Life on a farm during the Great Depression was extremely lonely-especially for those who belonged to a discriminated race or gender. This is exactly the case for Crooks, a crippled, black stable hand, and Curley's wife, a farm owner's flirtatious daughter-in-law in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. These two characters, outcasts from the rest of the farm workers, daily have to face solitude and prejudice. This solitude leads them to a common individual, Lennie, a mentally handicapped laborer, who is the one soul on the ranch who is untainted by preconceived notions of race or propriety.

Although slavery had been long abolished by this time, racial discrimination still permeated the nation and Crooks was merely one more victim of this hateful way of life. He is unable to have friends or converse with any of the other co-workers because of his color. Crooks is incredibly lonely, almost...