Blobs: Race and Crooks Curley Essay

Submitted By noodleeaters909
Words: 316
Pages: 2

Steinbeck presents Crooks as a man of his own privacy who demands his own rights. ‘He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs’. Crooks perhaps does this to prevent him from being ‘crooked’ anymore. Crooked from the society that he does not fit into. The society that has crippled him ‘’permanent[ly]’.
We are told about Crooks isolated accommodation, and the way he had been separated from the rest of the society due to the fact that he is not of a white ethnicity. “A little shed that leaned of the wall of the barn” the use of word “shed” shows the reader that he is not allowed to live in the bunk house with the rest of the artillery workers, and that he has been physically isolated from any companionship, this brings up the theme of loneliness and the profound desire of companionship and friendship with other workers on the ranch. ‘Looking’ for someone. Similar to Curley’s Wife. That Crooks perhaps would rather live in a benevolent society, not a prejudice one.
Steinbeck writes ‘on pegs were also pieces of harness, a split collar…, a broken hame, and a trace chain with its leather covering split.’ All of the objects are described by broken or tired adjectives ‘pieces’ ‘broken’ and ‘split’. These adjectives could be symbolising what the slavery could have done to black people, implying suffering. All of these objects that have deteriorated over the years could be symbolising Crooks mental state as well as his physical state- he is a broken man. Along with…