Of Mice And Men Crooks Monologue Analysis

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Chapter 4 – Crooks’ bunk in the harness room. Saturday night. Lennie is left behind when George goes into town with the other ranch hands. This section of the novel focuses on Crooks as a character. Crooks is a bitter, cynical person, ‘being alone’ would not encourage him to be any other way. Similar to society Crooks is segregated from the ‘white’ ranch hands because he is a ‘negro.’ It is often a question in reader’s minds if this bitterness has come from him being a black man. Steinbeck’s description of Crook’s room makes the reader aware that Crooks is, ‘more permanent than the other men.’ This isn’t through choice, Crooks is aware of his status and knows that he will be unable to get work anywhere else; not only is he black but a ‘cripple’ as well. There…show more content…
To save himself Crooks tries to explain to Lennie how it feels to be lonely, ‘Maybe you can see now, you got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back.’ This monologue is important Crooks is lonely in many ways: he is crippled so he is isolated from society, he is black and he is intelligent all of which set him apart from anyone else on the ranch. At this point animal language is used again for Lennie. Crooks discusses how life would be for Lennie if he was on his own, ‘They’ll tie you up with a collar, like a dog.’ Words like ‘growled’ also show how Lennie’s temperament changes. Please note that animal language is used the most during tense scenes. In this chapter we are made aware of Crook’s dream. He just wants to be accepted. He reveals how lonely he is as a crippled black man on a farm of white men. The section with Crooks, Candy and Lennie in Crook’s room is almost a rest period before the final climax. Many authors step down the tension a little before a major climax, almost as if to rest the reader before a very demanding
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