are always left behind.
Crooks is the African American worker in the farm who does all the barn work and is never included in the work …show more content…
Curley’s wife does not have any girl friends in the ranch so she is stuck alone everyday. Also, Curley does not allow his wife top talk to any other men in the ranch. With this restriction she gets isolated from everyone and can not stand it. When George and Lennie just come to the ranch, they meet Curley’s wife for the first time. She comes into the bunkhouse to look for Curley, and “ both men glanced up, for a rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers” (Steinbeck 31). She said she is looking for Curley but she looks like she wants to provoke the guys into being into her or talk to her. She is so dressed up for a regular day in the ranch when she is not even doing anything special. She just wants to try to get a friend or talk to someone because she is so lonely. When she is finally talking to Lennie in the barn, she tells him a big secret. Lennie does not think it is a good idea to be talking to Curley’s wife since all of the guys say that she is bad news and they are not even there. Curley’s wife says, “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody, before. Maybe I ought’n to. I don’t like Curley. He ain’t a nice …show more content…
When Lennie walks into Crook’s room, he tells him about the other guys that went to town. Lennie is so lonely that he goes into Crook’s room to try to talk to anyone he can. Lennie tells Crooks, “Ever’body went into town, Slim an’ George an’ ever’body. George says I gotta stay here an’ not get in no trouble” (Steinbeck 68). George makes Lennie stay behind because he is afraid that he will get in a fight or get in trouble in town and the guys. Lennie goes to Crook’s room because he sees a light inside and he just wants to talk to someone. When Lennie tells Crooks that he, George, and Candy are getting a house Crooks flips out. Crooks tells Lennie mentally ill and tells him what will happen when George and Candy get the house. Crooks tells Lennie, “ Want me ta tell ya what’ll happen? They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog” (Steinbeck 72). Crooks means that the guys will buy the house in the ranch and stick Lennie into a psychiatric hospital because he is mentally ill. Lennie gets mad at this response by Crooks and starts to build up anger. Lennie the leaves because he is so mad. He is trying to talk to Crooks and more people in the story but he does not get accepted by anyone because everyone thinks that he is much dumber than all of