How is Crooks disadvantaged in Of Mice and Men?

In Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men,
Crooks is perhaps one of the most disadvantaged, desperately seeking to be
accepted in a harsh world. Like all the other lonely workers on the ranch (proven by
Slim in,

"none
of the guys ever travel together... You know how the hands are, they just come in and
get their bunk and work a month, and then they quit and go out alone. Never seem to give
a damn about nobody."

Crooks
also says to Lenny when he hungers for a little
companionship:

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" He whined, "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got
nobody." ... "I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick."
"

And in the last part of
that quote he is referring to himself, a victim of not only racial discrimination but
also the cruelty of loneliness that everyone on the ranch
faces.

Crooks is not only just looking around for work
during the Depression, he is in fact COMPLETELY isolated from any human contact due to
his skin colour in a racially biased world.

The true nature
of this discriminant world is possibly best proven on Page 80 (in my book anyway, it's
section 4), where Curley's wife harshly scorns Crooks upon the basis of his
colour:

"She
turned on him in scorn. "Listen, Nigger," she said. "You know what I can do to you if
you open your trap?" | Crooks seemed to grow smaller, and he pressed himself against the
wall. "Yes, ma'am." | "Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up
on a tree so easy it ain't even
funny"

By the way, the |
indicates a paragraph in the novel, just so you know who's speaking ( Curley's wife
-> Crooks -> Curley's wife)

It is clear that
Curley's wife, in her own loneliness strikes out harshly against Crooks, and Crooks
accepts what she says:

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" "It wasn't nothing," Crooks said dully. "You
guys comin' in an' settin' made me forget. What she says is true."
"

Thus, Crooks is arguably
the most disadvantaged character in the
novella.

Cheers,

Brett
:)