Mother Teresa once said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” This quote means that if you’re lonely, you feel poor in the sense that you are lacking love and affection. In the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck there are two characters who are isolated from everyone and the worst part about this is that there is no one on the ranch who can help them feel like they are loved. The two characters who feel this are Crooks and Curley’s Wife. Loneliness does not discriminate, and once it is felt it generates negative behaviors.
Loneliness is one of the most destructive, undesired feelings that no one wants to feel and it can lead you to have a divergent behavior than people who have relationships with others. Loneliness is a feeling where you feel like you’re in solitude for an excessively long time. Crooks is a man who is an African American and he was excluded from the daily things that white men could do, which led him to feel companionless and alone. Crooks expresses his feelings and concerns; “ ‘S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black. … A guy needs somebody— to be near him’ ” (Steinbeck 71). In addition, loneliness can lead you to the deepest, darkest parts of your life, but it can also make you say, or do things that are dreadful. People do this so that they are able to boost their own ego. Crooks fits in with this specific group of people since he decided to pick on Lennie and play with his feelings. In the novel, he says, “Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture. ‘Nobody can’t tell what a guy’ll do,’ he observed calmly” (Steinbeck 70). Furthermore, there is a quote from “Loneliness,” from Teen Health and Wellness, which is connected to the novel, since Crooks feels like he doesn’t fit in a group. Crooks is a African American man and during the 1930’s, there were laws of racial segregation in the southern states of the USA. As a result, he wasn’t able to participate in some of the activities that the ranchers did. Secondly, he also wasn’t able to sleep with the ranchers or even go into the ranchers sleeping facility. In the text it says, “This can happen in overt ways such as being excluded from a group or feeling unloved by those in your social circle ” (Loneliness). Crooks is really a victim of loneliness, and because he feels lonely throughout the novel, he starts to develop a negative behavior.
Loneliness can make you feel like the entire world is behind a glass wall and you are on the opposite side of it looking at others, speaking, and interacting with one another. On the other hand, you would feel forgotten and alone on your side of the glass wall since you wouldn’t be able to find any connection to anyone. Curley’s Wife has a husband, but their relationship together is far from perfect since it is lacking trust, proper communication, and etc. Curley, who is a married man, still goes with other ranchers to a cat house. This leads to her feeling lonely and to add on, the other ranchers on the ranch don’t even want to talk to her or listen to what she has to say. Curley’s Wife confesses her thoughts and feelings; “ ‘Sat’iday night. Ever’body out doin’ som’pin. Ever’body! An’ what am I doin’’standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bundle stiffs— a nigg** an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep—an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else’ ” (Steinbeck 76-77). As a result of her feeling lonely, she later wanted to feel superior so that she can feel like she has authority over someone. She chose to pick on Crooks since the hierarchy on the ranch makes Crooks somewhat near the bottom. This allows Curley’s Wife to be able to feel like she is important on the ranch. Curley’s Wife threatens Crooks when she says, “ ‘Well, you keep your place then, Nigg**. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’ ” (Steinbeck 79). Moreover, there is a quote from “Loneliness,” from Teen Health and Wellness, which is also connected to the novel, since Curley’s Wife is living on a ranch with many people (ranchers) on there. There may be many people around her, but it doesn’t matter since when she reaches out to make relationships with others, it backfires. She starts to feel invisible since no one wants to give any attention to her. In the article it states, “It’s a feeling of solitariness, isolation, and lack of warmth, and love that is not necessarily dependent upon how many people are around you” (Loneliness). Curley’s Wife is another victim of loneliness and as a result, it triggers her behavior to change in a negative way.
Loneliness does not discriminate, and once it is felt it generates negative behaviors. In the novel Of Mice and Men, Crooks and Curley’s Wife both have lives filled with emptiness and pain. They both feel alone, and as a result, they both act differently than others who don’t feel the same agony as they do. They also act cruelly to people who are weaker than them, so they can feel like they have power over someone. They do this so that they can make themselves feel important on the ranch since they are seen as nobody’s or unimportant people who live on the ranch. In the end, loneliness really affected both Crooks and Curley’s Wife’s behavior, and personality, but this feeling changed them as human beings too.
