Loneliness In Of Mice And Men

Crooks is an African-American migrant worker that has to sleep in a different area then the rest of the workers just because of his skin color. Crooks says to Lennie “S’pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse an’ play rummy ‘cause you was black. How’d you like that” (71)? Crooks does not want to be lonely anymore and does not like being separated. Many of the men on the farm are racist so they have no compassion for Crooks.

The reader is introduced to Crooks and his loneliness for the first time when Lennie stumbles into the barn to pet Slim’s newborn puppies. Crooks is the black stable buck who lives in the harness room. Crooks immediately gets mad at Lennie for walking into his room. After talking with Lennie for awhile, Crooks reveals that he is often lonely.

He lives alone in the harness room; a little shed that leaned on the side of the barn. He was segregated from all the other men, and he quickly became plagued with loneliness and alienation. Crooks just wanted to be accepted by the other men. In chapter four, Lennie went into Crook’s bunk because the other men went into town. Crooks told Lennie what it is like to be a lone black man and some of his everyday struggles.

In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck Lennie and George go to Soledad to work on a ranch. George and Lennie are migrant workers that are trying to get a farm for themselves. This is hard for them because Lennie is disabled and seems to always be getting in trouble. When they -- George and Lennie -- are at the ranch, they and the reader experience lots of racial discrimination towards African Americans. One of the people that gets discriminated in the book is Crooks.

Friendship is the lock that closes the door to loneliness. Candy was aware of the lonely life of men on ranches and to avoid this solitude, he grew a reliance on the companionship of his mutt, and later George and Lennie. After a gruesome argument in the ranch, Candy 's mutt was taken to be shot and Candy lay on his bed terribly sad, "A shot sounded in the distance... For a moment he [Candy] continued to stare at the ceiling. Then he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent" (51).

Crooks attitude is being closed off from the rest of the workers. He feels as if he isn't good enough to be with the other ranch hands. They don't want him in the bunk house, so he in turn doesn't want them in his room. He feels threatened by the others on the ranch. Most of the people on the ranch treated Crooks unfairly just because he was black.

“I could’ve been in the movies I could’ve been a star”(88-89) she said this regretfully. While talking to Lennie she told him that she did not really like Curley she only married him to prove something to her mother. Curley’s wife is always so lonely because Curley is never around. Most people on the ranch think that she is tart, but I think she is just looking for someone to have a good conversation with and wants A friend because she is the woman on the ranch.

Racism and Loneliness: Two Components for Bitterness Norman Cousins once said, “The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” Crooks, one character from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, battles with loneliness. He is forced to deal with racial segregation and live in a confined space isolated. Since Crooks is secluded he becomes an unpleasant human being and treats others poorly. Crooks’ method for coping with his loneliness, hurts him as a person instead of helping him.

As Lennie is a mentally slower but physically strong and George is intelligent but physically weaker, they benefit off of each other's strengths and weaknesses. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men reveals the harmful psychological effects that alienation, whether it is self alienation or forced alienation, may generate through the characterization of Curleyś wife, Crooks, and Candy. Like many of the other characters, Crooks is forced into isolation. Crooks experiences force alienation from his fellow workers on the ranch, causing him to become obscure and astringent.

    To begin, Crooks is an outsider as he is not of white descent and the only colored man that works on the ranch. Crooks is discriminated upon by the workers on the ranch and sleeps in a room segregated from the others that sleep in the bunkhouse together. Moreover, he is not allowed to play cards with the men who live in the bunkhouse because in their words, he “stinks”; it is not the fact that Crooks stinks, but the fact that he is black. In section four of Of Mice and Men, Crooks’ character says, “‘S’pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black,’” (Steinbeck 72).

Another way that loneliness shows in a character is through Candy. His dog was his best friend and after he died he could only cope with the loneliness by following Lennie and George 's dream. Another way it is shown in the book is through Curley 's wife. She tried to deal with it by flirting with other workers on the ranch because her husband does not give her attention. Another theme is dreams.