Crooks said gently, "Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he's goin' to come back. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play rummy `cause you was black. How'd you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody--to be near him." In the novel "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, Crooks expresses his feelings here to Lennie. Lennie is the only white man on the ranch who does not see a difference between black men and white men. He is oblivious as to why Crooks is excluded from the bunkhouse.

This novel is based during a time of racial discrimination throughout the United States. During the Depression, men like Crooks suffer from poverty and loneliness...