The Pearl Crooks Oppression

The burden of racial discrimination is easier to bear when one is not alone. In both of John Steinbeck’s novels, Of Mice and Men and The Pearl, oppressed individuals are explicitly prejudiced. However, only Crooks, a black migrant laborer, must endure this misery solitarily. He is scapegoated and both physically and verbally abused as he is the only black man on the ranch. Conversely, Kino, a poor Native American fisherman, will always have his family beside him, even under the acrimony of a greedy, apathetic Spanish doctor. The Spanish act superior to the Natives after their subjugation. They waste no time in treating Kino and his family as inferiors. Although the brutality put upon the natives by the Spaniards is great, the isolation Crooks must tolerate is far worse.
Loneliness is a burden made agonizing when paired with oppression. Crooks has been exposed to this

After being reduced to an animal by the doctor, the servant finally can relate to Kino and his plight. He asks if Kino has any form of remuneration for the treatment, and the poor pearl diver displays an assortment of flat, gray, valueless pearls. The servant takes them into the house, but does not even think of bringing them to the doctor. He is certain that both he and Kino’s family will have to endure the wrath of the rapacious white man. The servant returns only for a brief moment to return the misshapen pearls. He then proceeds to “ shut the gate quickly out of shame” (12). The servant takes pity on the family, saving them from the doctor’s vexation. He is undoubtful that they would leave with less than they had arrived with. On the ranch, there are none like Crooks, so there is no individual to give him the luxury of pity. He must endure the boss’s wrath with no filter whatsoever. Due to Crooks being the only black man on the ranch, no such sympathy is shown to