Analysis for Chapter 4, Quote #1

"A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin' books or thinkin' or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin', an' he got nothing to tell him what's so an' what ain't so. Maybe if he sees somethin', he don't know whether it's right or not. He can't turn to some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can't tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here. I wasn't drunk. I don't know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could tell me I was asleep, an' then it would be all right. But I jus' don't know." (Crooks pg. 73)

The themes present here are loneliness, predatory nature of human beings, and discrimination. For the majority of the book, Crooks always seems rather hostile towards the other men on the ranch (with the exception of when he's talking to Lennie and Candy in his room). He has a good reason to feel this way, though. Despite the fact that the Civil War has already happened, there is still a lot of racial tension in society. If you take this, then add to it the fact that Crooks is physically handicapped due to his back problems, it's rather obvious why the other men would want to isolate him from them. In return, Crooks doesn't want to spend his time with the men, either. Yet, as with any human being, having all that time to himself makes him lonely, and he longs for the companionship of someone. This must be tough for him--being surrounded by men that don't want much to do with him, yet having that desire to fit in and be accepted into someone else's world.