Sympathy For Crooks In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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From time to time we all have sympathy for one another, it's an emotion that makes us who we are as humans. I for one feel bad for homeless people who don't have a family to call their own. I have recently felt sympathy for made up characters in a book who don't exist in reality but exist within our hearts and minds. The book I am talking about is, “Of Mice and Men”; by John Steinbeck. While reading, “ Of Mice and Men”, I tried to envision every character's scenario and predicament they were in to determine who deserves the most sympathy. One character that stood out to me the most was a man by the name of Crooks. Crooks being black and disabled means he gets if not any freedom. The book went on to say that, “scattered about the floor were …show more content…
I already talked about him in the introduction, but let's dive down to see what his life is like from his perspective. Imagine you are entitled or basically enslaved to work on a vegetable field. While working on the farm you find sanctuary in your little barn stable house, where you sleep on hay. Every day when you work you are looked down upon and people treat you as an animal. People treat you like curley's wife did when she walked into the barn and you faced her “ I have had enough,” (80) you say coldly. “ you got no rights to come in here”(80). Then curley's wife defiled you with the term nigger when she replied saying, “ Listen nigger you know what I can do to you if you open your trap (80)?” This is just one of the many examples as to why I would give Crooks the stable buck a one on sympathy.

Sympathy is only felt within your heart when you feel the pain from another just by gazing your eyes upon them or hearing their stories. While reading the book I didn't get to actually see them in person but I got to hear their stories. When crooks said “A guy needs somebody-to be near him, A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody”(72), I realized that out of all the characters he is the most lonesome. This being said my sympathy goes from crooks to Curley's wife to