Candy is isolated in that after the loss of his hand he is unable to work alongside the other men and is reduced to the role of swamper. Once his dog has been shot Candy has little else to live for and is desperately lonely. He is powerless and afraid of the future. He does not go into town with the other men, and sees the inclusion in George and Lennie’s dream as the only way out.
Crooks is isolated because of his race, his disability and his deep mistrust of others. He is physically separated from the other men and has his own room in the barn. His crooked back means that like candy he has limited social or work contact with the other men as he tends the horses. His loneliness forces him to acquiesce when Lennie tries to talk to him. Crooks withdraws his request to be part of Lennie and George’s dream after Curley’s wife puts him in his place. His understandable suspicions and fears about how others treat him return and he cannot see beyond the prejudice he has always experienced.
Curley’s wife is the only woman on the ranch and has no-one who will talk to her – including her husband. Her sexuality isolates her from the other characters. She is bored and lonely, but her attempts to engage the attention of the men on the ranch only serve to push them further away from her. She has already given up on her dream of a better life as a movie star and appears to hang her hopes on any man who will listen, as Lennie appears to.
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