What Do We Learn About Crooks in Section 4? How Does He Help the Reader Understand the Lives of People in 1930’s America?
What do we learn about Crooks in Section 4? How does he help the reader understand the lives of people in 1930’s America?
‘Of Mice and Men’ is a novel with strong themes of unfulfilled dreams, prejudice and loneliness, which are exposed within the extract, through the ranch’s resident stable-buck - Crooks. The themes that feature in the novel relate directly to the era in which it is set; that of 1930’s America. This was a time of mass unemployment across the country, with itinerant workers, such as the characters at the centre of the plot, becoming far from uncommon. The extract predominantly consists of dialogue between Crooks, Lennie and Candy, as they sit in the unlikely setting of Crooks’ room, adjacent to the stables. Prior to Section 4, only second hand information is provided about Crooks, mainly told through Candy’s accounts of past events. However, the reader’s preconceptions of the character are shattered somewhat upon meeting him properly, as we learn that perhaps Candy does not fully understand the man. Crooks embodies many of the novel’s themes, as he is very much alone on the ranch, and represents those who were discriminated against within the microcosm created by Steinbeck.
At the beginning of the extract Crooks is more than pessimistic of the dream that Lennie describes, seeing it as idealistic and over ambitious. He is very cynical of the dream, saying that he has ‘ “seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand.” ’ Crooks represents the rational man of the time, as he recognises that he has seen many men arrive and leave the ranch, all with wonderful dreams filling their hearts, but no way of achieving it. He appears to be a part of a small minority of ranch workers that were able to distinguish dreams from reality and you get the impression that he has never believed in the American Dream, and never will. He knows that he has a job for life, as he was injured on the ranch, whereas the other men
‘Of Mice and Men’ is a novel with strong themes of unfulfilled dreams, prejudice and loneliness, which are exposed within the extract, through the ranch’s resident stable-buck - Crooks. The themes that feature in the novel relate directly to the era in which it is set; that of 1930’s America. This was a time of mass unemployment across the country, with itinerant workers, such as the characters at the centre of the plot, becoming far from uncommon. The extract predominantly consists of dialogue between Crooks, Lennie and Candy, as they sit in the unlikely setting of Crooks’ room, adjacent to the stables. Prior to Section 4, only second hand information is provided about Crooks, mainly told through Candy’s accounts of past events. However, the reader’s preconceptions of the character are shattered somewhat upon meeting him properly, as we learn that perhaps Candy does not fully understand the man. Crooks embodies many of the novel’s themes, as he is very much alone on the ranch, and represents those who were discriminated against within the microcosm created by Steinbeck.
At the beginning of the extract Crooks is more than pessimistic of the dream that Lennie describes, seeing it as idealistic and over ambitious. He is very cynical of the dream, saying that he has ‘ “seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand.” ’ Crooks represents the rational man of the time, as he recognises that he has seen many men arrive and leave the ranch, all with wonderful dreams filling their hearts, but no way of achieving it. He appears to be a part of a small minority of ranch workers that were able to distinguish dreams from reality and you get the impression that he has never believed in the American Dream, and never will. He knows that he has a job for life, as he was injured on the ranch, whereas the other men