How Does Crooks Use Mental Illness In Of Mice And Men

Stigmatizing Mental Illness
Retarded. Stupid. Why do mentally ill people even get called these names? Is it based off of their actions, or what they do to other people, unintentionally? Mental illnesses do not affect just that individual, but everyone around them, as shown in the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. People are treated differently when others find out about their illnesses. For instance,
Crooks and Lennie have a conversation and Crooks figures out why Lennie acts a certain way,
“ ‘Jus’ nuts,’ said Crooks… ‘You couldn’t remember it anyways’... ‘George can tell you screwy things and it don’t matter.’” (69-71). Crooks understands what Lennie’s problem is, which is to comprehend what people are saying. Also, the way Crooks says these statements has more of

For example,
Crooks decides to verbally torture Lennie after Crooks finds out about Lennie’s disability, “ Well s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then?”... Crooks face lighted with pleasure in his torture.” (71-72). Crooks changes his behavior towards Lennie just to have fun frightening someone who is not in the right mind. In the time period, Crooks does not have much power because of his color, so torturing someone let him feel like a man with power.
Lennie has no idea what racial segregation is, so talking to Crooks seems normal to him. Since Lennie does not know what is going on and gets scared, he accidently kills
Curley’s wife. To demonstrate, Lennie holds onto Curley’s wife’s hair until she dies, “She jerked her head sideways, and Lennie’s fingers closed on her hair and hung on...He looked down at