Of Mice And Men Crooks Loneliness Essay

Many people tend to experience loneliness at least one point in their life; sometimes it makes a huge impact. In John Steinbeck’s book “Of Mice and Men”, one of my many obvious characters that experience loneliness is Crooks. Crooks is lonely because he is African American, he distances himself from the other men, and he comes off a bit too strong. One of the reasons he is lonely is because he is African American during the 1930’s. “’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, all of you stink to me” (Steinbeck 68). The characters main problem with his loneliness is that none of the other men will talk to him just because of his skin colour. During the Great Depression, people still view black people as slaves and they are “not worthy” to talk to the white people. Of course racism was still going on and it makes a huge impact on Crooks and how he is around people. He is lonely mainly because of his race and that is nothing he can fix. Crooks is discriminated
“You got no right to come in my room. This here’s my room. Nobody got any right in here but me” (Steinbeck 68). Lennie enters his room during this quote; he is not meaning any trouble. Crooks starts being protective of his room and that causes him to be a bit mean. His protectiveness came from his father when they used to live on a farm. When Crooks was a child, his father was afraid the white neighbors were going to take their home away from them. Crooks has that same reaction when it comes to his room and his belongings in his room. The white men of the farm can take anything from his room and they wouldn’t get in trouble for it. Crooks comes off a bit strong at first because of his protectiveness and his trust issues. This character coming off too strong drives people away and that’s one of the reasons for his