Explain how the theme of loneliness affects Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men.

In this
novella, Steinbeck illustrates ways the every-man-for-himself ethos of capitalism isolates
people and causes them to be lonely and fearful.

Candy is lonely and fearful
because he is old and disabled. He cannot save enough money for retirement. When his bunkmates
want to shoot his old, blind, smelly dog, Candy mourns losing his companion. More than that, he
sees in the killing of a creature that is no longer useful a picture of his own end.

Curley's wife, a newlywed teenaged girl already dissatisfied with her marriage to a
swaggering bully, is lonely and isolated as the only woman on the ranch. She wants to be admired
as a sex object, yet the ranch hands wish very much to steer clear of her because of fear of
tangling with Curley. She has utterly unrealistic dreams and fantasies of going to Hollywood and
getting into movies. In the meantime, she dresses up in tawdry ways with no one to admire
her.

Crooks is a more complicated case, as he is a victim of racism. He is
lonely because...