How Does Steinbeck Present Crooks?

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How does Steinbeck present Crooks and how does Steinbeck use Crooks to show attitudes towards black people? Steinbeck presents Crooks as an intelligent person who is proud of himself and speaks up for himself and he is also presented to be an outcast from others on the ranch and he also has little hope for things. He seems to be intelligent because the passage says that he has a “tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905” and this suggests that he’s well educated and knows how to read and write properly whereas the other ranch members wouldn’t because they wouldn’t have got a proper education. He also has some magazines and a few “dirty books” which could be interpreted as sexual magazines and he has them because he gets very lonely in his isolated room. In this passage he seems to be quite a self-standing person because he owns a copy of the California civil code for 1905 so he knows what rights he has out of the few that black people had and when Lennie came into his room he was really defensive over his rights of having his room and that no one else had a right to come in accept him. He also seems proud of himself because the passage mentions that he keeps his room was “swept” and “fairly neat” he has a few shelf and pegs to place his things upon. He the outcast on the ranch because the passage says that he demands that people keep their distance and it says that he’s an “aloof” and this could be due to him being black and mistreated or that his crippled back has made him miserable and he doesn’t want anyone to bother him while he’s disabled. Crooks’ meagre yellow light could suggest that he has no/little hope for things because a light symbolises hope but the light wasn’t bright so that means there was little hope for him and lack in hope could be caused by his sickness of loneliness and emotional and physical pain. Steinbeck
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