"Of Mice and Men" Mini Essay

In Of Mice and Men, the author Steinback shows us how loneliness can make people go through hardships as a result of their social background.

The story shows how Crooks is a lonely person and is going through hardships because of his race. In Chapter 4, Steinback introduces Crooks in the story, the chapter starts off with "Crooks, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn." (Page 65) We know that all of the rest of the people at the ranch live at the bunk, but Crooks lives in the barn, he doesn't live with the others. The reader can assume the reason for this is because he is black. Steinback also mentions the items Crooks has, "And he had books, too; a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905. There were battered magazines and a few dirty books on a special shelf over his bunk. A pair of large gold-rimmed spectacles hung from a nail on the wall above his bed." (Page 66) Because he is isolated because of his race, Crooks has a lot of books, which symbolizes that he is lonely. The story shows how Crooks is lonely person and is going through hardships because he is black.

The story also shows how Curley's wife is also going through hardships because she is a woman. Towards the end of the book, when Lennie and Curley's wife have the conversation, she says "All the guys got a horseshoe tenement goin’ on. It’s on’y about four o’clock. None of them guys is goin’ to leave that tenement. Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely." (Page 83) Here, Curley's wife admits that she is lonely. Because she is a woman and is already married to Curley, she is not allowed to talk to anyone else. A couple lines after, she explains, "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?" (Page 83). Curley's wife is not allowed to talk to anyone other than Curley, of course she will be lonely, and is going through a hardship of isolation from people. Curley's wife is going through hardships because she is a woman.

Online Book For Page Numbers: https://www.humbleisd.net/cms/lib/TX01001414/Centricity/Domain/5915/Of%20Mice%20and%20Men%20text.pdf