Loneliness
...ranger illustrates how lonely he gets.Futhermore, as bitter as he is about him being away from the other men, Crooks is grateful for Lennie's company, and when Candy enters the room, it becomes difficult for him to hide his pleasure with anger. The only relationship Crooks can find is with his books. When Lennie talk about the dream farm he is going to have with George, Crooks hesitanly asks Lennie an way for him to escape his loneliness, ".......If you ... guys would want a hand to work for nothing-- just his keep, why I'd come an' lend a hand" (page 76). Crooks becomes so desperate for a relationship that he offers to work for George and Lennie for free, just to escape his loneliness. By the end of this book Crooks is unable to overcome his loneliness because Lennie dies in a matter of days, and no white man in his right mind would care to step a foot in Crooks lonely life. George, a short- tempered but loving and caring friend, is also lost in loneliness. At the beginning of the novel, George tells his thoughts on loneliness in a story he tells to lennie about him and Lennie living on a farm: Guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They've got no family and they don't belong no place. They've got nothing to look ahead to." Well we aint like that. We got a future. We've got someone to talk to who gives a damn about us. Them other guys get in a jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us."(Page 13-14) George realizes that loneliness attributes too much of his sufferings. George's way to hide his loneliness and to admit to being lonely is revealed when he reminds Lennie that the life of a ranch-hand is among the loneliest of lives. Workers like George rarely have anyone to look to for company. To overcome his loneliness, George not act as Lennie's friend, but he seems to find company with his coworkers as well. He accepts the invitation to go into town with 'the boys leaving Lennie alone in the barn. Towards the end of the novel, George feels more lonely and guilt before he kills Lennie. Instead of being angry George, overcome by his forthcoming loneliness he responds to Lennie's running away to the caves, "No ...I want you to stay here with me"(page 104). The loneliness that overwhelms him makes him shoot Lennie instantly. In this way he would have griff for the loss of his friend for a long time, leading him to feel even more lonely. As for Curley's wife, who walks the ranch as a temptress, also hides a deep sense of lonelines...