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Please take some time to post two responses to Of Mice and Men before you return to class on January 4. Each post should be at least 100 words long and should include direct references to the text you are discussing. Even if you are responding to a quote in the prompt, you should bolster your own response with other references. Those references should include internal citations to note where you are in the book (p. #). When you make a post, please read all other posts for that question so that you are participating in a conversation. Please do not repeat what other students have already said. There are many questions from which to choose, so you should be able to discuss your ideas somewhere without being redundant. Remember to make some post-it notations about symbols and archetypes, along with any other ideas you would like to discuss when we get back to class.
Feel free to respond to as many prompts as you would like. If you respond to more than two, please asterisk the responses that are NOT for evaluation. Be sure your name appears on each comment, so I can see who you are. I think you will need to log in to your Google account as you work. If you can, please post with your school Google identity. If you post as "Anonymous" without your name, you will not be able to receive credit for your work, so be sure your name appears within the comment if you do that.
When Crook starts to talk to Lennie about George he says, "S'pose George didn't come back no more. S'pose he took a powder and just ain't coming back. What'll you do then?" (71). When Crook said that, Lennie became distressed. He started crying about how George wouldn't leave him. Crooks responded saying, Le's say he wants to come back and can't. S'pose he gets killed or hurt so be can't come bqck" (71). This makes Lennie become very agitated and worried that Crooks might have hurt George. Crooks became very quick to say that if Lennie knew George came back, George would come back. Crook explains to Lennie that, "'A guy 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,' he cried, 'I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" (73). Crooks was trying y2k explain to Lennie that Lennie is very lucky to have a friend that looks out for them. Crook feels that he has no one to call a friend,because he is African American,so he isn't wanted by the other guys, causing him to be very alone in his large and empty room.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to other things, Crooks's scaring Lennie also had a huge impact on Lennie's character and the way he was portrayed up until this moment. Up until his conversation with Crooks, Lennie was the "sidekick" of George; in fact, George makes the comment, "Oh! I ain't saying he's bright. He ain't"(p. 22). The stream of comments from George like this that put him out as a dumb, child-like character. After Lennie's conversation with Crooks, however, we can see a more caring, compassionate side to Lennie. This is different from his comments pertaining to the mice he likes to pet and the mistakes he's made in the past. Now, we see him in a more caring and compassionate light, which is all the more ironic given the way the story ends.
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ReplyDeleteCrooks scaring Lennie is mainly about Crooks trying to prove a point to Lennie on how lucky he is to have someone (a friend) to talk to in his life, and how lonely he is himself. Since Crooks is the only African American in the ranch, he is often treated differently from the other workers and faced prejudice and discrimination from society in the time era. In the conversation between Crooks and Lennie, Crooks said, "Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he's goin' to come back. S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't get into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black" (72). Crooks feels lonely in his times on the ranch, and he could hardly fit into the group of workers because of his race, and this bothered him and made him bitter of his situations. When Lennie comes into Crooks's room, Crooks could not help but talk to Lennie because of his loneliness, and Lennie's condition made him approachable. Crooks envies Lennie because Lennie have George, and the two have "each other's backs" and comparing to Lennie, and Crooks have no one. He tried to prove a point to Lennie on how lucky he is to have a friend and to have someone that cared for him by asking Lennie to be "in his shoe" and to understand how he feels himself. Crooks initial intentions were never to scare Lennie but to let someone understand him and for someone to for once just listen to him. "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" (73). Crooks has simply been alone for too long, and he just wants to let it all out. The scene is important by emphasizing on the relationship between Lennie and George from a perspective of a minor character. Lennie and George are close friends if not best friends and the two are co-dependent on each other, and throughout the conversation Lennie's panic on losing George further shows their close relationship, and the scene demonstrates this in the form of a conversation.
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ReplyDeleteJust as everyone has previously said Crooks asks Lennie what he would do if he was alone because Crooks wants Lennie to feel like how he has felt for years on the farm being a minority, and living in an excluded place from the other workers. This book takes place in a time that racial discrimination was common. Crooks has been living alone in his room for so long that when Lennie comes in an starts talking to Crooks so openly he is surprised but also wanted to show Lennie how his life is so excluded from the world. He tells Lennie that "he's not a southern negro" (70) and that has been on the farm for so long, but never gets any signs of friendship or nice behavior towards him. Crooks starts to question Lennie after he realizes how much George means to him. He asks Lennie "s'pose George don't come back no more...what'll do then?" (71). Through his continual questioning the slight jealousy that he has towards Lennie and his friend George is shown. Crooks realizes how much of a problem these potential situations and thoughts are for Lennie so he apologizes. He then goes into his explanation for the questions and says to Lennie that "a guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody" (72). Lennie does not really respond to Crooks's statement and leaves, further showing Lennie's one track mind. Crooks is just trying to show Lennie that he is lucky to have someone, but should think about the possibility of not having them anymore, sadly Lennie does not understand and just gets mad at Crooks. The scene between Lennie and Crooks really shows how Lennie's mind is not always considering every possible situation and that he only really understands and listens to George. It also shows how the racial discrimination of the time really got to Crooks and how he has had to deal with the loneliness inside the barn for so long.
ReplyDeleteThis conversation was one sided, and when Crooks spoke, he wasn't looking for a reply, he was venting and that's why Lenny was the perfect person to talk to. When crooks asks Lenny, "Sometimes he talks, and you don't know what the hell he's talkin' bout" (70), and Lenny agrees, that's when Crooks feels like he can confide in him. I don't believe Crooks intentionally tried to anger Lenny when he kept bringing up the idea of George leaving, nor do I believe Crooks was trying to tell Lenny that he had a good companion by his side. Lenny already knows this and is proud to admit it to anybody that comes his way. Crooks knew that Lenny wasn't able to understand the concept of humans needing interaction with other humans. Crooks is deprived of human contact and he tells Lenny, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" (73). Crooks doesn't want to be sick and he doesn't want sympathy, that is why Lenny is perfect. He is just another human being to talk to, whether it's about bunnies or Crook's problems. Like I said before it was a one sided conversation, taking away Lenny's only partner was just a lead in to Crooks sad life. I really like this conversation because it gave background information about a character in a very original way. The reader was able to get to know Crooks life while Crooks was telling his life in his own tone giving more depth to the character.
ReplyDeleteThis conversation was one sided, and when Crooks spoke, he wasn't looking for a reply, he was venting and that's why Lenny was the perfect person to talk to. When crooks asks Lenny, "Sometimes he talks, and you don't know what the hell he's talkin' bout" (70), and Lenny agrees, that's when Crooks feels like he can confide in him. I don't believe Crooks intentionally tried to anger Lenny when he kept bringing up the idea of George leaving, nor do I believe Crooks was trying to tell Lenny that he had a good companion by his side. Lenny already knows this and is proud to admit it to anybody that comes his way. Crooks knew that Lenny wasn't able to understand the concept of humans needing interaction with other humans. Crooks is deprived of human contact and he tells Lenny, "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick" (73). Crooks doesn't want to be sick and he doesn't want sympathy, that is why Lenny is perfect. He is just another human being to talk to, whether it's about bunnies or Crook's problems. Like I said before it was a one sided conversation, taking away Lenny's only partner was just a lead in to Crooks sad life. I really like this conversation because it gave background information about a character in a very original way. The reader was able to get to know Crooks life while Crooks was telling his life in his own tone giving more depth to the character.
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