Discuss the theme of loneliness in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’

‘A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t matter no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.’

A major theme in Steinbeck’s novel is loneliness and isolation. Almost all of the characters including Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife suffer from loneliness, although the degree of their exclusion is varied. Intolerance is human nature; people who are different from or weaker than the average are victims of intolerance and become isolated and lonely. Those who are in the normal majority group are expected to be strong and not exhibit their feelings. The normal group or social power group in Of Mice and Men is the white, male workers on the farm. They are younger men who are average sized and quite intelligent. They exclude people who do not fit in with them such as Crooks for being black, Candy for being old and Curley’s wife for being a woman. This intolerance and isolation cause loneliness for all the char...