Of Mice and Men: The Feeling Only the Lonely Could Feel Loneliness is the core of a broken soul. It feeds on exile and hate. It engulfs dreams, pleasures and certain futures. Those who live with loneliness everyday cannot express how deep of a feeling it is to have everything you enjoy crushed by the absence of companionship. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck explores the relationship of loneliness to a human being by his three characters: Crooks, Candy and Curly's wife. These characters are an example of how loneliness can effect a person's life forever. Crooks is one of the loneliness characters