Chapter 4 Response

In chapter four "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck Lennie, Candy, and Crooks converse a lot. In this chapter we see a lot of racism and how lonely Crooks and Curley's wife is. Crooks is very lonely, we see this when he confuses and plays with Lennie's mind by telling him George might not come back. He tells Lennie that he was just talking to himself once he sees Lennie really angry at him. Crooks explains how it is hard to be alone and have no one to talk to. In some ways Lennie is like Crooks, but instead of being racially discriminated, he's discriminated because of his mental disabilities. Curley's wife is also lonely. Through out the story she asks all the characters why none of them will talk to her. As readers we know that the men don't want to get in trouble, but Curley's wife doesn't see the problem; she wouldn't get in trouble and the men would just lose their jobs. Apart from Curley's wife being lonely, she is extremely racist. When she comes into Crooks room while the three guys were in there, she completely shuts off Crooks when he asks her to leave by threatening him. I noticed that the book Steinbeck concentrates more on the racism, than Curley's wife's loneliness. I think the director of the movie wanted to concentrate more on the Curley's wife's loneliness because she is a woman, and very pretty. The audience would want to get to know her better, and relate to her better than Crooks.