Crooks was the only black man at the ranch but even before he came to work there he felt out of place in the world, as he faced isolation and mistreatment due to his race. He sleeps away from all the over employees, in a barn with the horses, surrounded by well read books that are his only company, but they do not provide him with the social interaction he wants. When Lennie enters his area, completely unaware he is intruding, Crooks attempts to assert some form of authority by stating that if he is not allowed in the bunkhouse, due to him being black, then a white man such as Lennie can not enter into his personal space. Lennie’s childish demeanor and Crooks’ lust for human companionship eventually gets the better of him and Lennie is …show more content…
Crooks substitutes human companionship, that is not available to him due to his race, with his work and books but even he recognizes this is not enough. Candy had his dog to keep him company and distract him but once it dies he relies on George and Lennie’s dream to give him a source of hope, and even once events take a turn for the worst he still clings to it. Curley’s wife hopes to have a breakthrough moment with a ranch hand during her search for acknowledgement and tries to distance herself from her troubled marriage. Crooks and Curley’s wife also have a tendency to put up a facade or prey on the weaknesses of others in order to accomplish what they seek or protect their feelings, as demonstrated in some of their exchanges with other characters in the book, specifically Lennie. John Steinbeck does a good job in his work to give the reader an accurate account of how lonely it could be for a variety of people during the Great Depression and how humans seek or distract themselves from loneliness. Ultimately everybody needs