Essay/Term paper: Loneliness

Essay, term paper, research paper:  John Steinbeck's The Pearl

Loneliness

Loneliness is one of the main emotions Of Mice and Men. Lenny must have been
lonely and George too. When we meet them in Of Mice and Men they already know
each other and George has already saved Lenny from getting into trouble. Candy was
lonely too because he has his dog that he couldn't bear to part with. Crooks is lonely
because he doesn't live with the white people and is usually alone all day. Curley's Wife is
lonely because she's always around the guys, looking for Curley or looking for something
that she left there as an excuse to talk to someone. At one time Slim and Whit must have
been lonely, but they're friends when we meet them. As you can see, loneliness is one of
the key factors to this story. Everyone in this story was or is lonely.

Loneliness affects a lot of the characters in this story. One of the lonely characters is
Crooks. Crooks is lonely because he's black and no one wants to be near him. This was
when blacks were segregated from whites. No one ever went to visit him. Also, because
he's black, he has his room out in the stable with the horses. The other (white) guys have
their bunks in a one room house type of building. The loneliness affects Crooks so that he
remains in his room when he has some books to read. He also usually rubs his own back
with liniment because a horse kicked or threw him when he was younger. Another thing
that showed his loneliness is that he had his personal belongings scattered around the
room. He also had this stuff scattered around the room because he was crippled and was
a stable buck, which meant he was more permanent then most of the other people. Also,
because he was alone he demanded that other people keep their space too.


Another character that's lonely is Lenny. Lenny's lonely because George is usually
yelling at him. Lenny and George are friends, but Lenny tries to talk with other people to
make friends besides George. Lenny doesn't like to be around George after he gets mad at
him. Lenny would try to make or be friendly to anyone. He makes friends with Crooks
when nobody else would. Lenny also shows loneliness by his desire to pet things. This
shows that he needs a friend who understands him. Lenny wants to have a friend that will
understand him, too

One character that's lonely but doesn't seem to be is George. George is lonely because
he's always yelling at Lenny. He's also lonely because he can't talk to Lenny the way he
wants to in an adult manner. Usually when the two have a conversation, George has to
repeat everything he says two or three times to Lenny so that Lenny understands and
doesn't forget. George makes friends with Candy, Slim, and Whit to hopefully have a
conversation with someone of his intelligence. He puts up with Lenny because he knows
that if he's left alone, Lenny will probably die.

Another lonely character is Curley's wife. Curley's wife is found running around
looking for Curley. Mostly, she's trying to find someone to talk to. She would usually only
see Curley after he was done with his job and for her that's too long to go without talking
to someone. What she did was hang around the guys and try to start a conversation with
them. The guys don't talk to her because she's nothing but trouble. When Lenny shows
up, she tries to make friends with him and does. On the other hand George stays away
because he knows that she's nothing but trouble. She's trouble because if Curley found her
flirting with the other guys, he raise hell about it.


Thus, many of the characters in this book are lonely and they seem to be searching for
a friend to talk to. Some of them do make friends but some don't make friends. The lesson
we can learn is to be care who you talk to and make friends with. Some are there to help
you and some are there to hurt you.