Omam: Crooks

His personality and his part in the novel?
Linking it with the 1930's?

Steinbeck uses Crooks to show the violence of racism and the loneliness it brings as a result. He is victim of prejudice because of his ethnicity which isolates him from others because of this he is naturally lonely and bitter about how his life has ended up “Cause I am back” treated like a animal though no fault of his own. He lives segregated, alone in an unglamorous 'little shed' away from the bunk house, with a 'manure pile' beneath his window. This shows how others treated him: as a animal. His name is not revealed just called Crooks because of his back.

This name could represent that 1930 American society is crooked or broken as human kindness is gone and shows the lack of respect he suffers His “range of medicines for himself and the horses” shows that he is no different than animals. The medicines could be a metaphor to show Crooks is ill from the unfairness of the world. Loneliness and Bitterness However, unlike Lennie who does not have the capability to understand his isolation from others Crooks suffers from being educated “mauled copy of the California Law Code” Therefore he understands why others think he is inconsequential. It could be argued that out of all the characters Crooks suffers the most. Surprisingly he decides to open up to Lennie about his experiences and his shattered dreams because Lennie would be unable to “remember it anyways” due to his disabilities. Crooks loneliness comes to light when he “leads forward excitably” to try and speak to another person. The extent of his bitterness comes to light when he torments Lennie over the disappearance of George leaving him very distressed. Crooks doesn’t do it to get back at Lennie but rather the society that Lennie as a white man has access to and he has been deprived off his entire lifetime. His bitterness clouds his judgement as he sees Lennie as having everything he ever wanted; freedom. Crooks seizes his opportunity to climb the power hierarchy and takes it.

When Candy and Lennie come in Crooks is happy “difficult to concerns his pleasure with anger`; “A guy go nuts if he an’t got nobody” “A coloured man got to have some rights even if he doesn’t like them”Shattered Dreams Crooks like all the other workers on the ranch had their dream, the American dream and lost it. This is furthered strengthen by Steinbeck by the use of the past tense “I remember when I was a kid” and when Lennie saids to Crooks that they are going to have a “strawberry patch” like the one Crooks lost he thinks there are “nuts” This shows the extent that Crooks has been broken by the cruel realities of life, his hope has been sucked out of him “I’ve seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land” However, Lennie brings a light into his life though his childhood innocence. A spark of fire which ignights his buried hope. This is all shattered by the arrival of Curley's wife and like before Crooks “reduces himself to nothing” and seemed to grow “smaller” This shows how little power Crooks has in comparison to the other workers.