Of Mice and Men Character Analysis: Loneliness Essay

In Of Mice and Men many characters are lonely or at least act that way. The characters I think are lonely are Lennie, George, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s Wife. The loneliness in the story is what causes most of the conflict in the story. Everyone in this story is lonely or must have been lonely. I think loneliness is one of the most important parts of this story. Lennie is one of the loneliest characters in the book. He makes friends with animals, he likes to pet them and talk to them even if they are dead. Him being lonely even caused him to get trouble in weed. As a bright side to it, as result he meets his best friend, George, who helps him through the rest of the story. It is truly the best relationship throughout the whole book. Lennie however is still lonely with George. When they get to their new job he gets into even more trouble due to his loneliness; first killing his pup followed by doing the same to Curley’s Wife. Crooks is lonely, however I think he probably most times is just overlooked. No one wants to be with him because of his race. This does take place when there was still segregation. Even his room is set aside from the rest. While everyone sleeps in the bunk house he sleeps out in the stable with the horses. Then one of the only times they spend time with Crooks, in my opinion, was not a pleasurable experience for him. Candy had his dog. Which he must have really liked and he must have had it for a long time because when everyone else was sick of the dog he still kept him around. This is why I think Candy was sad during the duration of the story or before. Eventually he does let go of the dog but he can’t even kill it. Curley’s wife always acts like she is lonely. I say she is most likely acting because there is a possibility that she is the kind of narcissistic person who always needs more and more attention. She is always â€Å"looking for Curley† and she ends up mainly just taking to whoever she finds. She even goes as far as to offer Lennie to feel her hair. At one point at her life she even had the chance to become an actress where she would have been able to reach the maximum level for attention. She had this once in a life time opportunity stripped from her by her mother. That’s why I believe she feels she needs all the attention she actively seeks out. George in the story has only one true friend, Lennie. This friendship is only out of pity, but I don’t think George would purposefully abandon Lennie. George keeps Lennie in good standing with other people and tries to keep him out of trouble. George does get along with the other characters but I don’t think any of them really are a true friendship like what he has with Lennie. The loneliness progress the story like so. Lennnie’s solitude and love to feel soft things causes the accident in Weed with the girl’s dress. George’s seclusion, supervision, and companionship with Lennie grounds George to be entangled with him. Lennie again being desolate makes him ask George for one of Slim’s pups. He kills this pup on accident after it bites him. He is sitting in the barn thinking about what he had done and even talks to the deceased puppy. Curley’s wife finds him in the barn and in a way tries to comfort him. Lennie being the rough person he unfortunately is kills her on accident. All of these events were product of someone feeling alone. As this paper has thoroughly shown most of the characters in Of Mice and Men where lonely and were at one point in their life. All of the conflict originates in someone’s search for attention, love, or friendship. That the main component at the core of the story is loneliness.