Crooks Character Analysis in Of Mice and Men Essay Example

📌Category: Books, Of Mice and Men
📌Words: 724
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 17 April 2022

In chapter 4 of Of Mice and Men, Crooks opens up to Lennie, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long he’s with you. I tell ya. . . I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”(Steinbeck 82) The loneliness Crooks expresses is present throughout Steinbeck’s story. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, takes place on a ranch in Soledad, California during the height of the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, who are best friends go through many problems throughout the novella. The two men share a dream of living off the “fatta the lan”, but their aspiration is shattered due to the hardships they face. Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife, leaving George with no choice but to shoot his best friend in the back of the head. As a supporting character, Crooks develops the themes of prejudice, hopelessness, and loneliness by representing the time period’s hostility towards people of color. 

Crooks is an African American living on a segregated ranch as the stable buck. His job is to take care of the animals.  Crooks is first introduced in chapter 2 but is finally described in chapter four when Lennie goes to his room in the barn to make a friend. Steinbeck describes him as, “His lean face was lined with deep black wrinkles, and he had thin, pain-tightened lips which were lighter than his face.” (Steinbeck 67) Crooks is a lanky man with aging features. His lips are slender and faint in comparison to his skin color. The old man has a crooked back from a horse kick and is the only black man on the ranch. Crooks is lonely, proud, friendly, and defensive. His few hobbies include horseshoes as well as reading. While in Crooks’s room, Lennie worries when the old man teases him. Crooks seems excited by this as his “face alighted with pleasure at the torture.” (Steinbeck 71) Crooks is thrilled with Lennie’s reaction. For someone hurt so much, when he finally has an opportunity to inflict this pain on someone’s back, and it seems he can’t help but smile. Crooks’s personality is used to highlight the themes he promotes throughout the story.

One of Crooks’s main roles is to advance the themes of loneliness and hopelessness. In the story, he is mainly by himself due to the segregation and racism of the time. While in the barn talking to Lennie about being the only black man on the ranch, Crooks gloomily explains, “There wasn’t another colored family for miles around. And now there ain’t a colored man on this ranch an’ there’s just one family in Soledad.” (Steinbeck 70) During this time when racism and segregation were commonplace, Crooks is left on the ranch with nobody to relate to because of his differing race. Along with the theme of loneliness, Crooks helps advance the theme of hopelessness by shutting down Lennie’s dream. After Candy joins Lennie in the barn in chapter 4, they explain their dream to Crooks. He angrily responds with, “You guys is just kiddin’ yourself. You’ll talk about it a hell of a lot, but you won’t get no land. . .”(Steinbeck 75) Rather than being optimistic towards the other men’s goal, he doubts that they will reach their desire. Crooks is so hopeless that he refuses to have faith in someone ele Crooks, furthermore, extends the theme of prejudice in the story, Of Mice and Men.

Crooks, being a black man in the 1930s, is oppressed due to the color of his skin. For instance, he is not allowed to play games with the other workers in the bunkhouse. Crook's purpose in the novella is to give the readers an idea of how people of color were treated during this time period. An example of this in the short fiction is when the men go into town, the rejects gather in Crooks’s room. Curley’s Wife starts to cause problems so Crooks tries to kick her out and she responds threateningly, “Well then you keep your place n*****, I would get you strung up on a tree so fast it ain’t even funny.” (Steinbeck 81) The reader learns that Curely’s Wife tries to take advantage of her power over Crooks by calling him derogatory racial slurs. Prejudice is shown through Crooks many times in the story, Of Mice and Men. 

Throughout the novel, Crooks progresses the themes of loneliness, hopelessness, and discrimination. As a supporting character in an already hostile time period, his situation is worsened because of his race. Crooks’ consistent loneliness expressed throughout the novel is created by prejudice received from other characters.

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