Similarities of Crooks and Curley's Wife

There are many similarities of Crooks and Curley's Wife. In John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men, both Crooks and Curley's Wife are struggling with feelings of loneliness. Both characters are forced into this social isolation because of racial and gender differences as well as by the environment in which they live.

Crooks' race and Curley's Wife's gender synonymously contributed to their loneliness and isolation. Crooks was a black man and there were not any other black men on the ranch so he had to stay in a room in the barn. Lannie asks Crooks, " Why ain't you wanted?" and then Crooks replies "Cause I am black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I am black." Since he was black Crooks was not well liked by the other men and they thought that he was not as subhuman as they were. They treated him like he was the bottom rung on the tree of social classes. Curley's Wife was a woman and she was not considered very useful so they put her on the bottom rung of the tree of social classes with blacks and other minorities. Women were not considered useful for anything besides doing the men's cooking and men's cleaning.

The environment in which both Crooks and Curley's Wife are submerged has contributed to their isolation. Crooks lives in the barn so he is isolated away from everyone else and he is lonely because of it. The reason Crooks is isolated is because he is black and they considered him almost like a slave. It is evident that Crooks is isolated when Crooks says to Lennie "You go out of my room. I ain't wanted in the bunk house, and you ain't wanted in my room." Curley's Wife is isolated from the men because she has to live in the house and stay there and cook and clean. Since she is isolated she does not speak to many people and gets herself in trouble going into the farmland and talking with the men. The only reason that Curley's wife is isolated from everyone is because she is a woman and she is considered almost a "hoe".