1. intelligent
1.1. 'gold-rimmed spectacles'
1.1.1. a symbol of his intelligence
1.2. 'mauled copy of the california civil code of 1905'
1.2.1. both heavly used
1.2.1.1. rights are important to him
1.2.1.2. educates himself about his rights
1.2.1.2.1. this evokes sympathy for crooks whose desperate attempts at understand ing his rights seem futile when he is so poorly treated.
1.2.2. 'mauled'
1.2.2.1. might indicate his frustration/anger with the injustice of the law
1.3. 'tattered dictionary'
1.3.1. pottential for balck community
2. pessimistic/dream
2.1. 'small electric globe that through a meagre yellow light'
2.1.1. symbolises the little hope Crooks has in his life
2.2. 'nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land'
2.2.1. having seen men come and go with the same dream and failure. Crooks has become disillusioned by the american dream . Having been at the receiving end of the worst of humanity, Crooks has no faith in even God.
2.3. ''well jus' forget it,' said Crooks.
2.3.1. For a small moment he acc does jumo on this dream. Allows himself to only be seduced by the dream for a short moment.
2.3.1.1. CW had a long life dream
2.3.1.2. lennie and george have a dream
2.3.1.3. crooks cant afford to have a dream like that or hold onto a dream for very long
2.3.1.3.1. second class citizen
2.3.1.3.2. has been robbed of the ability to even dream.
2.3.1.3.3. doesn't have the privilage of mentally escaping the brutal life like the others do
2.3.1.4. american dream
2.3.1.4.1. important
2.4. ''I didn't mean it. Jus' foolin'. I wouldn' want to go on place like that.'
3. what is the point of crooks in this novella
3.1. wanted to highlight the mistreatment of black people
3.2. challenge the stereotypes of african-americans at the time as uneducated and ignorant
3.3. to shine a light on the brutality of the american society at the time
3.4. to call into question of a supposed christian country
3.4.1. 'no body gets to heaven'
3.5. challenge the concept of the american dream and whether it was truly for everyone
4. names
4.1. 'stablebuck'
4.2. 'nigger'
4.2.1. dehumanising treatment he recieves on the ranch
4.2.2. derogatry term
4.3. 'crooks'
5. mistreated
5.1. 'he give the stable buck hell'
5.1.1. boss uses crooks as a scapegoat
5.2. 'ya see the stable buck's a nigger'
5.2.1. racism is normalised from swiftly calling crooks a 'nigger' to describing him as a 'nice fella'
5.3. 'nice fella too'
5.4. 'got a crooked back where a horse kicked him in', 'thin, pain-tightened lips'
5.4.1. could be used to symbolise the crippling impact living in a prejudice society has on an individual
5.4.2. could be also used to symbolise the tough working conditions there were at the time
5.5. 'crooks bunk was a large box filled with straw'
5.5.1. further depictsdehumanising condition in which he lives
6. powerless
6.1. 'harness room'
6.1.1. segregated
6.1.2. lack of freedom
6.2. 'rattle of chains'
6.2.1. almost an echo of slavery
6.3. 'I could get you strung up on a tree so quickly it ain't even funny'
6.3.1. threat relates to lynching
6.3.2. CW is one of the weakest characters which means crooks is the most vunerable character
6.3.2.1. white woman would have more power than a black man
6.4. 'crooks had reduced himself to nothing... 'yes, ma'am' and his voice was stoneless'
7. isolated
7.1. 'a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn'
7.1.1. segregation
7.2. 'i tell ya a guy gets too lonenly an' he gets sick
7.2.1. describes the painful impact of his loneliness, drawing empathy from the reader
7.3. crooks isn't shown much in the novella outside of chapter 4 (when steinbeck was giving him a voice)
7.3.1. indicates his marginalisation
7.4. jim crow laws
7.4.1. were a number of laws were made that provided a legal basis for segragrating and discriminating black people
8. aloof
8.1. 'i don't the blame guy you travel with for keeping you outta sight' , 's'pose george don't come'
8.1.1. crooks seem to relish in upsettion lennie
8.1.2. steinbeck highlights how power is drawn from weakness
8.1.3. crooks uses this opportunity to expploit lennie's naivety to feel an ounce of power
8.2. 'you got no rights to come in my room' , 'He kept his distance and demanded that other people kept theirs'
8.2.1. keen to keep himsself to himself
8.2.1.1. pushes others away to protect himself
8.2.1.2. isolation has made him aloof
8.2.1.3. crooks protects his few rights he has and one of them is segregation ~ political act