Of Mice and Men

Chapter 4 Discussion
This chapter centers around the WEAK characters.
Crooks, Candy, Lennie and Curleys Wife are all characters who display weakness in the novel,
because of their physical ailments, age, mental deficits, or social standing.
Because of their lack of strength normally, they try to assert it over those who have even less
power. This is why Crooks toys with Lennie; he doesnt have power over anyone else. This is
why Curleys wife asserts her power and dominance over Crooks, a black man, as she is
powerless in her marriage.
The theme of LONELINESS is extensively explored in this chapter.
Crooks is extremely lonely; as a black man he is even more excluded and alone. He secretly
relishes the company here. KEY QUOTE: He whined, A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody.
Dont make no dierence who the guy is, longs hes with you. I tell ya, he cried, I tell ya a guy
gets too loney an he gets sick.
Curleys wife is also lonely. She has no female company, her husband is an aggressive man
who only ever talks about fighting, and she isnt really allowed to socialize with the men.
Despite her meanness, one can feel sorry for her. KEY QUOTE: Well, I aint giving you no
trouble. Think I dont like to talk to somebody ever once in a while? Think I like to stick in that
house alla time?
Curleys wife is really nasty to the men, but it echoes Slims earlier words that loneliness can
make a person mean.
The events and words of this chapter touch on the RACISM and SEXISM of the time.
Crooks not only lives separate from the other men, but he has to live in the stables with the
animals - as though he were equated with them. This shows the racist class structures of the
society.
When Curleys wife attacks him, note how he reduced himself to nothing; it is a behavior
he has learned and required in order to survive in that society.
They men defend Crooks in front of Curleys wife - this shows that women were even more
marginalized.
The DREAM is attractive, however unlikely, even to Crooks.
KEY QUOTE: Sure they all want it. Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus
somthin that was his. Somthin he could live on and there couldnt nobody throw him o of
it. (said by Candy)
At first, Crooks makes fun of their dream - he has seen too many men with the same dream
and nothing come of it. He is skeptical and disbelieving. However, the more he hears of it and
the genuine possibility, he puts aside his prior argument and wants in. This shows us the power
of the dream of these men - it is so appealing that Crooks even ignores his own logic and
reasoning.
Crooks is attracted to this dream not only for the same reasons as the other men, but it would
also mean freedom from societys prejudice for him.