In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the main characters, George and Lennie, travel to a ranch in Soledad, California, in order to find work during the Great Depression. Running from trouble up north in another place called Weed, they soon find that the new ranch they have arrived at holds just as many opportunities for things to go wrong. There, they meet three morose people who stand apart from the rest and are lonely because of it: Crooks, the crippled, black stable buck; Candy, the old swamper; and Curley’s wife, a flirtatious, young woman. Through those three people, John Steinbeck embeds the idea that being different means being lonely. Crooks’s anguish is caused by his skin color. When he was young, his “old man had a chicken ranch,
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After seeing Lennie’s reaction, Crooks expresses his envy that Lennie has someone who will always be there for him to talk to, a sharp contrast to Crooks’s daily life where Crooks has nobody but the animals for company. Furthermore,when Crooks needs to rub liniment on his broken back, he has to do it himself. Normally, when lotion is being applied to the back area, people request assistance. However, Crooks does not ask anyone else for help because he has long since learned that nobody on the ranch cares about his wellbeing. Alone, Crooks spends his days without companions to comfort or help him. Even when Lennie and Candy come into his room, he acts hostile. Being alone for such a long time has turned Crooks into a cold, hard man. When he hears of George, Lennie, and Candy’s plans for their dream farm, Crooks is both skeptical and scornful, “I seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none in their hand” (76). However, eventually, Crooks asks if he can join them if they really do get a piece of land. Deep down, Crooks still thinks about how his life was before, when he did not face discrimination and segregation simply
After seeing Lennie’s reaction, Crooks expresses his envy that Lennie has someone who will always be there for him to talk to, a sharp contrast to Crooks’s daily life where Crooks has nobody but the animals for company. Furthermore,when Crooks needs to rub liniment on his broken back, he has to do it himself. Normally, when lotion is being applied to the back area, people request assistance. However, Crooks does not ask anyone else for help because he has long since learned that nobody on the ranch cares about his wellbeing. Alone, Crooks spends his days without companions to comfort or help him. Even when Lennie and Candy come into his room, he acts hostile. Being alone for such a long time has turned Crooks into a cold, hard man. When he hears of George, Lennie, and Candy’s plans for their dream farm, Crooks is both skeptical and scornful, “I seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none in their hand” (76). However, eventually, Crooks asks if he can join them if they really do get a piece of land. Deep down, Crooks still thinks about how his life was before, when he did not face discrimination and segregation simply