Of+Mice+and+Men

“It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. That is true of men as of dogs.” This is a quote by Eric Hoffer that describes a theme in the novella “Of Mice and Men”, which is that those who are lonely are the most eager to talk to anyone they can. In the book the two people most like this would be Curley’s wife and Crooks. Both of these people are resort to anger to mask there loneliness, but it is shown how lonely they really are since they are happy to be able to talk to Lennie.

Crooks in the story is especially lonely because for most of his life he had been shunned away just because he is black. Crooks has shown that he is lonely by easily letting Lennie go into his room then having a conversation with Lennie, even though Lennie shows no attention at all. For Crooks, like all lonely people, he doesn’t want people to know that he is lonely, to hide his loneliness Crooks acts angry about everything. This has shown to be false as the story progressed into his main scene. Crooks would pretend to be angry but really easily lets anyone into his room, such as Lennie, pretty easily, even though he made a stress about Lennie being there. Crooks in context to Lennie somewhat he admits he’s lonely though. “A guy sets out here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin’, andhe ain’t got nothing to tell him what’s so an what ain’t so.”(Page 73) As we can see by this quote Crooks is truly lonely.

Another person who is lonely throughout the entire book is Curley’s Wife. Even though she has Curley it is revealed that she doesn’t like Curley, but is stuck with him because her dreams of going to California were crushed. Curley’s wife is desperate for attention and to get attention she will act very slutty just to receive attention. “Well stick around an’ keep your eye open you’ll see plenty. She ain’t concealin’ nothin’.”(Page 51) Just like Crooks though, Curley’s wife will act angry at times, as well as violent. Such as how she threatens to have Crooks lynched when he tells Curley’s wife to leave his room.

The one person who seems to never be lonely throughout the entire book is Lennie. This seems to be because Lennie has always had an open heart and can find friends almost anywhere he goes, whether it is human, animal, dead, or alive. “Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it dead.”(Page 5) Lennie throughout the entire book is never truly lonely or just by himself until the end. Even when George went to town Lennie managed to run into Crooks and have a conversation with him.

One of the biggest things you can see by just looking at Lennie is if you just remain happy you can find friends everywhere. It also makes sense since Curley is the exact opposite of Lennie and had no friends at all, actually most people hated Curley. Because Lennie remained so happy it seems understandable that everyone wanted to be his friend.