What do we learn about the life on the ranch from the portrayal of Crooks In the novel 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck.

Coursework – What do we learn about the life on the ranch from the portrayal of Crooks?

In the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck we learn about the daily life of the black stable-buck – Crooks and how he is portrayed by the life on the ranch.

American people in the 1930s were in the midst of a Great depression. ‘The Great Depression’ affected everybody. Many people became unemployed and work that was available was hard to find. During the Great Depression, the Wall Street Crash, which was the collapse of the stock market. The shareholders lost lots of money and found it necessary to reduce the number of employed to save money. Between 1928 and 1933, industrial and farm production fell by 40% and wages by 60%. In 1933 14 million were unemployed and farm prices had fallen, so the cost of transporting animals cost more than the animals were worth and the income slipped to $5 billion. Therefore, for the white worker life was exceptionally hard.

Also in the 1930s, black people suffered from racial prejudice. This made the blacks feel worthless and they did not mix with the whites. The cause of this prejudice was the reminisce of the slave trade which happened in the 18th and 19th century. White Americans considered the blacks as worthless and treated them as lowly citizens, perhaps comparable to that of animals. When people saw sense the law changed and the slave trade was stopped. In edition to the effects of the Great Depression, and the inequality white workers suffered is the issue of racial prejudice.

In the novel, John Steinbeck creates a character called Crooks. He excludes himself from the white workers because of the racial prejudice he has suffered in the past. Crooks lives in the harness room instead of the bunk house with the white workers, this is the result of many years of racial prejudice and exclusion.

‘…had his bunk in the harness room…’

Crooks is a tall old black man with a crooked back. He has no friends in the ranch because he is only the black man and the white workers don’t like to mix with ...

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‘…had his bunk in the harness room…’

Crooks is a tall old black man with a crooked back. He has no friends in the ranch because he is only the black man and the white workers don’t like to mix with him.

‘…guys don’t come into a colored man’s room very

much.’

Crooks is permanent to the ranch as the others are not, so over the years he has picked up more possessions. As he lives in his own room he can also have more things than the other workers and he can leave all his objects on the floor. The result of an accident made his back go cripple, this meant it was hard to travel and this helped to gain personal possessions.

‘…scattered about the floor were a number of personal

possessions…’

‘…being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more

permanent…’

As Crooks was cripple he felt intimidated so he had a shot gun in his room. Although it could be used for shooting vermin and for his job, but it might also be used for the intimidation of other people.

‘…and a single-barreled shotgun.’

In the novel it tells us that Crooks has lots of books, this includes the Californian civil rights book. These books seem to comfort him as he has no friends. The civil rights book shows us that he knows his rights and knows how he should be treated

‘…a mauled copy of the Californian civil rights code for

1905.’

In addition to Crook’s loneliness and isolation the dialogue between Crooks and Lennie is tight and Crooks seems to be angry at Lennie for coming into his room to be friendly.

‘…you got no right to come in my room…’

‘you go on get outta my room.’

Crooks also might be afraid of Lennie. This might be because Lennie is a big man and he does not know his own strength.

‘…a huge man…’

‘He stood up and moved dangerously towards Crooks.’

Whilst Crooks and Lennie are talking Crooks makes Lennie get angry because he said that George might not come back. Lennie relies on George for everything and he would not like it if George left him.

‘S’pose George don’t come back no more.’

` George wouldn’t do nothing like that. I been with

George a long time. He’ll come back tonight –`

Lennie has a very babyish mind and can really only talk about one thing. He gets obsessions. Like when he was talking to Crooks, he would not stop talking about what George and him are going to do when they get enough money and slims pups that he likes.

‘The rabbits we’re gonna get, and I get to tend’ em…’

‘…How long do you think it’ll be before them pups will be old enough to pet?’

Crooks thinks it funny to discriminate Lennie because of his simple mind. This is because Lennie relies on George and Crooks has picked up on it and calls him names.

‘Your crazy as a wedge.’

‘Jus’ talks, an you don’t understand nothing.’

Besides Crooks experiencing loneliness another character in the novel Curley’s wife also experiences it because she is the only woman in the ranch. Curley’s wife admits to Lennie that she is lonely and that she only wants someone to talk to.

‘I get lonely.’

The reason why she is lonely is because she lives in a patriarchal society. The male dominated society means that when she is bored she flirts with all the men and they think that she is always giving them the eye.

‘I seen her give slim the eye.’

Today, there is still an issue on racism. In the fifties and the sixties a lot of icons have come forward to fight the rights of inequality. Some of the main ones are Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. Martin Luther King fought in the non violence matter and Malcolm X fought in the violence matter. Although they both fought for freedom. Here is a piece from his speech:

‘I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live

out the true meaning of it’s creed: ‘We hold these truths to be

self-evident; that all men are created equal.’

To the present day people have died through racism, but it is not so much an issue. People have been brought up to treat everyone as equals, although there are a small minority that don’t. This shows that the 1930’s were prone to racism and loneliness among blacks and that nowadays there is little.