“Of Mice and Men” Commentary: Description of Crooks’ Barn

The passage is from “Of Mice and Men”. Steinbeck describes Crooks’ room for the first time. In this passage, Steinbeck is illustrating Crooks’ barn to the reader as the setting on the passage. First, he describes everything in detail that is located in Crooks’ barn while using powerful diction to clarify Crooks’ character. Second, he describes Crooks’ barn as his source of his pride and self-respect while reinstating his loneliness. Third, Steinbeck uses sound imagery to foreshadow and to set the tone of the passage, thus reinforcing the theme of loneliness by illustrating Crooks’ barn in a sad, depressing tone.

Steinbeck illustrates Crooks barn to the reader in precise detail. He builds the character of Crooks by describing his surroundings, which is his barn. The place that characterizes Crooks’ is Crooks’ barn and the time is Saturday night. Steinbeck uses the setting to characterize Crooks since the nighttime signifies Crooks’ loneliness. Steinbeck also portrays Crooks belongings and his possessions to depict Crooks as an intelligent and proud person. Firstly, he conveys the message that Crooks is intelligent by describing the dictionary and the California civil code for 1905. He describes the dictionary because Crooks is the kind of person who likes to learn new things and wants to be acknowledged in society. He depicts the California civil code for 1905 because Crooks likes to know exactly what the society thinks of black people and what rights and freedoms blacks are allowed to have.

Steinbeck describes Crooks as a lonely person from the setting, which may mean that Crooks reads these books since he feels lonely. Secondly, Steinbeck illustrates an image of Crooks to the reader by describing his facial features. He expresses how Crooks’ “eyes lay deep in his head, and because of their depth seemed to glitter with intensity”, and how he has “thin, pain-tightened lips which were lighter than his face”. Steinbeck also describes his “pink-palmed hands”, which he uses to rub liniment on his back. These expressions perhaps portray the way Crooks lives and describe Crooks in detail. Thirdly, Steinbeck applies unique diction and word choice in his novel; for example, “dirty books” and “special shelf”. These words are powerful because Steinbeck uses strong adjectives to describe Crooks’ barn. Steinbeck uses these detailed characteristics to accurately place an image in the reader’s head about Crooks and his barn.

Next, Steinbeck describes Crooks’ room as a source of pride and self-respect while reinstating his loneliness. The scenery of the room alone shows how Crooks is different from the other ranchers. Crooks’ loneliness in part because of racial discrimination is perhaps part of Steinbeck’s microcosm of the world. Steinbeck points out the barriers and the artificial obstacles of a society working against each other. These barriers create an extremely lonesome life for Crooks. This lonesomeness and racial discrimination blocks Crooks from joining with the other ranchers, and that is why he keeps his own room neat because that is where he gets his pride and self-respect from. Crooks, just because he is black, is a victim of the prejudices of society.

Thirdly, Steinbeck uses sound imagery to foreshadow and to set the tone of the passage. He uses calm and soothing, yet sad and depressing tone when describing Crooks’ room. He describes the sound of moving horses, of feet stirring, of teeth champing on hay, of the rattle of halter chains, to foreshadow the return of the ranchers. Moreover, he uses this sound imagery to build the creepy, suspenseful tone of the book. In the book, Steinbeck uses this sound imagery to rather foreshadow the part when Lennie, unintentionally, kills Curley’s wife in this same barn.

Steinbeck describes everything that is located in Crooks’ barn in detail to clarify Crooks’ character. I think the way Steinbeck describes everything in detail and using powerful diction helps clarify Crooks’ character. Steinbeck’s diction is necessary to provide his depth of meaning. He also describes Crooks’ barn as his source of his pride and self-respect while reinstating his loneliness. Steinbeck uses sound imagery to foreshadow and to set the tone of the passage. The passage also reinforces the theme of loneliness by illustrating Crooks’ barn in a sad, depressing tone. Steinbeck uses many other literary devices to precisely convey the points from his book to the reader.