In Of Mice and Men, racism is displayed upon the negro on the farm. Within the farm it’s basically segregated. Crooks, the negro, is isolated on from the other men on the farm, with his own room and no one to socialize too. Loneliness haunts Crooks deep inside. As the novel goes on we see that Crooks accepts things the way they overall are.
Loneliness is a basic part of human life. Everyone becomes lonely once in a while but in Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, he illustrates the loneliness of ranch life in the early 1930's and shows how people are driven to try and find friendship in order to escape from loneliness. Steinbeck creates a lonely and blue atmosphere at many times in the book. He uses names and words such as the town near the ranch called "Soledad", which means loneliness and the card game "Solitaire" Which means by oneself. He makes it clear that all the men on the ranch are lonely, with particular people lonelier than others.
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, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" Crooks the black stable buck said this quote. In my opinion I would say that crooks would be one of the loneliest characters in the novel. Crooks has to go through life on the ranch without any real friends and no one to talk to.
This also causes him extreme loneliness. When Lennie and Candy are in his room, it is hard for Crooks to not show his happiness. “It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger (82). This shows how long it has been since Crooks has had a conversation like an equal with other
Crooks, a black stable-hand, is segregated because of the pigment of his skin. Steinbeck depicts discrimination through Crooks’ isolation from other men, his desire for friendship, and his way of turning his vulnerability into a weapon. First, Steinbeck demonstrates Crooks’ loneliness through his separation from the other men on the ranch. Initially, the other ranch hands discriminate Crooks because of his disability that sets him apart from them. Steinbeck describes Crooks’ living condition to be, “For being alone…Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men” (67).
The way he has been treated and brought up makes him who he is today and how he relates to other people, especially white skinned people. Crooks, first of all, is the stable hand who works with the ranch horses. Along with Candy, Crooks is a character used by Steinbeck to show the effects of discrimination. This time the discrimination is based on race, and Crooks is not allowed in the bunkhouse with the white ranch hands, therefore he has his own place in the barn with the ranch animals, and he is treated as such. Crooks is a man, supposedly young but disabled, that likes books and keeps his small room neat, but has been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatment of that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives.
4th October Explore what Crooks contributes to the novel Candy introduces Crooks into the novel as the stable buck. He talks about how the boss “gives the stable buck hell” because he is a “nigger”. Crooks is the only black man in the novel and therefore takes the role of showing how black people were discriminated by a white society. The characters’ use of racist language and the casual use of the term “nigger” to describe Crooks suggests that it was seen acceptable for Crooks to be treated with no respect this way. However Candy does describe Crooks as a “nice fella”.
They are all, in turn, escaping from their problem and they all end up in the barn. The barn is like their home and it is in fact Crooks’ home. As Crooks has faced so much discrimination and racism in his life he has turned aggressive and impolite. He was forced to live and work alone – isolation – and because of this when anyone does try to talk to him he snaps at them. ‘Crooks said sharply, “You got no right to come in my room.
The character Crooks from the novel, is an old black man with a crooked back and he is probably the most discriminated against since he is black and disabled, which means he can’t do as much work as the others. He works as a stable buck at the ranch, but although he has a job, we can assume that he gets the lowest wage on the ranch because he is black. This is shown in the novel since he doesn’t have a proper bed; instead he has ‘a long box filled with straw, on which blankets were flung.’ This is probably because of his low social status and therefore doesn’t get the same as the other workers on the farm, which includes a proper bed. Another thing could be he is secluded and cut off from the other men as he lives alone in a room in the stable. Crooks isn’t allowed to sleep in the bunk house with the other men and this means that he is often alone and is resentful of the other men who live
In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, there are many examples of prejudice. The main type of prejudice shown in this novel is the racial prejudice against Crooks. Crooks, the black crippled stable buck, are more permanent then the other ranch hands. He has his own room off in the stables and has more possessions then most. The room is made out to be a privilege because it keeps him closer to the horses, but in fact it is really because the other hands do not want him sharing a bunk house with them.