Analysis for Chapter 5- Quote #2

"Maybe you guys better go. I ain't sure I want you in here no more. A colored man got to have some rights even if he don't like 'em." (Crooks, pg. 90)

This quote is from the part in the story where Lennie and Candy were in Crooks' room talking to him.  In this quote, even as lonely as Crooks appears to be, he denies Lennie and Candy because he was just embarassed by Curley's wife. Of Mice and Men was written in 1937, at that time, even though slavery had been abolished for over seven decades, African Americans didn't have equal rights.  In the quote, Crooks says "A colored man got to have some rights..." which is related to the fact that within society they didn't have many rights at all.

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