Of Mice And Men Crooks Friendship Analysis

"’Cause I’m black…"(Steinbeck ch.4). This is the only time that we see crooks discussing how everyone on the ranch degrades him and discriminates him. Crooks is so oppressed by the society that he lives in, that he starts to opress himself and he seems to be depressed. Crooks never talks back to any of the ranch workers when they call him racial slurs to his face. Crooks either has a strong will to keep working here, or, he knows that he has no other choice than to go out alone and starve.

Steinbeck displays through the dialogue and characterizations that these characters experience isolation because of both social barriers and personal choice. Crooks being an African-American on the ranch, full of whites, struggles racially which causes his withdrawal from the society. Crooks explains to Lennie his when he’s accompanied by him “ A guy goes nuts if he ain 't got nobody. Don 't make no difference who the guy is long’s

Mother Teresa once said “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” In John Steinbeck 's novel, Of Mice and Men, the three characters, Curly wife, Candy, and Crooks struggle with loneliness that they try to overcome by searching for friendship with others on the ranch. Crooks demonstrates loneliness because he is the only black man on the ranch and he lives in the barn separated from the others. Candy is the old man on the ranch who has lost his hand and lost his dog, witch later results in him being lonely. Since candy lost his dog he has no-one to take care of, talk to, or play with, thus making him isolated.

Loneliness is a state of sadness caused by a lack of friends or company, it is the quality of being remote and isolated from people whether it was by choice or not. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are hired at a ranch for a new job. They meet Curley, the boss’ son, who does not like Lennie and always wants to start problems with him. They also meet other interesting people such as Candy, Crooks, and Curley 's wife. They open up and offer their thoughts and feelings to George and Lennie that they have never spoke about before to anyone, which accidently causes Curley’s wife to be killed by Lennie resulting in Lennie being shot by George.

Steinbeck displays Crook’s isolation by describing how he lives alone in a “little shed,” excluded from the companionship in the bunkhouse. Crook’s possessions include many books that he reads instead of having company. “Crooks was a proud, distant man” because he has no choice but to endure this prejudice and isolation. Consequently, he bitterly guards his privacy, saying to Lennie, “this here’s my room... I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room.”

They will never understand why she flirts with them and provokes them because in their eyes she only causes trouble for them. Crooks clearly states that they “don’t want no trouble” (77) when Curley’s wife enters uninvitingly, and she responds with “…I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while?” (77) From the perspective of the ranch hands, Curley’s wife represents a nuisance with no individuality,

For example, when Lennie goes into Crooks’ room even though he knows he is not allowed in there, Lennie is just trying to be friendly. Crooks at first doesn’t want Lennie in the room but after Lennie would not leave he let him stay. By Crooks letting Lennie stay was probably good for Crooks because he is always lonely and being discriminated against. The absence of friendship makes the characters sad and lonely and then they are meaner characters. For example, The Boss who only shows up once is a very lonely man because he has no friendships so he is always a very angry man.

While alongside Lennie and Candy, Crooks’ fellow ranchers, a woman who is commonly known as Curley’s wife, interrupts their cordial conversation and snootily insults each of the men to which Crooks righteously defends them. However, primarily due to his skin tone, Curley’s wife threatens to “‘get [Crooks] strung up on a tree’” which is seemingly “‘so easy it ain’t even funny’” (Steinbeck 80). Subsequently, Crooks has “reduced himself to nothing” and his solitude is even more pronounced as society repeatedly illustrates his differences. Although quite untrue, Crooks feels that he is not even an equivalent of a person, more of a machine whose only usefulness are his inadequate working

So when all the guys went into town and left lennie alone back at the barn, everything went wrong. First of all, lennie had seen the light of Crooks barn room. Crooks is a black man, ¨He kept his distance and demanded people to keep theirs¨ ( John Steinbeck 67). Lennie had entered the room.

[...] “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley” (86-87). Lennie is hesitant to talk to Curley 's wife because he is afraid George will get mad. The ranchers thinks of Curley’s wife as “tart” so they do not engage with her. The men do not want to talk to Curley 's wife because they know Curley will get mad and fire them for talking to her. “Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody?

The story takes back in the day during the American great depression and people struggles to live in America. The two main characters in the story are George who is the sharp eyed hard worker and Lennie who is handicapped and has bad control of himself. Lennie doesn’t go along with many people except his partner George. Crooks who works at the same place and his black, which makes thing cheesy for him. Crooks likes reading books alone and he likes to keep his distance from others, which is his way of keeping things calm and not messy.

(1) Crooks explains to Lennie how he differs from other ranch hands; the other ranch hands forbid Crooks from entering their bunkhouse, he cannot “go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause [he is] black…[he has] sit out here an’ read books. Sure [he] could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then [he] got to read books.” (72).

“We must work together to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth, opportunity, and power in our society”- Nelson Mandela. The book Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck captures the reality of class division as the characters are judged upon their social status which defines who they are as a person. Steinbeck is suggesting that a person’s values are reflected by their race, as they are treated differently based on the color or their skin and a person’s gender as women have stereotypes set for them and are degraded by society. A person’s values are reflected by their race as they are treated differently based on the color or their skin.

Being isolated or not able to have something because of being different is tough. Imagine the people that are different races or they have a disability and they can not the same as others. Segregation lasted up until 1954, blacks in America were oppressed and given less because they did not have same pigment of skin. They were assumed to be less important so they were beat and forced to live in poor conditions. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, many charters are limited to what they can do based of of barriers.

Of Mice and Men “listen, nigger,” she said. “you know what I can do to you if you open your trap?” (pg.80). This shows how the word “nigger” is used to control a black person. In the book of Mice and Men the word “nigger” is used quite often but towards crooks, since he is the only black person in the book.