Of Crooks and Friends: A Literary Analysis of the Character Crook In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, he stresses the impact of surroundings on human behavior and how humans react. The ranch that George and Lennie work on has several people working on it and all of them seem to be quite individual whether it is their mental state or physical state. The book demonstrates how the past of a person can affect how someone reacts and interacts in present time, along with the effects of preconceived notions toward stereotypes. Crooks s a man working on the ranch is black and Crooks demonstrates this point. Steinbeck uses the character of Crooks to show how the environment and the past of a character can adjust the way people react and …show more content…
The shift occurs when Crooks stops saying intimidating statements to Lennie and starts to reminisce about his childhood. He explains that his father told him not to talk to white kids and that as an adult, Crooks realizes why his father said that. Crooks has been talking about his past gently, but then he changes his tone: “He whined, ‘A guy goes nuts if he ain't’ got nobody. Do not make no 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’” (Steinbeck 69). All humans need some kind of human interaction no matter how much of an introvert a person is and Crooks being the only black person at a time when segregation and racism are strongly intact is excluded and not allowed to participate in many of the things the men do. To the men, he seems distant, to them he separates himself instead of them separating him. One night when all the other men are in town Lennie gets lonely and wanders into the Crooks' room and he ends up having a conversation with him. During this conversation Crooks say. Crooks has built up a wall around himself that makes him seem cold and standoff like keeping him from interacting with the other
Steinbeck clearly shows that Crooks never has any say on the ranch. No one cares about him. He’s just a “negro stable buck” (66). In this novella, No one ever talks to him except for candy. Lennie finally finds himself going into his room. While in there they speak about racial profiling. Crooks tell lennie that he’s the only African Americans on the ranch. He tells Lennie how he’s “alone out here at night” (73). He has nobody to talk to all he does is read books and think. The people on the ranch care less about his needs and wants, all they want him to do is to continue his work...
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.
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...
Crooks talks with Lennie in the book, "Crooks laughed again. ‘A guy can talk to you an’ be sure you won’t
The guy’s seeing her as a tramp and a troublemaker, but all she wants is someone to talk to. Crooks, who is another lonely man, was very sad as well. Because he was black, he wasn’t allowed into the other guys bunkhouse with them because they thought he stunk. “Why ain’t you wanted to?” Lennie asked.
Crooks. loneliness is caused because he is black, at the time the story took place there was racism. Since Crooks is black, he wasn?t able to socialize with the white men. When Steinbeck describes all of Crooks? possessions, it shows that Crooks has been at the ranch a long time and that his possessions are all the he cares about.
Although discrimination is still present during the time period of the book, Crooks still attempts to make friends. Others treat Crooks unjust because he is different from others given that he is black. He does not know how to treat others because of the way others treat him; with disrespect. Furthermore, he does not know how to vent his frustration and as a result, lashes out at others because they are cruel to him. Crooks is not allowed to participate in daily events with white people. He is treated unfairly and therefore acts the same way toward the white people (the ones who offended him.)
Crooks was excluded from the group and had his own barn which was his only freedom. When Crooks said “Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ’cause you was black. How’d you like that? ” (Steinbeck 72), he wants to seek someone’s company like Lennie has George’s. Crooks threatened Lennie into the fact that George might not come back because he wanted Lennie to feel loneliness, but to his disappointment he was in vain. Crooks also conveys through his body language and the way he speaks that he doesn’t want to be excluded from the others and wants to participate in all the activities with them.
This isolation prevented Crooks from reaching his full potential, as he could not cooperatively work with the other.... ... middle of paper ... ... In this novel, discrimination that Lennie had to face prevented him from showing his abilities.
If George wouldn’t have met Lennie, he would be a drunk in a whorehouse dying of cirrhosis. If Lennie didn’t meet George he would of died soon after his aunt did, because he would either have got himself in a bind with no one to help him or he would of simply wondered off and died of loneliness. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; Crooks suffers from loneliness, because he is black, not because he is an unfriendly person. Crooks, though, may seem mean, but he is just tired of being rejected and disrespected by everybody around him. Crooks has a horrible life. He will never have a companion or anybody that will respect him unless he meets another black person.
An example of how the men are discriminative towards Crooks is that he is forced to live in a shack away from the bunkhouse and also Crooks says that "They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say "I stink" and "I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse." An example of when Curley's Wife is critical towards Crooks is when she looks into his room to see what Lennie and Crooks are doing and then she states, shaking her head, that they left the weak ones behind. Also, she threatens to have Crooks hanged because a black man should never talk to a white woman the way he just had. As a result of all of these discriminatory acts against him, Crooks feels unwanted and lonely because of his color and placement on the farm.
Psychiatrist, Robert Waldinger, in his inspiring talk, “What makes a good life?” declares the concept of the power of relations. Waldinger’s purpose, As the director of a 75-year-old study on adult development, is to pass three important lessons learned from the study to have a full-filling life with true happiness and satisfaction. He embraces an emotional, sage and motivational tone to appeal to all the audience at different ages. Waldinger begins to attract his audience by showing credibility at first as he shows a convincing survey, toward the end of his talk, he keeps the same tone employing his audience’s emotions to reach his point using plenty of surveys and research.
over him. 1this entire incident shows how Crooks wants his loneliness to end. As Lennie entered Crooks room he
In the novella Of Mice And Men, John steinbeck’s setting conveys the theme that appearances are sometimes deceiving. Through the use of literary devices, it is revealed that Crooks is civilized even though he is perceived as uncivilized, and George is shown to be small and weak but is actually very tough and menacing. Although Crooks is associated with an animalistic setting, he is civilized which suggests that surroundings can be misleading. Crook’s room is described with belongings strewn everywhere showing he is unrefined, “ scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being alone, Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men” (Close reading 4). Crooks has many possessions, being the only person in the stable so he can leave his stuff about.
By using the characters Crooks and Lennie, Steinbeck produces the idea that sometimes our first instinct can make a problematic situation have a negative outcome even when a positive one is within