The chapter starts out describing Crooks and his lonely room. Lennie enters the room because he saw Crooks's light. Crooks tells him to go away because he is not suppose to be in a black man's room like he is not allowed in Lennie's bunk. Crooks starts taunting Lennie telling him that maybe George won't come back and abandon Lennie. This greatly scares him. They continue to talk and Crooks reveals to Lennie about his past life in California and his feelings on loneliness. We learn that Crook grew up as the only colored family in a white ranch and he would play with other white children. He enjoyed the company of some of them. His father warned him not to get too close because he would learn of the social division when he got older. Crooks stops taunting Lennie in fear that he might hurt him. Lennie starts explaining of their mission to own a land and Crooks says that it will never happen. Candy joins them and Crooks is enjoying the company although he looks angry on the outside. Crooks looks interested but then says that it isn't a place for him. Curley's wife appears looking for her husband, and she starts talking about her loneliness and unhappy marriage. They want her to leave and she states that she could get them fired. They respond that they could find a place of their own. She says that she believes that Curley got in a fight with Lennie because of the bruises on his face. They comeback saying that they will tell the boss about her evil ways. She says that she will have Crook lynched.
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