Name: Cade Gullett
Date: 10/19/15
Word Count: 522 words
In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinback, most characters are faced with loneliness. Curley's wife experiences loneliness because she is the only woman on the ranch, candy is lonely after he lets Carlson shoot his dog. Candy immediately feels depressed and lonely. But only one man on the ranch has been lonely their whole life on the ranch. Crooks, a black man that works in the barn on the ranch.
Crooks is the loneliest character on the ranch because he has been there the longest and has never gotten along with the other men or ever had friends. Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and he is discriminated by the other workers because of that. Crooks has never had friendships with whites. "I was born right here in California. My old man had a chicken ranch, 'bout ten acres. The white kids come to play at our place, an' sometimes I went to play with them, and some of them was pretty nice. My ol' man didn't like that. I never knew till long later why he didn't like that. But now I know." (35) This shows that crooks wanted to have friendships with white kids when he was a child, but his father never allowed it. This has correlated to his relationships with the men he is working with, maybe if he had friendships with whites when he was a kid he would get along with the white men at the ranch. …show more content…
Don't make no difference who the guy is, long as he's with you. I tell ya" crooks whined, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." (36) The quote directly shows that crooks has first hand experience on what it's like to be lonely and how a man gets lonely. That only implies that he is lonely, crooks has nobody on the ranch, no friends or family. Crooks is very emotional about his situation on the ranch and has had nobody to support him while living