'A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.' A major theme in Steinbeck's novel is loneliness and isolation. Almost all of the characters including Crooks, Candy and Curley suffer from this although the degree of their exclusion is varied. Intolerance is human nature; people who are different from or weaker than the norm are victims of intolerance and become isolated and lonely. Those who are in the norm group are expected to be strong and not exhibit their feelings. The norm group or social power group in 'Of Mice and Men' is the white, male workers on the farm. They are younger men who are average sized and quite intelligent. They exclude people who do not fit in with them such as Crooks for being black, Candy for being old and Curley for being short. This intolerance and isolation cause loneliness for all the characters in the novel.

The social power group oppress and seclude many of the characters, perhaps through fear of facing up to their own feelings of loneliness. One of the characters they isolate is Lennie alt

Crooks promises if he had a chance to work for something, he would, such as sharing the little farm with George, Lennie, and Candy: 'I ain't so crippled I can't work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to.' He is fascinated by the strength of the friendship of Lennie and George, especially how close they are. Crooks said, 'Well, s'pose, jus' s'pose he don't come back. What'll you do then?' Crooks asks these questions because he does not have any friends. He was curious about the friendship of Lennie and George. He does not quite grasp Lennie's mental situation so he says this to attempt to make him feel as he does because he is lonely and has no friends. He is striving to achieve empathy and understanding from Lennie. He would work for nothing if it meant interaction with others and solving his problems of loneliness. The above quote emphasises this point.

Each of these men and women are rejected by the social power group and so are lonely but they are not the only ones who are lonely. Even the normal white workers on the farm are lonely because they isolate themselves from each other. Slim explains that all the men are afraid to show their feelings and be close to others: 'Ain't many guys travel around together. I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.' Slim describes how the workers choose to be lonely: 'I hardly never seen two guys together. You know how the hands are, they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then they quit and go out alone. Never seem to give a damn about nobody.' George and Lennie know that they are lonely like most workers: 'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place...they ain't got nothing to look ahead to.' At the end of the novel, Carlson shows how men shut themselves off and hide their feelings, when he doesn't even know George is sad: 'Now, what the hell you suppose is eatin' them two guys?' The white men in the society power group choose loneliness because they are afraid of showing their emotions and fears.

Crooks' loneliness is mainly a consequence of rejection. Although the discrimination is present Crooks still attempts to earn friends. The other workers treat Crooks unjustly because he is black and therefore different from the others. He does not know how to act toward others because of the way they behave toward him - with disdain. Furthermore he does not know how to verbalise his frustration and consequently, lashes out at others because they are callous to him. Crooks is not allowed to partake in daily events with white people. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people: 'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me!'

hough he is male and white. Although he is very strong and big, he has a mind like a child's so they do not treat him as a coequal therefore he does not belong to their group. For example, George explains to Slim that he, 'Used to play jokes on [Lennie] 'cause he was too dumb to take care of 'imself'. Lennie does not take part in the activities that the workers do in their spare time e.g. playing horseshoes or going into town. In Weed, Lennie gets in trouble because the people do not comprehend his problem. They react with animosity instead of cognition. George explains to Slim, 'Cause he ain't mean....like what happened in Weed-'. Lennie is fortuitous to have George though. George is his familiar and companion; the one person who has past emotional connections with him who has always been around and still is.

Crooks

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lennie George, George George, Candy Curley, George Lennie, George Lennie's, Lennie Lennie, Mice Men', Crooks Curley's, Christmas Crooks, Candy' Candy, social power, curley's wife, george lennie, lennie george, crooks black, friendship lennie george, leads loneliness, friendship lennie, world family don't, lonely workers, lennie lonely, loneliest guys world, 'guys ranches, guys world family, don't belong placethey,
Approximate Word count = 2468
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)