I also think it is very ironic that the most unintelligent person on the ranch is the only one who ignores the very unintelligent social hierarchy of racism, which the other supposedly better educated workers take part in. This is because Lennie doesn’t understand racism, he’s too simple and child like, black people don’t seem any different to white people to him. Once Crooks sees Lennie has simply come to speak to him, which
Accordingly, Atticus Finch, of Harper Lee ¡ ¯s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as John Proctor, from Miller ¡ ¯s own play, The Crucible, can be identified as such tragic heroes. Harper Lee, in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, portrays the prejudiced society of the South in the 1930s. The protagonist of the story, Atticus Finch, represents the rational man of the highly emotional world of Maycomb, Alabama. He is characterized as a stable and mature figure who is able to cope with the unreasonable and highly emotional element of the town. Atticus is one of the few people of the town who understands the individual worth of a person, regardless of the color of his skin.
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.
When Lennie arrives at his room, he turns him away, hoping to prove a point that if he, as a black man, is not allowed in white men’s houses, then whites are not allowed in his, but his desire for company ultimately wins out and he invites Lennie to sit with him. Like Curley’s wife, Crooks is disempowered, but turns his vulnerability into a weapon to attack those who are even weaker. Crooks begins to pick on Lennie, suggesting George won’t come home, and a slight mean streak is exposed that has probably developed after being alone for so long. Lennie unwittingly soothes Crooks into feeling at ease, and Candy even gets him excited about the dream farm. Crooks’s little dream of the farm is shattered by Curley’s wife’s nasty comments, putting the black man right into his "place" as inferior to a white woman, somebody already seen as being inferior to everyone else on the ranch to begin with.
Overall, Crooks is an important character to the novel as a whole as he shows racism on the ranch and how black people were treated in the 1930’s. Additionally, he shows us the main themes of loneliness and dreams. The way Crooks behaves and speaks is important to the novel because it shows us how there was racism on the ranch in the 1930’s. For example other characters always refer to him as ‘nigger’. Another example is how he must live away from other workers.
Of Mice and Men: Q-In the passage hoe does Steinbeck present Crooks? In the passage Steinbeck presents Crooks as a well educated man who is fiercely protective over his rights. In addition he is portrayed as proud yet as a lonely man. The first insight to Crooks personality comes from the possessions he owns, these possessions are extremely basic. Like the other men he owns little in the way of luxury but has life's necessities like 'several pairs of shoes' and a 'single barrelled shotgun'.
Despite Crooks initial hostility to Lennie, he is obviously desperate for company and invites him in, telling Lennie how he fears for his own sanity and that “books ain’t no good” for company. As he tells Lennie, Crooks is so desperate for “just talking, being with another guy” that he tolerates a visitor who has no idea about what he is actually talking about and cannot offer any real sympathy or company. Steinbeck is very explicit about the fact that Crooks is separated from the others solely because he is black (even the similarly crippled Candy gets to share the bunkhouse with the men) and shows the social injustice with Crooks innocent childhood memories of life on his father’s
· At first, he turns Lennie away, hoping to prove a point that if he, as a black man, is not allowed in white men’s houses, then whites are not allowed in his, but his desire for company ultimately wins out and he invites Lennie to sit with him. · Perhaps what Crooks wants more than anything else is a sense of belonging—to enjoy simple pleasures such as the right to enter the bunkhouse or to play cards with the other men. · The name Crooks connotates a villain, someone horrible who is not wanted in society. · His pride is shown when he defends Lennie against Curley’s wife, but when she lashed out at him, he knows he must back down or face the consequences. · Inside he knows he is equal to every other man on the ranch as he is obsessed with his rights , but if he expressed these thoughts he would probably be forced out of the farm, or even worse possibly as black people were not excepted and many people were prejudice in america in the 1930's.
Whilst Lennie is extremely strong and can easily knock the living daylight out of George for bossing him around and telling him what to do, he is surprisingly gentle and submissive towards him. His mental disabilities cause him to have an innocent and childlike personality which others take advantage of, including George. In his book, Steinbeck reflects on how individuals with a disability were considered inferior and lower in rank in comparison to everyone else. Crooks and Candy have both been given lower paid and respected jobs due to their disabilities (and race) and if it wasn’t for Lennie being amazingly strong, he most likely would’ve ended up just like them. This just goes to show that these character’s disabilities have caused them to be viewed as being lower in importance and power.
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.