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.
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. Racial discrimination is part of the microcosm Steinbeck describes in his story. It reaches its height in the novel when Curley's wife puts Crooks "in his place" by telling him that a word from her will have him lynched. Interestingly, only Lennie, the child-like character, does not see the color of Crooks' skin. Crooks isn’t ashamed about his inheritance but has pride and tells Lennie he doesn’t descend from slaves but from landowners.
They are not black and are well respected by the community, until Atticus is assigned to defend Tom. The town and even their family begin to turn on them, gossiping, staring and saying how they are embarrassments. Cecil Jacobs announced on the school yard "Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers" (Lee 74). Simply defending a black can cause everyone to turn on them.Finally, the mixed children are half black and half white children. They are ignored and outcasted by everyone because of their background.
An example of so is, "... go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause he is black." However, once a year around Christmas time, "They let the nigger come in..."Crooks could not do anything because he felt mistreated and powerless. So rather than immediately defending those who hurt him, he resulted in cruelty towards Lennie by betraying him. During this 1930’s, mental disabilities were not well studied, understood, and therefore unaccepted. In this novel, Lennie has a mild mental disability.
The second part of the paper deals with the comparison. Topdog/Underdog talks about the adult lives of two African-American brothers, Lincoln and Booth who were abandoned by their parents. They have to deal with various issues ranging from work to racism. Booth, the younger brother, admires his brother and is even jealous of him. Lincoln used to be a hustler, but then he turned into a circus attraction where he sits dressed as Abraham Lincoln.
“A little shed that leaned of the wall of the barn” the use of word “shed” shows the reader that he is not allowed to live in the bunk house with the rest of the ranch workers, and that he has been isolated from any companionship, this brings up the theme of loneliness and the desire of companionship and friendship. This also shows us that his living conditions are extremely poor and that he has been moved into a place dedicated for objects and tools which could suggest that the other residents don't see him as a person, but just as a tool to work in the stable. Due to the fact that
Crooks is a African American man from Southern California. He is on the farm in Northern California that Lennie and George are working on. Crooks is segregated into his own room in the barn because he “smells” but in all honesty between the characters it is because of them discriminating against the colour of Crooks’ skin. In the early 1930’s in which this story takes place the African American people were still very much discriminated against even a century after slavery was abolished. The farm that the story is set on is with a significant number of white males along with Curley’s wife.
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 lives in a ranch in the middle of nowhere, in a stable, far away from the rest of the workers. He gets discriminated against because of his skin color. When other workers are playing games like cards, he’s in his own little isolated space, reading. Just like his name, Crooks has a crooked back and life. Just like his back, his life is broken.
Discuss the main characters in animal farm and contribute to the main themes In this essay I am going to discuss how the main characters in animal farm, George Orwell, contribute to the main themes, such as how they contribute to utopia, power and hierarchy. Farmer jones is only in the begging of the book/film farmer jones is a tyrant man who doesn’t really care about his animals and he has lots of power because he makes sure that the animals are scared of him by whipping them and treating them badly. He has a kind of utopia of basically drinking and staying in his bed and being lazy. In the end he gets chased out by the animals. Old major had lots of power because he was the oldest, wisest and the prize boar.