compare and contrast crooks room to the bunk house

The Bunk house had about 8 men in it. It was minimal but had the look and feeling that people lived in it,

"The bunk house was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three showing their burlap ticking....In the middle of the room stood a big square table littered with playing cards, and around it were grouped boxes for the players to sit on."

By contrast, Crooks' bunk was,

"in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn...Crooks’ bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung...Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses."

Where the other men had a separation between work and sleeping quarters, Crooks' work was his sleeping quarters. Here the difference between where the horses lived and the man lived becomes muted. Crooks lives like an animal alone in his hovel. Even his medicines are scattered amongst the horse medicines. The main difference, however, is the social isolation that Crooks survives in. Where the other men had a central area to play and talk, Crooks was literally and figuratively alone.

Why does Steinbeck contrast crooks room to the bunkhouse?In mice of men?