I believe that two of the most important characters in Of Mice and Men are Crooks and Curley’s Wife. This is because they do not just play a vital role in the œstoryline but they tell the audience so much about the society in which the book is set, how they were treated and the attitudes of other towards them.
Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and because of this he is treated extremely different and abused on a daily basis with violence as well as racism.
Firstly Crooks is segregated in the barn and has his own room, he is casually referred to as “nigger” and beaten up for fun by the other ranchmen. If any of those were to happen in today’s society now it would be seen as extremely racist and be very offensive. The comparison shows the severity of the racial discrimination of 1930’s America. …show more content…
He is very lonely and does not have any friends because he is excluded from the chat and companionship of the ranchmen in the bunkhouse. Also, Crooks does not once enter the bunkhouse “the stable buck put his head in”. The novella refers him to be “a proud, aloof man” because he had no choice but to endure the discrimination, prejudice and isolation. As a result Crooks very bitterly guards his privacy confronting Lenny who is oblivious of Crooks situation. “This here’s my room… I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my