Of Mice and Men
Scene #5 · Chapter 4
In his room, Crooks initially exercises his small power by denying Lennie entry, then lets him in and cruelly suggests that George might not return from town, asking what Lennie would do if George abandoned him. Lennie becomes frightened and threatening, and Crooks quickly backs down. Crooks then reveals his own isolation as the only Black man on the ranch, describing his childhood when he played with white children and his current loneliness with no one to talk to. He admits that a man needs someone to be near him or "he gets sick."
Crooks's taunting reveals how loneliness has made him cruel, wanting others to feel his pain, while his quick retreat shows his vulnerability in the ranch's racial hierarchy. His confession about needing companionship articulates the novel's central theme that isolation damages people fundamentally. The scene parallels other characters' loneliness and shows how the ranch's social structure creates multiple forms of powerlessness.
"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya," he cried, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."
Chapter 4 · Crooks
A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so.
Chapter 4 · Crooks
They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog.
Chapter 4 · Crooks
S’pose George don’t come back no more. S’pose he took a powder and just ain’t coming back. What’ll you do then?
Chapter 4 · Crooks
"I ain’t a southern negro," he said. "I was born right here in California. My old man had a chicken ranch, ’bout ten acres. The white kids come to play at our place, an’ sometimes I went to play with them, and some of them was pretty nice. ..."
Chapter 4 · Crooks