Of Men and Loneliness
...ng injury. . Candy’s main companion is his dog, whom only he loves and everyone else dislikes as is demonstrated on page 44 with “God awmighty that dog stinks, get him outta here Candy.” Then the fact that Candy is unable to work with the other men in the field only further distances him more from the human companionship he desperately seeks. Candy’s old age is also a separation from the other men because there are no others near his age on the Ranch, and he is old enough that he fears being fired soon, “They’ll can me purty soon, as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk house, they’ll put me on the county”(p60). This last quotation sums up Candy rather well, a sad old man who fears that he’ll lose his income soon. Crook, the stable hand, is also lonely, mainly because of discrimination, since he’s the only black person around for a great distance, and race was still a large schism to cross when Of Mice and Men was written. The mien of Crooks is described on page 50 as “…a lean Negro head, lined with pain, the eyes patient.” The second and third details of the quote show that even though Crooks may be used to living with discrimination, he is still in much pain fr...