Of Mice And Men Crooks Loneliness

During the great depression many men were lonely as the went from job to job, never making stable relationships. One character in Of Mice and Men, Crooks, is especially lonely because he is the only negro on the farm. He is separated completely from all the white men except during work hours. He is not allowed to play cards or talk with them unless its work related. He even has to sleep with the animals in the barn instead of in the bunk house with all the white men. This causes Crooks to be unfriendly, lonely and to lose all hope. In John Steinberg’s Of Mice and Men, Crooks exemplifies the degrading effects of loneliness and segregation on men. Since Crooks is always separated from the group he has a negative attitude towards everyone who

When talking to Lennie he explains how the whole situation of not being allowed to sleep or hang out in the bunkhouse makes him feel lonely. So Lennie could understand how he felt, Crooks made Lennie believe that George wasn't coming back. Crooks then said to explain why he made Lennie believe George was gone he said, “S’pose you have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t play rummy ‘cause you was black. How’d that make you feel?” (Steinberg 72).He tries to make Lennie understand how he is feeling because it makes himself feel unwanted and unneeded. That just because of his color he cant have any interaction at all. He wants Lennie to feel sympathy for him and become his friend. Crooks then explains why everyone needs a companion by their side when saying, “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t Make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you” (Steinberg 72-73). Crooks is trying to make Lennie understand that without anyone he is lonely and bored of doing things all by himself. That his solo activities of reading and playing horseshoes wasn’t appeasing and he needed a companion before he went crazy. Crooks was the loneliest person on the farm but he could never change that because of his skin color. Since Crooks is so lonely he has no hope that he’ll ever have really have a friend again. He wishes things were like his childhood again. He says, “Had two brothers. They was always near me, always there” (Steinberg 73). He wants his childhood back because that was the only time in his life that he had companionship. Crooks misses having people always surrendering him like all the white men have in the bunkhouse. But now Crooks knows he will never have friendship until another black man comes. So he loses hope on ever having a companion with one of the white