Racism

Question 1

Curley’s wife

Answer 1

• Curley’s wife: ‘I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”
• Crooks is at the bottom of the ranch hierarchy and Curley’s wife reminds him, Crooks is the only POC on the ranch and so racism like this isn’t uncommon
• ‘strung up on a tree’ is a reference to the lynchings, carried out by white supremacy groups such as the Klu Klux Klun who were very active in South America during the Great Depression
• It is clear that Steinbeck has used Crooks’ interaction with Curley’s wife as a microcosm of the fear POC lived in during the Great Depression and how white supremacists (represented by Curley’s wife) wouldn’t hesitate to carry out these acts due to the biased courts of America which gave them little or no repercussions when they committed these awful crimes.
• A reader would therefore feel an increased sympathy for Crooks, knowing how helpless he is in this Situation

Question 2

Through crooks’ reputation

Answer 2

• its normalised for Crooks to be used as a scape goat due to his race, ‘boss gives him hell when he’s mad’
• immediately shows normalisation through boss being ‘pretty nice fella’
• Crooks’ immediate reputation shows he isn’t respected due to his race

Question 3

Racism causing isolation for Crooks

Answer 3

• Crooks is physically separated from the other ranch members because of his race.
• This literal isolation makes him angry and bitter towards people when they approach
• Curly’s wife invades his room and he tells her not to “come into a coloured man’s room.”
• he only embraces loneliness for protection and saftey, however it is a vicious cycle,
• ‘I tell ya a guy get too lonely an’ he gets sick’