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In Of Mice and Men, what flaws does Crooks have?

Crooks is a pathetic figure because he is ostracized by the white workers and because he suffers chronic pain from his broken body. It seems inevitable that he would build up some resentment against fate and against humanity, but he cannot show it because he is at the very bottom of the social ladder. He could easily lose his job if anyone took a dislike to him, and he could even lose his life, as...

Crooks is a pathetic figure because he is ostracized by the white workers and because he suffers chronic pain from his broken body. It seems inevitable that he would build up some resentment against fate and against humanity, but he cannot show it because he is at the very bottom of the social ladder. He could easily lose his job if anyone took a dislike to him, and he could even lose his life, as Curley's wife intimates when she suggests that she could have him lynched if she accused him of attempting to rape her. This doesn't come out in the dialogue but the reader understands the implications and sees it clearly in the fear the girl produces in Crooks just by suggesting the power she possesses.


Crooks only dares to show his sadistic streak, which is his main flaw, when he is tormenting Lennie by hypothesizing that George might not come back from town. 



Crooks' face lighted with pleasure in his torture. "Nobody can't tell what a guy'll do," he observed calmly. "Le's say he wants to come back and can't. S'pose he gets killed or hurt so he can't come back."



Crooks, who is a victim of racial prejudice, also has a certain amount of prejudice himself. He shows this when he tells Lennie:



"They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, all of you stink to me."



Steinbeck liked people, but he didn't have any illusions about them, and he wasn't sentimental. He was an extremely democratic and sociable man. He shows this very clearly in his book Travels with Charley (1962), in which he writes about how he traveled all over America in a house-trailer with the purpose of meeting all different kinds of American people.


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