Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Due to the characteristics of Crooks, Lennie, and Candy, they are the outsiders of society in this novel. 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).

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.

Crooks is a black man who isn’t allowed to be in the house with all the men. The men won’t allow him to come in because of his color. Crooks is lonely and he doesn’t bother the men. One night Lennie came in and was talking to Crooks and telling them about the farm that they were going to get. For once Crooks thought well maybe I won’t be lonely I could go with them and don’t have worry about none of them.

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.

Crooks, who is the black man in the story, is treated differently because of his skin color. Crooks lives in a barn alone, separated from all the whites. Lennie asks Crooks about it and Crooks answered him; “I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room.” “Why ain’t you wanted?” Lennie asked. ’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black.

Loneliness is something no living thing wants, unfortunately for Crooks and Curley's wife they feel lonesome. Crooks is a black colored man, he is not allowed to go in the bunk house or around the house because he is a “negro”. He owns many objects that a bindlestiffs would obtain, he owns a copy of the california civil code for 1905, and books and magazines.In Chapter 4 John steinbeck exports Crooks in loneliness; Crooks clearly states he is lonely in chapter 4 by saying “ A guy goes nuts if he got nobody. Don't make a difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, he cried, I tell ya a guy gets lonely an’ he gets sick”(72-73).

Crooks he is lonely because he is the only black person at the job. “Many people don’t come in the niggers ranch very much”(70) he told Lennie “Growing up I always been the only black family,or black man in a place.”(70) In the book it’s proven that Crooks is lonely because when Lennie came into to his ranch he began to mess with him and act like someone hurt George and he was not coming back he did this because he usually does not get to have fun He stop before Lennie hurts him he does this because he usually never gets to have any fun with anyone because no one is ever around. Crooks has it really hard the boss takes his anger out on Crooks. He is not allowed in the ranch there really one thing he can do if he gets lucky and that is play horseshoes outside the

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.

He wasn’t planning on killing him that night but when the narrator’s finger slipped off the lander then the old man awoke. The room was pitch black in fear of robbers but the person he should have been afraid of was living with him. When the old man woke up the narrator saw his blind eye. The old man was killed not because he was a bad person or did anything wrong it was because of his blind eye. Another definition of insanity is “ something unreasonable or foolish” (merriam webster) and it was very unreasonable for the narrator to kill the old man over his blind eye therefore that's another example of his

Crooks’ dialogue shows us the effects of solitude as seen by Steinbeck. Not allowed in the bunkhouse, Crooks must live out in the barn alone, woeful and isolated. "They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I'm black... They say I stink (Steinbeck 68)." This quote suggests that although he will not acknowledge it, he desires to be with everybody else and to have people who understand him.