Later on Page 70 and 73 when Crooks opens up to Lennie about his childhood on his father’s farm, he becomes reminiscent of when he used to play along with the white kids without being teased or excluded for his skin-colour and this illustrates to the reader that Crooks misses those old days and longs for them to have stayed true, to be of equal status with the ‘other’ people yet it’s an unachievable goal. The fact that Crooks, ‘went on dreamily’ when returning to his childhood on Page 73 makes the reader realise that his memories are the only thing that keeps him mentally going because of his longing to return to the plain and equal life he used to live.
Crooks further unravels his emotion on page 71 and 72 in a way that he reverses the ethnic discrimination towards Lennie instead of himself. Steinbeck writes, ‘‘Crooks’ face lightened with pleasure in his torture’’ to convey that Crooks wants to know what it feels like to tease someone who is socially and ethnically privileged during the 1930’s and he seems to take a liking to teasing the unaware Lennie who’s power and strength is suddenly underestimated by Crooks as he was not part of the previous events with Curley and Lennie in the last chapter because he would not have been allowed to enter the ranch house without being shooed off by the non-emotional Carlson or any other ranch men who show no respect to Crooks. This adds further loneliness to Crooks as he doesn’t get to be part of anything that takes place around the ranch.
The effects of being alone and discriminated for all this time reflects a new negative emotion from Crooks at the bottom of Page 73 where he denies any possible dream that Lennie see to be true by saying, ‘‘...an’ every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn on on ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven…Nobody gets to heaven’’. This sudden out lash of Crook’s negative opinions tells the reader that he has turned cold and sour over the years of being alone and having no one to talk to. He talks negatively on a religious scale as well saying that no one ever gets to heaven, this channels the message that Crooks feels nothing for religion and it’s only a lost dream just like the American Dream Lennie and George are thinking of.
When Candy appears on Page 74 Steinbeck changes Crooks current emotion to pleasure because the dramatic increase in positive communication towards other people (especially of the opposite skin-colour) in Crook’s minimal lifestyle. He writes, ‘‘It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger’’ and yet more loneliness is shown here by Crooks because he is cordoned off by his own ‘rights’ to have no other person compromise his living quarters but he is more reassured now so surely that raises Crooks emotion to happiness because of his (so called) ‘instant popularity’. But as we know this ‘popularity’ eventually fades away but Crooks is too overjoyed to be aware of it.
When Candy blurts out the plan to leave the ranch and move into their own place just him, Lennie and George, Crooks can’t help but feel that his own shattered dream ,which he dismissed to be impossible, could become true and that he could finally live an easy life like he did when he was a child; not being discriminated, not being lonely, have companionship. This appeals to Crooks in special way where he actually builds up the courage to ask Candy and Lennie if he could work aside them on the farm doing odd-jobs. And the way Steinbeck writes to make Crooks seem eager yet hesitant from the way he speaks, ‘‘…If you…guys would want a hand to work for nothing-just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand…’’ to show that he has literally taken in all his pride to ask for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Crooks cannot refuse if it means making his dream come true.
However this finally possible dream falls to pieces when Curley’s Wife enters the scene from Page 76-81 and causes a havoc among Candy and Crooks while Lennie is still in his own world of rabbits and watching the argument between one another fire up. On Page 77 Curley’s Wife also wishes for someone to talk to and is in the same position as Crooks, their lonely. This is seen when she says, ‘‘ Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while’’. Later when the feud between Candy and Curley’s Wife gets to its maximum, Crooks suddenly changes his emotion to anger through a build-up in confidence from Candy’s stand up to her and the fact that she stands in the way of his dream becoming reality. He tries to overpower her by using the little rights he has. He saying, ‘‘You got no right comin’ in a coloured man’s room. You got no rights messing around in here at all’’ to convey a sort of Last-Resort situation in order to quell her away.
But of course the harsh reality of feminine power over masculine power hit Crooks and he realises that he (as the saying goes) ‘Got too much what he bargained for’. As a result, Curley’s Wife releases a flurry of serious racism and threatening remarks onto Crooks which Steinbeck writes, ‘‘Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego-nothing to arouse either like or dislike’’ This is the sudden realisation to Crooks that he will never achieve his dreams because there will always be something holding him back. The immediate reminding to Crooks of his skin-colour and his social placing on the ranch tells that he has no right to shout at a white person (especially a woman) and how easy she could get him in trouble even without evidence. The reader feels direct empathy for Crooks and the large-variety of emotions he has been through during a couple of minutes but now he feels cold and literally as Steinbeck described, ‘’…nothing’’’
In the end, Crooks is stripped of his pride and decides to back out of the plan with Candy and Lennie because Curley’s Wife reminded him of his place and how his dream will never come true. He will always be lonely. He will die lonely and the reader cant help but feel sad for Crooks knowing that he will be discriminated for the rest of his life and not be reminded of the life he used to know as a child. Crooks uses his remaining rights he has to hint to Candy and Lennie that they should just leave and let hime be; this is shown on Page 81 which Crooks says ‘‘A coloured man got to have rights even if he don’t like ’em’’. The scene finally ends with Crooks by himself in his room to seem as if that whole scene had never happened because his emotions have returned to what they were before Lennie had even disrupted him. His final actions of rubbing his back gives the message to the reader that that is all Crooks will ever do for the rest of his life. Be lonely.
