Loneliness is something that clings to many of the characters in Of Mice and Men. However it is most distinguished in Crooks, Candy, and Curley's wife. Crooks may possibly be the loneliest of the three because of the color of his skin. Because Crooks is black, he is forced to bunk in his own room. He is also the only black person living at the ranch. The only refuge he gets is from reading books. Stories give him the sense that he has someone to talk to. It seems for many years, Crooks has been deformed by the accident that caused his back to become crooked. His entire appearance is enough to shun him back in the 1930's.
             Candy is another lonely man at the ranch. Too old to go with the young men out to the field, he is left behind as the swamper. His only companion is a mangy old dog. The dog is executed early in the book, and Candy is left with nobody. The dog and Candy share similar characteristics in that both have lost their uses from the crippling of age or a deformity such as the loss of Candy's hand. Candy feels that the way the dog was killed was a symbol of how the others feel about him.
             Lastly, Curley's wife is stricken with loneliness as her husband wants to keep her in the house all of the time. But when Curley isn't there to keep her there, she travels to speak with the workers because she seems to be the only woman living on the ranch. She is so desperate for attention that she flirts with the workers in hope of any kind of attention. She confesses to Lennie of her loneliness at the end of the book.
             Curley's wife is in a sense both a victim and a victimizer. She is with a man that she doesn't love and is stuck in the house. She feels her future was stolen from her as she dreams of being a famous movie star. She is a victim of her husband's sexist ways and the harsh remarks of the workers.
             However, she is also a victimizer. She begins to flirt with Lennie, taking advantage of...