In Chapter four of Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck brings together the least empowered characters, who reach out to one another for community; however, thwart that community by inflicting on the others the same pain they themselves suffer. The characters of Crooks and Lennie truly show how these people need this community, yet shows how they sabotage it through his/her loneliness, victimization, and using the other's victimization to inflict pain on them.

At the beginning of this melodramatic tale, Lennie and Crooks live as two underdogs searching for understanding. For example, Lennie's one major obstacle is his lack of intelligence. He "just doesn't get it" and that's what encourages other characters in the story to pick on him. Sometimes things go wrong even when the harm is unintentional, as one example states, "Well s'pose jus' s'pose he don't come back. What'll you do then? ... Say, what...