Of Mice and Men essay on Crooks character.
Of Mice and Men essay
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I am doing my essay on Crooks the 'Stable buck' who is black, 'the
nigger'. I have chosen to do Crooks as I feel he is a defined
character, different to the rest so I thought it would be interesting
to go into him with more detail.
He has a crooked back, hence the name Crooks, he has a crooked back as
a horse kicked him when he was younger.
'Stable buck' means he tends the horses on the ranch, and this is
where he sleeps. He is not allowed to sleep in the bunkhouse with the
rest of the ranch workers, as they are afraid that they might catch a
disease off him, so instead he has to sleep in the barn with the
animals. He lives a life of solitude, being alone in the barn with
no-one coming in to talk to him, 'You got no right to come in my
room', 'I aint wanted in the bunkhouse and you aint wanted in here'.
Among his possessions, in his room he has some books, including "a
tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for
1905" This tells him his rights as a black man, so he obviously does
not want to get on the wrong side of the law, so he keeps to his
limits. Him having books suggests to us that he may have been well
educated as a child. When he was young boy he lived on a smallholding
with his father, so he was probably treated with a bit of respect,
however, now he is just a black man working on a ranch with a lot of
white men, and now he is treated with no respect at all, he is an
outcast which nobody wants to know, 'If I say something it's just a
nigger talking'. So from having people liking him to no-one liking him
at all is quite a big jump.
The other ranch workers see him as entertainment, as you can easily
win a fight against him if you were put up to it, when the boss comes
along Crooks knows to get out of the way, "The boss gives him hell
when he's mad" and he goes and finds something to do so he is not
noticed. So if the ranch workers see the boss having a go at him they
must think that it is right to push him around. At the time when this
was set, black people were still seen as an inferior race to whites.
I believe everyone has that one person they can count on whether it’s your best friend from school, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, ect. But there’s just this one thing holding back the character Crooks from Steinbecks book Of Mice and Men. That is making and desiring a friendship someone he can talk to and not be whipped or discriminated on. Crooks is the African American, hunchback man who lives in the horse stables. Steinbeck shows many examples of how Crooks desires a friendship.
Crooks is an older black man with a crooked back, who lives by himself in
In this portion of the book, the author provides a precise characterization of Crooks. The stable buck takes “pleasure in his torture” (71) of Lennie. He suggests many scenarios that make Lennie miserable such as “Well s’pose, jus’s’pose he [George] don’t come back” (71) “s’pose he gets killed or hurt so he can’t come back” (71). Crooks’ suppositions are a sign of meanness, they demonstrate that loneliness has twisted his conscience. He also behaves this way because since “he ain’t got nobody” (72), he is jealous of Lennie’s friendship with George. Crooks suffers from loneliness. He has no one to turn to, and to be near him. He says it himself that “a guy needs somebody---to be near him” (72), or else “he ge...
to read, write and work alongside white and black men, he accomplished what an average white
Crooks is considered disabled because he broke his back when a horse kicked him in the spine (83). Since Crooks was injured, he has to deal with the constant pain in his back, and he constantly has to rub his spine. Furthermore, by being disabled, Crooks knows that his job opportunities are very slim and that he has to stay on the ranch where he is constantly discriminated against. That is why in the story Crooks offers to lend a hand on the ranch Lennie and George wanted (76). Crooks not only has to deal with the pain of being different, but also the pain that comes with being
Many critics consider the novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck, as one of the greatest short works of fiction. I think this was a great novel with amazing detail. It has certain qualities and themes such as these: the importance of relationships, responsibility to others, the nature of home, respect for old age, the difference between right and wrong, and the evil of oppression and abuse. We can learn from these themes and see how we use it in our lives. By using examples from the book as well we can see how this happens more clearly.
and says he will shoot him at the back of his head so he won't feel it
does not have faith in his ability to walk, he persists anyway. This is because he wants
without harming him.) The man contradicts everything that he stood for in the story. He claims
It was a couple of years after and more of these white men started to come. My grandfather met a lot of them. But one they
thinks that he just merely works under them and he always has to no matter what
In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, there is only one woman and one African American male announced in the reading. The women is Curley’s wife, her name is not stated in the novel, who is the only woman that lives on the farm. While Crooks, the African American male, lives on the farm in a little cottage away from the rest of the men that live there. As we keep reading, we soon get the idea that Steinbeck’s purpose of women and African Americans is to present: discrimination towards race, gender stereotyping, and the double standards in the predominantly male workplace.
Crooks is an African American stable-hand on the ranch, who because he is black is very isolated and lonely. He is the only black man on the ranch and is segregated from the others on multiple occasions. All Crooks wants is to be able to do daily activities with the other ranch workers, even simply a game of cards. However, since Crooks is black, he is not allowed into the bunkhouse, and is forced to live alone in the barn. He wants to feel like someone cares about him, "Don't make no difference who the guy is, long’s he's with you. I tell you, a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick." (80) Lennie finds Crooks one night in his room when he is playing with the new puppies on the ranch. After Crooks tries to play a joke on Lennie, Crooks realizes that Lennie is slow and thinks like a child, therefore can’t understand that he is just playing a joke on him. Crooks then invites Lennie to stay with him for a while, and forgets about his loneliness for one night. Crooks looks to Lennie for companionship; he sees that si...
He is a lazy man, bored and frustrated by his life he too does not