Of Mice and Men - Suffering from Disappointment and Loneliness

Skyla Rojas

Of Mice and Men Essay

English Period 9

Suffering from Disappointment and Loneliness

        In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, many people suffer from disappointment and loneliness. Some of these people include the characters Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy. The go through different obstacles in their lives the end in disappointment and loneliness. The obstacles they go through also cause the characters to feel disappointed about their lives as a whole, along with their inability to achieve goals. Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy do not deserve their feelings of disappointment and loneliness.

        One character that experiences these emotions is Crooks. He is a male African-American who has a back problem. He goes through life facing racism. This creates the feeling of disappointment. Crooks admits that he just wants to be accepted in society without racism and judgment. Being judged and discriminated against also creates the feeling of loneliness. Crooks has no family with him and barely any friends. Along with that, he has a back problem. He constantly has to apply medicine to his back. All these factors result in suffering for Crooks, and although he is given these obstacles, Crooks does not deserve them. Despite the fact that Crooks has no control over his skin color or what race he is, the issue of racism is to blame for Crooks’ suffering.

        Another character who participates in feeling disappointed and lonely is Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife is never given a name throughout the story. This is a significant element in the story because it shows that she is not very important to the other characters. It also provides information about how she is treated by the characters. Curley’s wife tells how she dreamed of becoming a movie star and how she did not get to accomplish her dream because her mother would not allow it. This caused her to marry Curley, a decision she did not desire for herself. She did not want to marry Curley because of how he acts and how he treats her. He treats her more as an object than a human. Curley’s wife is shown to be of little importance to Curley. Curley’s wife did not deserve her suffering. Her mother and Curley are to blame for her disappointment and loneliness.