Of mice and men In 'Of Mice And Men,' all the characters have different problems, whether they are physical, mental or personal. Although the two characters who I feel have the most problems are Crooks and George. Crooks, the black stable buck is forever being pick on by the other men at the ranch, mostly because of his colour. In the time in which the book was set, black people in America were thought of as lower than white people. At the ranch, Crooks cannot live in the bunk-house with all the other men, but he has to sleep in the harness room, at the back of the barn. In this room he is surrounded by all the unused horse tack, and therefore has hardly any space for his personal belongings. Crooks is given no privacy, and gets quite cross because he is not allowed to enter the bunk-house but the other men can just walk into his room. In the book he says to Lennie, "You've no right to come into my room, nobody
got any right in here but me." After he has talked to Lennie for a while, he starts to enjoy having someone to talk to, because when he is in his room by himself, there is no one he can talk with. I think that he likes talking to Lennie because he realized that Lennie is slow, so Crooks can say what he wants and Lennie will not remember anything. To get the other men back for teasing him, he becomes very sour when they enter his room, and as he passes the other men he ignores them, as a ...
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got any right in here but me." After he has talked to Lennie for a while, he starts to enjoy having someone to talk to, because when he is in his room by himself, there is no one he can talk with. I think that he likes talking to Lennie because he realized that Lennie is slow, so Crooks can say what he wants and Lennie will not remember anything. To get the other men back for teasing him, he becomes very sour when they enter his room, and as he passes the other men he ignores them, as a pay back for the names they call him. Although I do feel that Crooks gets extremely lonely. All day long he is on his own, he cannot work because he has a crooked back, from once being kicked by a horse, so he has to stay behind at the ranch and generally look after the place. When he was abused by Curley, he cannot answer back, because Curley is the Boss' son, and he knows that if he gets fired, he will probably not get another job because of his disability. The other man who I think has a lot of problems is George. He has to take Lennie with him everywhere, although, Lennie often gets into trouble and this gets George into trouble too. Without Lennie around him George could have such a good life, "God almighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job and work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come, I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want." This shows that without Lennie with him, causing trouble, he could keep a good job, and spend his time in the way he wants to, without having to think about anyone else. Although I do think that George likes Lennie, as he is always there to talk to and to share dreams with, they are obviously very close, but George does get annoyed with him, especially because Lennie finds it hard to remember things, such as where they are traveling to. Although he does seem to remember every bad word George says about him. When George talks of the 'little place' they're going to get, his face lights up and he really enjoys seeing Lennie happy and even though George is stuck with Lennie, he still likes having him there. When George is talking to Slim, in the book, he tries to cover up for Lennie's mistakes in Weed, as he knows that Lennie would never hurt anyone on purpose. At the end of the book when George shoots Lennie he knew that he had to kill him. I think that partly the reason for this is because George knows that Lennie will be shot any way, but if he did it, it would be out of love and protection, and not revenge and hatred. George also knows that he cannot go on with Lennie, always running away from some kind of trouble that Lennie has caused, and the incident at the ranch was probably the last straw. Out of the two men described, I think that the person with the most problems is George. In the first part of the book, he always had Lennie with him, making things very difficult for him to have any privacy or time for himself. Lennie prevented him from ever keeping a job, and this often got him into trouble. At the end of the book, when George shot Lennie, he felt awful, because he was killing his best, and probably only friend. George would always live with the memory of Lennie, and the memory of how he shot him. All throughout the book George was telling Lennie that the other guys on these ranches move from place to place, having nobody. Now George would be like these other guys, but before he and Lennie. I think that George has more problems than Crooks, because in America in those times, all black people were treated lower than whites. Crooks cannot help this problem, because wherever he goes, he would receive the same kind of abuse. Another disadvantage Crooks has, is his crooked back, but again, he cannot help this so he did not create the problem. I feel very sorry for George, as he and Lennie have been through so much together, at some times, he wished that he never had to stay with Lennie, but now everything it over for him and he wants Lennie back.
