 Cricks is another really important character that you need to memorize key quotations for in this novella. Now, Cricks's character serves a really important role in illustrating the racial segregation and the Jim Crow laws that existed in the USA at the time. Now, of course, if you're not entirely sure what Jim Crow laws means, it's essentially a series of laws that were passed which institutionalized segregation. In other words, a series of laws that were passed after slavery was abolished in the US, which basically still meant that black and white people stayed separate but equal under these laws. In other words, black and white people essentially used separate facilities. So for example, you can't use the same toilet as a white person. If you're black, you can't sit next to them on the bus. You have to sit at the back and so on. And of course, even for example, with the universities. So there's some really famous universities today which are called historically black universities in America that are called HBCUs. So historically black colleges and universities, these have their origins in the roots in the Jim Crow era whereby, for example, black people and people who were not white couldn't go to university institutions such as Harvard and basically the main university institutions and hence other alternative universities were set up in order to keep that policy of separation and segregation between the races. Now, of course, Steinbeck uses Crooks's character to illustrate and to question this system to show just how unjust and unfair this system is. And of course, the ranch house environment where Crooks is kept separate from everybody else is to some degree really mistreated by others. This is used as a microcosm as a small version of what was happening in wider American society. So you do need to remember key quotations relating to Crooks's character because you want to link that to this type of context. And of course, if you want a bit more information, I have created a separate video where I go into more depth on Jim Crow laws and the segregation that essentially was part of American society up until 1965 when essentially African Americans are made as equal under the eyes of the law as white Americans. Now, going back to Crooks's character, there are a few key quotations to remember and of course, this is the word level analysis you need to do. So let's first start off with the first quotation where when Lenny enters Crooks's room, we're given the description of what he has within his room, the very meager things, but of course there's this emphasis on his intellect. He had books, ellipsis, the Californian civil code, okay? Now, the word level analysis you want to do for this quotation is firstly, you've got the alliteration of H he had and of course also alliteration of C, California civil code. Now what this is emphasizing is firstly, Crooks has this acute awareness of his race and how black people and African Americans have been historically mistreated initially as slaves in American society. And at the time, they were still being treated as separate. I have to set the buck at the bus for instance. What this is illustrating is that he takes an almost intellectual approach to understanding his history, but also empowering himself and trying to empower himself in that way because he's so disempowered in other ways in society and of course on this ranch. The second quotation to remember for Crooks's character is when he confesses to Lenny that he's actually very lonely, so beneath this veneer of intelligence and almost he doesn't really care, he's indifferent to others, actually he confesses to Lenny and he lets Lenny know that a guy needs somebody and of course this is showing his loneliness and the word level analysis you want to do here is the verb needs. He really, this is showing that this is a real human need that everybody has to have some form of companionship which Crooks lacks and of course that's meant to inspire within us. Pethos, Melancholy were supposed to read this and feel really sad and sorry for Crooks who's really alienated and isolated simply because of the color of his skin. The third key quotation to do in the word level analysis is when Crooks tells Lenny at first and then he approaches his room, you've got no right to come into my room and the word level analysis you want to do here is firstly the abstract noun rights. This is to do with rights and of course he is using his understanding of the civil code to say well I've got the right to my own property. The second word level analysis you want to do is my, the possessive pronoun my. Again this is emphasizing how Crooks is aware of his rights but equally this is emphasizing just how few possessions he has. He's trying to protect the very tiny small possessions and the meager things that he has around him but of course he's still powerless because Lenny still comes in, okay. The next quotation to remember in the keyword level analysis to do is when he states there ain't a colored man on this ranch and of course what you want to focus on in terms of word level analysis is the adjective colored which illustrates again how isolated Crooks is based on the color of his skin and just how londy and alienated he is from all the other men. The other quotation to remember and this is the final quotation for Crooks's character is once Curly's wife threatens to have him hung, to have him lynched just simply because he stood up for himself a little bit and because she threatens him with lynching which is basically historically white women when they would say that a black man had lynched them in American society basically these black men that was a death sentence upon them that would just be hung up on a tree, okay. And once Curly's wife basically threatens him in this way Crooks, we get this really sad point in the description of how he presents himself. Crooks had reduced himself to nothing so he's powerless in the face of Curly's wife's threats, okay. Now the word level analysis you want to do here especially the verb reduced and the hyperbole nothing, he's made himself nothing and of course this shows the layers of protection, the layers of reduction to nothing that a lot of African American people in US society and what was a very racist society what they had to do to cope in the face of racism and injustice. They've simply had to act really passive and reduce themselves to nothing which again is meant to make us feel a lot of sympathy and pathos for Crooks and by extension this could be Steinbeck's way of criticising the segregation and the Jim Crow laws during that era. So that's it when it comes to Curly's character and the key word level analysis as well as the key quotations to remember so do make sure you try your best to memorise these quotations for his character.