George is the dominant male in the relationship , because of Lennie’s disability it causes they both very much trouble back in Weed and on the ranch they arrive too after escaping. Also Lennie’s disability causes himself to be put aside from others on big events. While all the other ranch hands go to town, Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s Wife are left behind. They’re left behind because to all the other strong and healthy men they’re outsiders. Lennie is considered as an outsider because of his mental disability.
He has his own room in the barn because he is prohibited from sharing a room with the white men. Candy, looking in awe at Crooks’ room, says “Must be nice to have a room all to yourself”’ Crooks answers with “And a manure pile under the window, Sure it’s swell” (82). This separation makes Crooks more isolated than any other characters because of his lack of human interaction, which causes him extreme loneliness. “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick” (80). This also causes him extreme loneliness.
It shows Slim as a sort of true king with power of knowledge and understanding but being trapped in the society all the same. When George and Lennie arrive together at the bunkhouse people think it is strange for men to travel together. This shows that society is use to people travelling alone. So through Slim, Steinbeck uses him as a way of criticising society. With all of Slim's God-like features it is hard for us to understand why he is there at the ranch.
Crooks, a black stable-hand, is segregated because of the pigment of his skin. Steinbeck depicts discrimination through Crooks’ isolation from other men, his desire for friendship, and his way of turning his vulnerability into a weapon. First, Steinbeck demonstrates Crooks’ loneliness through his separation from the other men on the ranch. Initially, the other ranch hands discriminate Crooks because of his disability that sets him apart from them. Steinbeck describes Crooks’ living condition to be, “For being alone…Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men” (67).
In Chapter 4 of “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck, introduces the character of Crooks by describing his room in the horse stable and his belongings. Steinbeck’s use of describing the setting doesn’t only lets us know where the characters are but in this case it lets us know who the character is. The objects in his room and the way they are placed all tells us something of Crooks’s lifestyle. Crooks’s character is intriguing because of the history he brings on his crooked-back. 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.
Multiply Crooks a million times, it points out the barriers and artificial obstacles people and society build against each other. Adding to Crooks' sense of powerlessness is his position, which is made clear by Curley's wife when she breaks up their little gathering, in fact, once she uses her position as Curley's white wife as a weapon, Crooks dissolves into nothingness. He grows smaller, pressing himself against the wall, and trying to avoid the hurt. Steinbeck has now assembled for us the outsiders of his cast of characters, Crooks had retired into the terrible protective dignity of the Negro." Candy with his old age, Lennie with his retardation, Crooks with his race, Curley's wife with her gender: all are victims of the attitudes and prejudices of
Steinbeck conveys inequality mainly through Lennie. He is often distinguished from the crowd because of his mental disability and physical structure since he is very big. Lennie is cared for by George and sometimes even controlled. For example, Lennie is not allowed to speak when they first meet their boss at the ranch, George says to Lennie ‘” So you wasn’t gonna say a word”’ (p.25) or when he
As the novel goes on we see that Crooks accepts things the way they overall are. Crooks doesn’t talk to the other men and they don’t talk to him. This causes the greatest amount of loneliness in Crooks out of all the characters. When Crooks states “I tell ya a guy get to lonely an he gets sick” ( Steinbeck; 73). This quote shows that rejection can cause most people to become crazy, as it did to Crooks.
On Christmas the boss brought a gallon of whisky and told the ranchmen to drink. So the ranchmen also let Crooks come in just to pick a fight with him because he is a man of colour. This affects his loneliness because he can’t fight back with his crooked back. In conclusion, Crooks is lonely because he is a man of colour and back then racism was everywhere. In the Novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, you will find that everyone has a bit of loneliness in them, even if it is a little.
It is definitely inhumane to cram animals in cages because the animals are cramped in unnatural space and often laying in their own filth and waste. This is inhumane because the animals need space to move and to have fresh air to breathe. It is also inhumane to be cramped in cages because you can only often put one animal in a cage at any one time. This makes the animals lonely and depressed because like us, animals are very social beings. That is why it is cruel to keep animals in cages.