Crooks is the negro stable buck. He helps tend to the horses and keeps the stables clean. Crooks has been very lonely throughout his whole life. “‘... a guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody’” (Steinbeck 72). Crooks is saying that he knows that if no one talks to him that he will go crazy. This shows that Crooks probably knows from experience that people go crazy from being lonely. Although Crooks knows people go crazy, he stays to himself because he knows that since he is black, he will be mistreated out on the ranch. Also, for a long time, Crooks was the only black person in or around Soledad. “‘ There wasn't another colored family for miles around. And now there ain't a colored man on this ranch an’ there jus’ one family in Soledad’” (Steinbeck 70). Crooks is talking about when he was a kid, how there were no black people for him to be friends with. Now, he is the only black man on the ranch, so he really can not express himself in the same way he would if there was another black person. Also, there are not even any black families around Soledad so even if he goes into town, he has nowhere to go. By Crooks starting to go nuts, and having no black people around he is showing how lonely life is being the only black man. By George getting meaner, Curley's Wife looking at the other men, and Crooks keeping to himself, loneliness is seen in Of Mice and Men. George works on ranches and has no body to do anything with, except for Lennie. Curley's Wife has nobody to talk to except Curley and nowhere to go except in their house. Also, Crooks starts to go nuts and he is the only black man in town. All of these characters have been influenced by the disease of