The Portrayal of Crooks in ‘Of Mice and Men’

The Portrayal of Crooks in
‘Of Mice and Men’
In today’s lesson you will:
 explore
the issue of racism in 1930s America
think about the character of Crooks in this context
 decide why the character of Crooks was so important
in the novel as a whole
Steinbeck’s characters refer to Crooks using the
following words:
nigger
A busted back
nigger
The stable buck
cripple
negro
What does this tell us about them?
Steinbeck himself describes Crooks using the
following words:
A lean negro head,
lined with pain, the
eye patient
A face lined with
deep black
wrinkles
A proud, aloof
man
Having “pain
tightened lips”
What does this tell us about Steinbeck?
Crooks himself, conveys a lot about his character.
I can’t play because I’m black
Nobody got any right in here but me
My old man had a chicken ranch
Crooks face lighted with pleasure in his torture
If you … guys would want a hand to work for nothing
I got nothing to measure by
Read this description of Crooks’ room.
What do we learn about him from the room itself, its
position on the ranch and its contents?
Crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that
leaned off the wall of the barn. On one side of the little room there was a square
four-paned window, and on the other, a narrow plank door leading into the barn.
Crooks’ bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung. On
the wall by the window there were pegs on which hung broken harness in process
of being mended; strips of leather; and under the window itself a little bench for
leather-working tools, curved knives and needles and balls of linen thread, and a
small hand riveter. On pegs were also pieces of harness, a split collar with a
horsehair stuffing sticking out, a broken hame, and a trace chain with its leather
covering split. Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine
bottles, both for himself and for the horses. There were cans of saddle soap and a
drippy can of tar with its paint brush sticking over the edge. And scattered about the
floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being a stable buck and a cripple,
he was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more
possessions than he could carry on his back.
What do we learn about him from his possessions?
Crooks possessed several pairs of shoes, a pair of rubber boots, a big alarm clock
and a single-barreled shotgun. And he had books, too; a tattered dictionary and a
mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905. There were battered magazines
and a few dirty books on a special shelf over his bunk. A pair of large gold-rimmed
spectacles hung from a nail on the wall above his bed.
The description of Crooks’ room and Crooks himself is the most detailed of all the
characters in the novel. What significance do you think this has?
What was life like for black people in 1930s America?
It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white person
The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be
conducted separately
Books shall not be interchangeable between white and coloured schools
No person shall provide meals to white and coloured passengers in the same
room, same table or same counter
Any place of public entertainment shall separate the races
It shall be unlawful for coloured people to frequent any park used and enjoyed by
white people
The ‘Jim Crow’ Laws
Lynch Mobs
During the 1930s, after thousands of African Americans had been put to
death by mobs, lynchings were no longer unusual or shocking events that
deviated from the norm.
Approximately 4,742 individuals were lynched between 1882 and 1968; of
the victims, 3,445 or 73 percent were Black.
Between 1889 and 1918, 3,224 individuals were lynched, of whom 2,522 or
78 percent were Black.
Typically, the victims were hung or burned to death by mobs of White
vigilantes, frequently in front of thousands of spectators, many of whom
would take pieces of the dead person's body as souvenirs to help
remember the spectacular event.
Statistics do not tell the entire story, however. These
were recorded lynchings; others were never reported
beyond the community involved. Furthermore, mobs
used especially sadistic tactics when blacks were the
prime targets. By the 1890s lynchers increasingly
employed burning, torture, and dismemberment to
prolong suffering and excite a "festive atmosphere"
among the killers and onlookers.
So, what did Curley’s wife mean when she said “You
know what I can do if you open your trap?”
Image:en.wikipedia.org
Mage: digitaljournalist.org
Image: 1.bp.blogspot.com/.../s320/Lynching.jpg
Real people, real lives.
In
Chicago, Emmett Till, a 14 year old
black boy, was beaten and shot to death
for whistling at a white girl..
Questions to consider:
Did Steinbeck create the character of Crooks to simply represent a downtrodden
section of society or is there more significance to his character?
Why does Crooks become bitter and vindictive when talking to Lennie?
How does the scene in Crooks’ room act as a microcosm for the novel as a whole?
In what ways can Crooks’ position be compared to that of Curley’s wife?
Crooks says,
"I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles
on their back an'...every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head.
An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven.
Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'...Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody
gets no land. They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their head".
Why is he so dismissive of others’ dreams?
In today’s lesson you:
 explored
the issue of racism in 1930s America
thought about the character of Crooks in this context
 made some decisions about why the character of
Crooks was so important in the novel as a whole