Explore the ways in which characters are isolated or lonely on the ranch.

John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ portrays several characters as isolated or lonely whilst living on a ranch. By portraying the characters in ‘Of Mice and Men’ lonely, loneliness would affect their personalities such as how they think and how they behave giving more reasons to think they are all somewhat isolated even though they all live in a large group.

In Crooks case, loneliness has made him a very bitter individual; he is treated differently compared to the other workers on the ranch mainly because of his race but also because of his low status job. Other workers can’t relate to him unless he is working because he is black. Crooks emotions are displayed towards the audience when he has a conversation with Lennie in his room, he talks about how he has no one to talk to and no one to relate to, and he talks to Lennie about George and says “S’pose you didn’t have nobody S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy `cuase you was black...A guy needs somebody--to be near him” this may suggest that Crooks doesn’t have anyone to have a general conversation with whether or not it was an animal, family or friend. He mentions this to Lennie to give him the idea of what it is like to feel isolated and have no one to talk to. He tells Lennie this based on his own experience and by having no one talking to him and treating him differently eventually making him feel lonely, which was the inevitable, made him into a bitter person.

Curley’s wife loneliness has altered her actions to others tremendously making her extremely flirtatious and insecure. Curley’s wife has become lonely because all the men on the ranch avoid her, not only because she is flirtatious but also because she is married to the boss’s son which could cause them to lose their jobs. She uses her appearance to get