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Of Mice And Men Loneliness Essay

Decent Essays

The Effects of Loneliness
“I think cruelty is loneliness disguised in bitterness” (Thomas W. Hiddleston). This quote expounds how the lack of company and friends can potentially lead you down a path of heartlessness, and despair. In the story Of Mice and Men, you follow the duo George and Lennie in their quest to achieve the American dream. John Steinbeck utilizes his story Of Mice and Men to show how the loneliness of the characters leads to their cruel actions, he exposes this through the characters Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. The character Candy proves the point that loneliness leads to cruelty. When we’re introduced to this character he has an old sheepdog at his legs. Later we learn that the dog’s a reflection of Candy …show more content…

You ain't no good now, you lousy tart’” (95). Once Candy had realized that the future he hoped vanished, he reacted by vituperating the corpse. His woefulness and realization that he will be alone again urged him to become cruel.
Crooks proves the idea that loneliness leads to cruelty through his thoughts and actions. “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya,’ he cried, “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick”’ (72). Crooks is knowledgeable on the fact that lonely man turns into a crazy man. He knows this through his personal experiences. He grew up on a farm his old man had owned. His father hated the fact the Crooks played with the white kids.. So Crooks had a lonely childhood, wanting to play with other kids but never could. Crooks wanted to show Lennie how he feels by telling him that George has left him. Telling him that he found someplace else to stay, or that he got killed. Lennie endeavors to gainsay it, but Crooks keeps pressuring the noetic conception into him until he visually perceives the peril in the situation. Albeit, he did find regalement in the tortuous situation. Once Lennie subsided, Candy came in to talk to Lennie about the dream. Crooks is baffled. He always thought that their type of dream could never transpire. “You’re nuts. I seen hundreds of men come by...every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets

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