Crooks is one of the characters met by George and Lennie in the ranch. We hear about Crooks before we actually meet him, because Candy, an old man, reduced to cleaning the bunkhouse after losing his hand in an accident at work, explains to George and Lennie that Crooks is: ”… a nigger…”.
When we finally meet him we understand that he is a racist in the same way white people are with him. He is not allowed in the bunk house because of his colour. He has a room just for himself because no one would actually share room with a ‘nigger’ in these times.
“Crooks possessed several pairs of shoes, a pairs of rubber boots, a big alarm clock, and a single barrelled shotgun… a copy of the Californian civil code for 1905.”
From this description of Crook’s belongings we understand that Crooks has been on the ranch for a long time. We also feel that he fears the other people on the ranch, that’s why he has a shotgun and a copy of the Californian Civil Code with him. Crooks protects his feelings by keeping to himself. He is from California and he knows his rights: no one can “abuse” him just because his skin colour is different. In fact when Lennie goes to “visit” him, Crooks demonstrates his prejudice against white people by attacking Lennie verbally. He tells Lennie that he knows his rights. Once again we see how much Crooks fears white people.
After a while he understands that Lennie is childlike and innocent, and he starts to be nicer to him. When Candy comes in, Lennie and Candy tell him about their ‘plan’ of the farm Crooks agrees, he even offers himself to work for free. The three are interrupted by Curley’s wife, who comes in pretending to look for her husband. Curley's wife reminds him that he has no hope of sharing the dream. When she finally leaves Crooks pretends that the offer was just a joke.
He knows that wherever he goes he will remain a ‘nigger’ and he will be treated like one.
Crooks is used in the novel as an exponent of racism during this period in the USA. He is left to work with horses mostly on his own: his social life is non-existent. Life on a ranch for a black person was lonely .
He has no one to share anything with, not even anyone to share his room with. Crooks is an example of what it is like to be different from anyone else. Because of his skin colour and also because of his back. In fact these two reasons make him different from the rest of the people in the ranch, in fact most of the people were white and able to work, without any physical problems.
He uses Crooks to express the feelings of loneliness, exclusion, racism and discrimination.
His aggression towards the “white world was something which had grown with time” he has to protect himself, all alone against other men who at least share the same background. He knows all about being treated differently since he was a child.
“…My old man had a chicken ranch, ‘bout ten acres. The white kids came to play at our place, some of them was nice and sometimes I went to play with them. My ol’ man didn’t like that. I never knew till long later why he didn’t like that. But I know now!”
Istvàn Szentkereszty de Zagon
