Crooks in Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck (Book Analysis)

In the novel Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the ranch stable hand, Crooks is judged based on the color of his skin and it limits his relationships with the ranch hands and his lifestyle on the ranch. Due to mistreatment Crooks becomes reclusive and lonesome. Firstly, Crooks is not respected enough by the boss to be given a decent room, “Crooks, the N**** stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. On one side of the little room there was a square four-paned window, and on the other, a narrow plank door leading into the barn. Crooks’ bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung. On the wall by the window there were pegs on which hung broken harness in process of being mended; strips of new leather; and under the window itself a little bench for leather-working tools, curved knives and needles and balls of linen thread, and a small hand riveter. On pegs were also pieces of harness, a split collar with the horsehair stuffing sticking out, a broken hame, and a trace chain with its leather covering split. (66-67). These descriptors show the messy, small room Crooks lives in, which is more an extension of the barn than a real bedroom. Besides being kept out of the ranch hand’s bunkhouse he has to live out in a small unfinished space with no real bed, unfit for a human. Crooks’ room placement on the ranch represents how he is perceived by the other working men, an animal. His room is littered with farm tools, showing how he is not valued as a person, but a worker. Crooks is also deprived socially and psychologically. “This is just an n***** talkin’, an’ a busted-back n*****. So it don’t mean nothing, see? You couldn’t remember is anyways. I seen it over an’ over-a guy talkin’ to another guy and it don’t make no difference if he don’t hear or understand. The thing is, they’re talkin’, or they’re serrin’ still not talkin’. It don’t make no difference, no difffernece.” (71). Being treated like nothing, Crooks has given up on building relationships on the ranch and has to live in painful solitude, working all day long. Him being demoralized to less than a person is disheartening. “ I was talkin’ about myself. A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so. Maybe if he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether it’s right or not. He can’t turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can’t tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here. I wasn’t drunk. I don’t know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an’ then it would be all right. But I jus’ don’t know.” (73). Crooks is unwillingly isolated from the ranch hands, and not having anyone talk to makes him question his stability. Crooks is abandoned by the ranch simply because of the color of his skin and his disabilities, leaving him unhealthy, solely, and alone in a hostile environment.