When George talks with Slim, the mule skinner with
"God-like eyes," he tells him,
"I ain't got no people....I seen the guys that go
around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long
time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the
time."
Chapter 4 of
Of Mice and Men illustrates this statement of George. The long
years of alienation have had an effect on Crooks and Candy and George. Because he has
been isolated so much, Crooks exhibits hostility to Lennie when he enters the barn; in
fact, Crooks baits Lennie, telling him George will not return. But, when Lennie becomes
upset, Crooks relents and eventually confesses to being desperately
lonely:
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's he's with you. I tell ya...I tell ya a guy gets too
lonely an' he gets sick.....He got nothing to measure
by."
Then, as he and Lennie
converse in a friendly manner, they are interrupted by the entrance of Candy. Crooks
returns to his cot as his mistrust seizes him again. Still, it is difficult to "conceal
his pleasure with anger" as Candy stands in the doorway, so he invites the old man to
come in his room. Candy does, but remarks that he has not ever been in Crooks room even
though the two of them have been on the ranch for
years.
It is significant here that the dream which now
includes Candy stretches almost to include Crooks, who offers to work for free. At this
point the theme of fraternity is evinced. But, this dream is interrupted by the
appearance of the Eve, Curley's wife, and the mood of camaraderie is
broken.
Steinbeck's theme of isolation is exemplfied in
this chapter with the lonely misfits present in one place. Evidence of man's intrinsic
cruelty is also illustrated as the rejected character turns on the
others.
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