When is crooks introduced in of mice and men

He is treated terribly by the other members of the ranch and isn 't invited when they go out into town. Crooks is insulted horribly by the other characters in the story whenever they so much as refer to him.

In this way crooks is faced with what almost every black american was faced with in the s, Prejudice. In the s oppression based upon one 's color and gender was a big issue in america and black people especially black women were heavily discriminated against with segregation.

This man 's name is crooks and when he is first introduced we learn that he is victimized because of the color of his skin and that he is handicapped in that his back is crooked, hence the name crooks. Even the woman on the ranch, curley 's wife puts him down, he is used as a punching bag by everyone on the ranch.

This perfectly depicts the somewhat average working african american man. Other people push him aside for his differences and think that he is a lesser person because of something that he cannot control. All the other white men on the farm sleep in the bunkhouse in the ranch but crooks has a separate sleeping quarters that is located next to the animals pens. This is essentially stating that crooks is not looked at as a human and more like an animal.

Effectively, this can be applied to how many white people in america look at african americans during this time when prejudice is just a part of the …show more content… All of the prejudice that crooks faces throughout the story is not retaliated by him in any way.

This is the only time that we see crooks discussing how everyone on the ranch degrades him and discriminates him. Crooks is so oppressed by the society that he lives in, that he starts to opress himself and he seems to be depressed. Crooks never talks back to any of the ranch workers when they call him racial slurs to his face.

Crooks either has a strong will to keep working here, or, he knows that he has no other choice than to go out alone and starve. He has poor living conditions and is oppressed by every person he so much as breathes the same air as. That he becomes part of the dream farm is an indication of Crooks' loneliness and insecurity. He, like Candy, realizes that once he is no longer useful he will be "thrown out. The dream farm of Lennie's seems to be the place. Crooks promises to work for nothing as long as he can live his life out there without the fear of being put out.

Like all the others, he wants a place where he can be independent and have some security. But there is no security for anyone in a prejudiced world, least of all a black stable hand with a crooked back. Previous Slim. It is a room for one man alone. But scattered about on the floor are his personal possessions, accumulated because, unlike the other workers, he stays in this job.

He has gold-rimmed spectacles to read reading, after all, is a solitary experience. His pride and his self-respect are obvious from the neat, swept condition of his room. In his conversations are both the reality of accepting his solitary position and his anger at this condition. Candy, while around the place all the time, has never been in Crooks' room. The stable hand is not allowed in the bunkhouse because he is black. When he has an opportunity to wield some power of his own and hurt someone else as he has been hurt, Crooks takes the opportunity by picking on Lennie.

But then sensing Lennie's fear and power, he backs down. Through the description of Crook's room, his past life, and his current existence on the ranch, Chapter 4 continues Steinbeck 's themes of loneliness, barriers between people, and the powerlessness of the little guy in a huge world.

Crooks describes his solitary life in terms of all the workers. He shares with Curley's wife the problem of no one with whom to talk. As the Boss's son, Curley treats the ranch hands in a very condescending manner. A short man, Curley is angered and provoked by those who happen to be bigger than him, as though he has something to prove. Recently married, he likes to brag about wearing a glove full of Vaseline to keep his hand soft for his wife.

He is disliked by nearly all of the workers, who poke fun at him behind his back. Curley purposely attacks Lennie because he is jealous of Lennie's enormous stature, but he ends up having his hand crushed after Lennie squeezes it too hard.

To save himself the embarrassment of his humiliating defeat, Curley agrees to hide the truth and says that he got his hand caught in a machine. The only female character that physically appears in the story, the unnamed wife of Curley is viewed with lightly veiled disgust by the workers. Despite only being married a few weeks, she already has what the workers call "the eye" and they refer to her as a "tart" It is implied that she constantly seeks out male attention to relieve her loneliness.

Like the men who are plagued by loneliness in the story, Curley's wife is both lonely and regretful and says that she could have been in movies or magazines if she had not married Curley.

It seems that she only married Curley to escape her mother, who was domineering and did not let her go to Hollywood. A quiet, observant man, Slim is portrayed as wise and the true authority figure on the ranch. While the other workers listen to the boss and Curley because they have to, they listen to Slim because they respect him as a worker and as a person.