Almost all of the characters deal with loneliness and isolation to some degree in Steinbeck's novella. The two characters who could be considered the loneliest, however, are Crooks and Curley's wife. For a brief time Candy is also quite lonely.
Crooks is the black stable buck on the ranch. He is also partly crippled after being kicked by a horse. Because he's a black man on a ranch dominated by white men he is the victim of both racism and segregation. He is usually not allowed in the white bunkhouse and the one time he is welcome he is involved in a fight, presumably over race. Candy describes the scene:
"They let the nigger come in that night. Little skinner name of Smitty took after the nigger. Done pretty good, too. The guys wouldn’t let him use his feet, so the nigger got him. If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigger. The guys said on account of the nigger’s got a crooked back, Smitty can’t use his feet.”
In chapter four Crooks explicitly expresses both the racism he is victimized by and his sense of loneliness and isolation. Crooks explains to Lennie why he's not allowed in the bunkhouse:
“’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.”
Later while talking to Lennie, Crooks pours his heart out about his sense of loneliness. He tells Lennie how lucky he and George are to have each other to talk to. He says it doesn't even matter what they talk about, it's just the talking that's important. He says,
“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,” he cried, “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”
For a brief time, Crooks's loneliness is assuaged as both Lennie and Candy come into his room. Crooks even offers to lend a hand on the ranch the men are planning on buying. His dream, however, is abruptly put to an end when Curley's wife comes into the barn and begins talking to the men gathered in Crooks's room.
Curley's wife is possibly the loneliest and most isolated character. She is a woman on a ranch full of men. Her husband is often belligerent and treats her poorly. It is even suggested that he cheats on her by going to the whorehouses in Soledad. Thus, she seeks companionship with the other men on the ranch who are generally suspicious of her and use derisive terms such as tramp, tart and floozy to describe her. In both chapter four and five she reveals the level of her loneliness. While talking to Crooks, Lennie and Candy she says,
"Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?”
As with Crooks, Curley's wife really pours her heart out to Lennie. In chapter five she describes her dreams and how she wound up marrying Curley. She claims she could have been in the movies had it not been for her mother. She even tells Lennie her true feelings about Curley:
"I don’ like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.”
Because she feels comfortable with Lennie she allows him to stroke her hair, which, of course, is a terrible idea and it costs her life as Lennie accidentally breaks her neck. Her struggle to seek companionship is fatal. Steinbeck describes her in death:
And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.
Candy is often referred to as being lonely, yet this is only true for a very short time the book. He is old and crippled but at the beginning he has the companionship of his old dog. Unfortunately, the dog is euthanized by Carlson in chapter three. For a brief time Candy feels the misery of loneliness until he hears George talking about the dream of owning his own farm. Candy is immediately interested and offers to put in money to make the dream a reality. The dream ultimately fails and the reader must assume that Candy lived out his days lonely and isolated on the ranch.
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