Loneliness is a dominant theme in Of Mice and Men.

Most of the characters are lonely and searching for someone who can serve as a companion or just as an audience. Of Mice and Men is set in 1930s America in the middle of the economic depression. It is geared towards the pursuit of the American dream, promoting the ideas of equality, life, liberty and happiness. Steinbeck uses Crooks, and to some extent Curleys wife to challenge the perception of equality and sometimes the language used is, by modern standards, racist and misogynistic. There is an irony in the fact that the people judging Crooks are less intelligent than he is and they refuse to look at anything other than the stereotype of his ethnicity. Steinbeck reveals as much about Crooks in the things he does not express as in the things he does. The first reference to Crooks, is Curleys wife calling him in a highly derogatory manner Stable Buck- ooh sta-able Buck! (Steinbeck, 1937, p30). This is a left over from the time when black male slaves were referred to as Bucks. As this is after the American War of Independence, it is clear that Curleys wife views him as a slave and therefore, beneath her. The concept of equality does not exist in her treatment of Crooks. She follows this with what would be considered today as a very offensive, racist term. Steinbeck uses this deliberately to evoke sympathy for Crooks, a man so low down in the hierarchy, he does not even have his own name. He is de-personalised and is addressed in abusive terms. In the novel "Of Mice and Men" the character of Crooks is used by John Steinbeck, the author, to symbolise the marginalisation of the black community occurring at the time in which the novel is set. Crooks is also significant as he provides an insight into the reality of the American Dream and the feelings of all the ranchers: their loneliness and need for company and human interaction. The reader has to decide whether Crooks deserves sympathy, or if he is just a cruel, bitter and gruff stable-buck. Crooks is a black man, but at the time the novel was written, blacks were referred to as "niggers", meant as a white insult. Being a nigger, Crooks is ostracised by the whites at the ranch and he resents this. As he says (p. 74) "If I say something, why it's just a nigger sayin' it" and this shows his anger at being pushed to the side. Being oppressed has made him seem cruel and gruff, but also has turned him to self-pity and the notion that he is a lesser human. He says to Lennie (p. 72)"You got no right to come in my room.....You go on get outa my room. I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse and you ain't wanted in my room." He continues by saying that the whites believe he stinks and one can interpret this as a way of saying that the whites would find it a disgrace that a nigger should breathe the same bunkhouse air as them. "S'pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play rummy 'cause you was black...Sure, you could play horseshoes 'til dark, but then you have to read books." shows that Crooks pities his own circumstances and vulnerability. However (p. 73) "his tone was a little more friendly" and (p. 77) "I didn't mean to scare you" gives us the impression that Crooks has a kind heart under his blunt exterior.

Crooks brings into perspective the loneliness experienced by all the characters in "Of Mice and Men" by saying (p. 77) "Sure, you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs someone to be near him. A guys 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, a guy gets too lonely, an' he gets sick." He is telling of the need for human interaction, the need for company and the need for someone to care and provide security. The oppression Crooks experiences in living in a barn and not in the bunkhouse where he could play rummy as one of the group leads him to this desperate plea to be realised as equal. Just because when he cuts himself, the blood he bleeds is looked upon as different from a white perspective, this does not mean he is not entitled to benefit