This highlights the main theme of the novel: loneliness. Living alone in his room Crooks craves the company of others but, because of his coloured skin and the era he lived in, he is shown to be separated from the other ranch workers and thus suffering from loneliness more than his colleagues. Because of his skin colour, Crooks is shown to have “kept his distance and demanded that other people kept theirs.” Steinbeck describes how crooks wants others to stay away from him and reciprocates their feelings towards him but, later in the novel, he reveals that he is very lonely all by himself and would like to have someone to talk to. However, because he is so used to being shunted away by society, he pushes everyone away from him before they have the chance to do the same, portraying him as a “proud, aloof man”. Again, this fact highlights Crooks' loneliness and, even though he has convinced himself he doesn’t need anyone else, he knows the pleasure of having company and this is something that can’t be replaced by the many possessions he has acquired.
His retardation sometimes causes others at the ranch to shun him; even to the point of thinking he is "cuckoo." Since Lennie cannot think as quickly as the other men, he is often set aside and isolated from them. He is unable to take an active part in conversations because George, Lennie's best friend and travelling companion, is the only one who can understand him. Lennie is frequently off in his own dream world and is constantly preoccupied with dreams of the farm which he and George someday hope to buy. .’ “An’ have rabbits.” ‘As a result, Lennie is unable to face reality at times, a fact which puts him even more out of touch with the real world and with other workers.
Yet another way these people are intolerant. When Lennie walks into Crooks room, which is in the barn, Crooks says to Lennie, “I aint wanted in the bunk house and you aint wanted in my room.” (page 68) This lets you know in one sentence, how Crooks feels about the intolerance for himself. Now Carlson has a slight intolerance for stinky, old and unusual things, like Candy’s dog for instance. The dog used to be a sheep herder until he got old and came down with rheumatism. After the conversation about Candy’s dog.
'Stable buck' means he tends the horses on the ranch, and this is where he sleeps. He is not allowed to sleep in the bunkhouse with the rest of the ranch workers, as they are afraid that they might catch a disease off him, so instead he has to sleep in the barn with the animals. He lives a life of solitude, being alone in the barn with no-one coming in to talk to him, 'You got no right to come in my room', 'I aint wanted in the bunkhouse and you aint wanted in here'. Among his possessions, in his room he has some books, including "a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905" This tells him his rights as a black man, so he obviously does not want to get on the wrong side of the law, so he keeps to his limits. Him having books suggests to us that he may have been well educated as a child.
Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya,’ he cried, ‘I tell ya a guy get’s too lonely an’ he gets sick” (69). Crooks’ illustrates that his lack of companionship manifests itself physically and emotionally. The only alleviation of these symptoms for Crooks occurs when he offers to work on Candy, George, and Lennie’s farm (Steinbeck 76). Similarly, Curley’s wife seeks out other people as a way to cope with her loneliness.
For instance, Crooks, lives in the barn by himself. While the other men live together in the bunkhouse. The only man that attempted to befriends was Lennie. This is shown when Lennie enters Crooks isolated room in the barn. Crooks reacts to this by pushing him away.
From the passage we can learn a lot more about Crooks’ characteristics and intellect. We find out that he lives in a “little room” away from everyone else. “broken harness” and “new leather” show us his work ethic but also give us an insight in to the inhumane, unjust, cruel behaviour hey had to face during the slave trade. “Crooks also had “his apple box over his bunk, both for himself and the horses”, Steinbeck is reinforcing the fact that blacks were treated like animals in 1930’s American society. Steinbeck is trying to put across the loneliness people felt at the ranch especially crooks.
Nearly every part of the bunk is made of things that were already used. When George and Lennie came into the bunkhouse, George said “What the hell kind of bed you giving us, anyway?” George said this because the bunk was really dirty and old. On the ranch there is Crooks, the stable buck who I think got treated the worst on the ranch. He lived separate to everyone else on the ranch because he was black
In the novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck demonstrates the negative impact of loneliness through Crooks, Curley’s Wife, and George and Lennie. Steinbeck demonstrates the negative impact of loneliness through a character called ‘Crooks’. “S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t enter the bunk house cause you was black…S’pose you had to sit out and read books…a guy needs somebody to be near him…a guy goes nuts if he has nobody…” (72). Crook’s cannot live on without being around somebody, he
Also, Crooks is ordered around by everyone because in the 1930s, black people were not as important as white people so a lot of racist language was used against Crooks. Steinbeck goes into detail when describing Crooks' surroundings: 'he had his bunk in the harness room: a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn'. The author tells the reader that Crooks' bunk was 'a long box filled with straw'. Steinbeck uses setting here to enforce Crooks' loneliness and isolation. This shows that Crooks' bunk is linked with the animals because his bunk is filled with straw, just like the animals.