How Does Steinbeck Present The Theme Of Loneliness In Of Mice And Men

Loneliness can hurt anyone and make their life feel as if it has no meaning.Throughout the story, Of Mice and Men, the theme of loneliness and isolation has been developed by many different characters, and is one of the most present themes in the story. Some of these characters who show this theme are Crooks, a crippled black worker who is discriminated against, Candy, an old man who is only accompanied by his dog, and Curley’s wife, who is locked away in her house. All of these characters are some of the many examples of loneliness and isolation.
Candy, an old man with a broken hand and a man’s best friend. Candy lives in the ranch bunk house with the rest of the workers which means that he lives with all of the other workers along with his dog. Candy and his dog are both old and are on death's doorstep, many of the other bunkmates know this and are sick of the dog, complaining of the smell it gives off. They convince Candy that the dog is suffering and is begging to be put

Curley’s wife is always told by Curley to stay in the house but Curley’s wife never listens, and always pushes herself on to others, making them targets to Curley. Curley’s wife means no harm, she is like a bird trapped in a bird cage longing to be let free. Curley’s wife is so lonely she eventually tries to befriend Lenny by letting him touch her hair, but ends up dead. In the text it says, ““I get lonely,” she said. “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?””. This shows Curley’s wife's loneliness and her desire for human interaction with someone other than her husband. If Curley never put so much pressure on his wife to stay in the house and was nicer to her, she probably wouldn’t have been so lonely, and wouldn’t have ended up