Chapter 4 is the "Crooks chapter." His bunk is in the harness room, separated (segregated) from the others who sleep in the bunkhouse. Crooks is ostracized because he is black. He is even excluded from playing cards. Lennie asks why he isn't wanted. Crooks says:
’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.
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Chapter 4 is the "Crooks chapter." His bunk is in the harness room, separated (segregated) from the others who sleep in the bunkhouse. Crooks is ostracized because he is black. He is even excluded from playing cards. Lennie asks why he isn't wanted. Crooks says:
’Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me.
Crooks is very protective of his space and his room. He thinks that if the others don't want him in their space, they have no right in his. As a result, he is isolated and out of spite, embraces that isolation.
At the end of this chapter, Curley's wife comes into Crooks's room. Candy and Lennie are there as well. This completes the group of isolated misfits. Crooks is racially isolated. Candy is (like his dog) isolated to a smaller degree because he is old and not very useful as a worker. Lennie has been an outcast throughout his life, that is, until George took him under his wing. Curley's wife is the only woman on this ranch and is starved for attention and companionship. When Crooks suggests that she leave, she replies that she is lonely as well. She manages to insult all three of them while simultaneously claiming that she's grateful to have them to talk to:
Ever’body out doin’ som’pin’. Ever’body! An’ what am I doin’? Standin’ here talkin’ to a bunch of bindle stiffs—a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep—an’ likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else.”
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