Of+Mice+And+Men

In the book __Of Mice and Men,__ written __by John Steinbeck__, you can pretty much relate this quote by Eric Hoffer to the main theme of the book. "It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs." In this novel, different characters display the feeling of loneliness in there own type of expressive way, which I will explain in this essay. One of the characters that you can interpret the feeling of loneliness from is Crooks. Crooks lives alone in the barn, and isn't allowed in the bunk house because of his race. You can just imagine how lonely a person could become being practicaly isolated all the time. IN this quote found on page 72, it shows one of the ways he expresses his loneliness; "Maybe you see now. You got George. You know he's goin' to come back. S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play rummy because you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here and read books. Sure you could play horseshoes til it gets dark, but then you go to read books. A guy needs somebody, to be near him;" "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long as he's with you I tell ya." "I tell ya a guy gets to lonely an he gets sick." As you can see, crooks is a pretty lonely guy, and througout the book shows his loneliness through anger. If someone comes in his room, he gets angry and upset to mask how he really feels about someone coming to see him. As Eric Hoffer quoted, "It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise." Loneliness isn't shown through silence, in Crook's case it is shown through anger. It seems as if Crooks hides his loneliness because he doesn't want to come of as someone who needs somebody, even though he really does as he expressed to Lenny.

Curley's Wife is also one of the characters in this book. She is more of the obvious, attention seeking type who is easily detectable about how she really feels. "I get lonely, You can talk to people but I can't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How'd you like not to talk to anybody?" Found on page 87 this guote shows how Curley's Wife is upset that she is not allowed to talk or interact with anyone but her own husband causing her to feel quite lonesome. Like Eric Huffer said, her loneliness is shown relevantly loud, rather than in silence. I don't think anyone would like it if they couldn't talk to anyone, Perhaps even go crazy. Nobody really cared abouthow truley lonely she was, and when she got someone to listen(Lenny), he acidentally killed her.

There was one other person who was quite lonely, and that was Candy. Candy is the older one of the group, and comes off as a quiet, friendly old man. But, without really anyones knowledge, he is pretty lonely. In this quote found on page 59, it proves how Candy is actually lonely; "I'd make a will an leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain't got no relatives or nothing. You guys got any money? We could do her right now?" When George and Lenny were talking about there future plan, Candy wanted to get on it and was very eager to be apart of it. You can tell his loneliness by how he is so friendly and is pretty much willing to do anything to have people to be with. It sounds like he is pushy, and to excited to possible have friends to be with.

Whether they show there loneliness in being desperate for attention, being obnoxious, in silence, or through anger, it still is there whether they want to admit it or not. What Eric Hoffer said about loneliness being the loudest noise, you can see how it is true through these 3 characters. Whether you show it or not, everyone needs a friend.