“'Well, you keep your place then, . I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego—nothing to arouse either like or dislike. He said, “Yes, ma’am,” and his voice was toneless'" (Steinbeck 81).
After being practically harassed, Crooks thinks to himself again about how he is practically nothing special and is reminded of how he is nothing just based off of the color of his skin. He goes completely quiet. This can possibly correlate to a previous event in his life where he was severely harassed based on the color of his skin.
“'I never seen a guy really do it,' he said. 'I seen guys nearly crazy with loneliness for land, but ever’ time a whore house or a blackjack game took what it takes;” (Steeinbeck 77).
Crooks shares his thoughts about how after spending so many years on the farm and hearing workers say they're going to get their own land countless times, Crooks is actually surprised. As he says, most of the workers get trapped in the cycle of waisting their money on manly pleasures and can't ever obtain the physical aspect of the American dream.