Of_Mice_and_Men

Of Mice and Men After reading the book I have decided to write my book report on one of the characters of the story, Crooks. Through him, the subject of racism and segregation is presented. He first appears in the story on Chapter 3 to tell Slim that he had prepared the tar as Slim had asked him to do. Crooks also warns him about Lennie, who had been handling the puppies too much. That’s the all the information we get from him at first. Since I sympathized with Lennie a lot as I think it was the author’s purpose to do so, I got the feeling that Steinbeck also wanted to deviate the reader’s compassion away from Crooks. Then we get to know a lot more bout him on Chapter 4 in which he is the main character. The writer depicts him as being aloof and we get the idea that he is not a nice fellow. Lennie goes to his room to have the opportunity to pet his puppies a little, and Crooks receives him with much indifference. Later, he starts to torture Lennie about telling him how George would abandon him forever. He does not stop having fun at Lennie until he get somewhat scared by what that huge man could do to him. At that moment, readers feel really disgusted by Crooks and it seems like it was meant to be like taht. When Candy comes, there is a turning point in relation to what readers might feel in towards Crooks. Steinbeck now depicts him as a lonely person and by the characters lines we learn that he suffers a lot not being able to talk to the white workers or to play games with them even a little bit. What he has are books and all that is due to his color. Crooks also mentions his childhood, how he would play with white kids and how they would be nice to him although his father did not like it at all. Afterwards, he gets very bitter and tells Lennie how he will never live in the piece of land he was talking about and how that dream is only in the workers’ minds. He also makes a statement about other people not having the right to go to his room without his permission. That seems to be the only right he has and he tries to stick to it. Steinbeck then seems to play with the readers’ feelings, making them like and dislike Crooks from time to time. Then, Candy comes and the three characters talk a little bit. Crooks finally surrenders to the feeling that that could be a future friendship he even asks if he could join them on that piece of land they have dreamed about. And finally, Curley’s wife passes by and starts talking to Crooks, Lennie, and Candy. They knew she was looking for trouble and Crooks is the one to tell her that she should go away or he would ask the boss not to let her go to the farm anymore. She gets very irritated and calls him nigger. He suddenly goes back to reality and sees that it would be impossible for him to have white friends or to ever fulfill a dream such as having his own place and live peacefully. She then says the cruelest lines she could have ever told him: “Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” After that, Crooks is not so courageous as he was when talking to Curley’s wife and he seems to accept his destiny, as a black man who has no right to anything but to have his own room filled with books in which he can order white people not to come in. At this point, the writer manages to capture the total readers’ compassion to this character,