Examples Of Crooks Marginalized In Of Mice And Men

In the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, two men named Geroge Milton and Lennie Small travel to places looking for a job with the dream of owning land someday. They get a job on a ranch in Soledad, California, during the Great Depression. On the ranch, they meet many different people. One of the people they meet on the ranch is Crooks. Crooks is a stable buck who is separated from everyone else due to his race. He is given his own room to live in since he is unwanted in the bunkhouse, which is where all the other men sleep. He resents the other people working on the ranch because of how they treat him. Crooks is marginalized because he is an African American and this causes him to push other people away from him.
Crooks is marginalized

When Candy tells George about how the boss was acting toward Crooks when he found out that George and Lennie weren't there in the morning, he says “The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck don’t give a damn about that” (20). Crooks doesn’t do anything or show that he cares when he is getting punished even when the reason he is getting punished has nothing to do with him. Crooks is afraid of saying anything against the boss, so the punishment will not get worse and he is able to keep his job. He has worked on the ranch for a few years and he is probably used to this treatment and it happens very often, so he knows the best thing to do is to pretend like he doesn’t care. This shows Crooks is treated unfairly since he is the only African American man working in a ranch full of white men. When Crooks tells Curley’s Wife to leave his room and that she doesn’t have a right to be in there, she gets angry and threatens him by saying, “Well, you keep your place then,

When Lennie comes into Crooks’ room after he sees a light on, Crooks becomes unwelcoming and tells Lennie, “You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room” (67). Crooks doesn’t want Lennie in his room because the other men on the ranch don't want Crooks to be in the bunkhouse. Crooks is rude towards Lennie, he is often not allowed to be in the same places or do the same things the other men do and since the other people working on the ranch don’t want him around, Crooks treats Lennie the same way he gets treated. His room is the only place where he can be in without anyone telling him he has to leave and he is angry that other people can come into his room whenever they want, but he is never allowed to go to the places he wants to go. Crooks telling Lennie to leave his room demonstrates him being marginalized makes him push other people away from him because he doesn’t want other people to be around him even if they want to be around him. When Candy comes into the barn looking for Lennie and finds Lennie in Crooks’ room, Crooks tells Candy to come inside in an annoyed way, but in reality, “It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger” (73). When Candy also shows up at Crooks’ room, Crooks tries to make it seem like he is angry that Candy is coming into his room, but he isn’t angry at all and has a hard time hiding it. Crooks is glad that