Of Mice and Men - Essay 12

Crooks Crooks is a Negro stable buck. He lives alone and he is often discriminated because he is black and because he is a cripple. He lives in the harness room and his house is well swept with the occasional books and magazines on the floor. On page 99 it says that he keeps his distance from people and that he demands that other people keep theirs. From this we can determine that he is a very secluded man and he likes his privacy, however we also learn later on that he is very lonely. Lennie goes into Crook' house after going to see his puppy but it is made clear that he is not welcome. Crooks scowls at Lennie and tells him to get out of his room but Lennie is persistent and begins to ask Crooks questions. After a while Crooks says, "Come on in and sit a while." Lennie then becomes the first person to enter Crooks' house apart from the boss. They start talking for a while and Crooks begins to tell Lennie about how he was discriminated as a child, but Lennie is still thinking about the rabbits and eagerly tries to change the subject. Then on page 103 Crooks begins to put worrying thoughts into Lennies head by saying "S'pose George don't come back no more?" This is the first nasty thing that we have seen Crooks do and Lennie immediately becomes worried about what Crooks has just said. He replies by saying "He won't do it...He'll come back tonight." Crooks realises that he found a sort of soft spot with Lennie and continues to torture him in this way. He remains calm and says "S'pose he gets killed." This really confuses Lennie and he doesn't understand what Crooks is saying. Crooks continues to scare Lennie until he stands up and menacingly walks over towards Crooks. Crooks can immediately see the danger and retorts back to saying "George ain't hurt. He'll be back alright." Crooks whines to Lennie that he hasn't got any friends because he is black and how he is forced to read books because he hasn't got anybody to stand by him and listen to what he is saying. Lennie...