Section Four Flashcards
“A p, a m.”
“A proud, aloof man.”
Description of Crooks.
“T, p-t l.”
“Thin, pain tightened lips.”
Crooks appears to have had a life marred with pain which is reflected in his appearance.
C: “Y g n r t c i m r.”
Crooks: “you got no right to come in my room.”
Crooks is very hostile to everyone else on the ranch as he has been hardened by the abuse they throw at him.
C: “I c p b I b. T s I s.”
Crooks: “I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink.”
The racist nature of the other men on the ranch has driven Crooks into hiding.
C: “I a a s n.”
Crooks: “I ain’t a southern negro.”
The way black people were treated very much depended on where you come from. Crooks is from the north where racism wasn’t as bad so he knows a life without the racism he now lives with.
C: “I I s s, w i j a n s i.”
Crooks: “If I say something, why it’s just a nigger sayin’ it.”
The opinions of black Americans were totally discarded as they were treated as below everyone else.
“C f l w p i h t.”
“Crooks’s face lighted with pleasure in his torture.”
Crooks knows that he can take advantage of Lennie and lies to him in order to provoke a reaction. He appears to find this fun.
“C s t d a i a h. H e b o h b”
“Crooks saw the danger as it approached him. He edged back on his bunk”
Crooks ends up getting scared of Lennie and so stops teasing him. He knows when he has lost.
C: “B a n g […] A g g n i h a g n.”
Crooks: “Books ain’t no good […] A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.”
Crooks says that although he has kept himself educated this isn’t nearly enough to keep his sanity. His bitter nature is a product of being cast aside.
C: “N e g t h, a n g n l.”
Crooks: “Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”
Crooks basically voices the message of the novel and foreshadows the ending. Crooks has seen lots of peoples’ dreams be crushed including his own so he has a down-to-Earth approach.
C: “A w h. T w y m g.”
Crooks: “A whore house. That’s where your money’s going.”
Crooks points out that Lennie and Candy’s dream stands no better chance than anyone else’s. His narrative role is to tell the reader to lower their expectations.
C: “W I c a l a h.”
Crooks: “Why Id come an’ lend a hand.”
When the dream is fully explained to Crooks, he offers to help initially. He withdraws his interest later though.
C w: “T I l t s i t h a t?”
Curley’s wife: “Think I like to stick in that house alla time?”
Curley’s wife voices how fed up she is that, as a woman, she is expected to stay at home all day. Also shows tension in her relationship with Curley.
C w: “Y k y p t, N. I c g y s u o a t s e i a e f.”
Curley’s wife: “you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”
Women are above blacks in the food chain. In the 30s lynchings were still a regular occurrence and those responsible seldom got prosecuted for it.
C: “C w c m q. I g s h a l o p t.”
Candy:”Curley’s wife can move quiet. I guess she had a lot of practice though.”
Presumably here Candy is insinuating that Curley’s wife is used to seeing several men at once and sneaking away from one to be with another…
