The 1930s had been a particularly difficult year for African-Americans. Prior to 1954, racial segregation was not illegal yet and thus racism was still rampant. Steinbeck usage of Crooks in Of Mice and Men reflects powerfully the racial discrimination at that time. Crooks is not only mentally but also physically separated with the others. Crooks has his own room, but the room is comparable to an animal shed, with “… [a] bunk in the harness room [and] a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn,” and “ [a] bunk [that] was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung.” From his room, it is clear that Crooks is not seen equally as a man but as an animal. The “little shed” highlights the lack of his own space and how