What is the difference between being alone and being lonely? Loneliness is internal, it is an emotion. Being alone is external, it is a physical state. Imagine a man who suffers from both circumstances. This unfortunate person is confined to a tiny, cluttered stable-barn with no one to talk to. One of the most important elements in life are friends, this man has no one. The only thing that this man has to latch onto is the envy that derives from the relationships of other people around him. Questioning his own self-worth, this man is even pushed to discriminate against himself. Crooks is the loneliest character in the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck because he is black and crippled in a very racist environment, which causes the other people on the ranch to ridicule and degrade him.

Crooks copes with this loneliness by keeping distance...