Disabilities In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Marguerite Gardiner once stated “Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart” (Gardiner). This quotation suggests that prejudice is the symbol of ignorance, for men to either recognize or ignore the judgements they hold against others. Prejudice creates barriers for people with different backgrounds, which makes it harder for people to communicate with each other. In these two articles, one titled “Of Mice and Men, Masterplots, Fourth Edition,” by Angela D. Hickey and the other titled “Of Mice and Men, Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Literature Series, Supplement,” by Lynn C. Munro, the authors explain the way John Steinbeck wrote about prejudice. These authors also demonstrate various kinds of prejudice can make it difficult for many to achieve the American Dream. In the novel “Of Mice and Men”, author John Steinbeck reflects on the prejudice that even still plagues modern times. The novel is set in the rural Salinas valleys of California. The issues in the novel illustrates the routine and frustrations in the lifestyle of a nomadic migrant worker. Steinbeck uses the main characters’ personalities to show how people were affected during the Great Depression. He also incorporates the idea of the American Dream, and how every character has their own vision of it.

Societies that discriminate against the weak are unjust. In the novel Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, many characters are unfairly oppressed. Society treats Curley 's Wife poorly because she is a woman, Crooks because he is black and Lennie because he is disabled. In the end, intolerance leads to tragedy for each one of them.

In the novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, the struggle to achieve the American Dream; sucess, happiness and ownership of land weaves into the life of Crooks, an African American, disabled character who labors in the rural Californian ranch environment of the 1930’s. Throughout the story, Crooks struggles with the constant physical pain from his back, and emotional pain from the prevailing racism of this time period that isolates him from others. Due to his disability and race, Crooks is lonely, isolated and depressed, making it nearly impossible for him to achieve his dream.

The 1930’s was a time period in which discrimination played a vital role in the lives of minorities. In the 1930’s, men were in search for jobs on the ranches and women were generally working inside the house. Although the 1930’s seems pretty far back, discrimination still occurs in society today and can either be intentional or nonintentional. There are several different forms of discrimination: racial, disabled, age, and sexual. Any type of discrimination is harmful to the individual and often times leaves them feeling alienated and lonely. All of these types of discrimination are seen in the characters of John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men. Past history of discrimination has influenced him to display it in his novel. Each person’s type

Some characters in this novel are alienated by mainstream society because they do not fit society’s ideal image of a person. And they are all not accepted as human beings. Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, the social injustice of how people were treated during the Great Depression is explored through the characters Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie, to show that society actually needs to become stronger than it really is.

The long, hard war of human equality in society, has been a war since the beginning of civilization. The Great Depression, a tragic time in America’s history, reflects American determination, but also social inequality. In the fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and characterization to address ableism and sexism in society. Steinbeck addresses these flaws in society in an attempt to ultimately bring awareness these riffs before society falls.

The novel, Of Mice and Men, talk about different characters and how things were back in the Great Depression by following two ranchers, George and Lennie. When the novel first introduces the setting at the lake, it also introduced the two main characters. George is described as the one that seems to take in everything with his “restless eyes and sharp, strong features” and Lennie follows him. Lennie is described as “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders;” George and Lennie look like opposites which draws the question, Why are they traveling together? The answer becomes clear once we get into the novel but before that, Lennie starts to drink the scummy water and plays like a toddler in the lake. This shows that he has some mental disability and this is further shown when he starts to forget everything. His disability foreshadows trouble which shows that Lennie is the one that causes the most trouble because of his mental disability to forget everything, how he isn’t wanted anywhere, and how his disability ultimately ends up ruining dreams and lives.

First of all, one of the characters in the book with a disability is crook, a african american that works on the farm in the book with a back disability. He is mistreated badly by the people at the farm because of his disability and that he is black. They give him his own house because he doesn't belong with the others that are in the cabins. To help explain what is going on with crook and the other, here is what he said to lennie to prove what is going on at the farm.“well, I got a right to have a light. You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in your bunk house, and you ain't wanted in my room.” (Steinbeck 68). As you can hear from that statement you can tell

John Steinbeck’s highly acclaimed Of Mice and Men is a classic American novella that paints a depressingly realistic portrait of America during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In this short read, Steinbeck tackles many issues that plagued the country during that time. His purpose in writing Of Mice and Men was to criticize some of those issues, such as sexism, the poor treatment of people with mental disabilities, and the facade of the American Dream.

John Steinbeck has written 27 books and I have only read one, Of Mice and Men. It is a good book with a great hook and ends with an unexpected bang. In of Mice and Men the main characters have different levels of struggles. One way more than the other but everyone has to do things and deal with things that they don’t want to do. One of those things is to deal with discrimination. Discrimination shapes a way a person acts around other people.

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty,” said Mother Teresa. Humanity has struggled against being left alone and being lonely for a long time. As a result, humans formed a society where they could be together. On the other hand, there are still people who are left out of the society. In other words, there are still people out there who are marginalized, not accepted fairly to the society. John Steinbeck shows the marginalized people’s lives in his novel, Of Mice and Men. In his novel, characters such as Lennie, George, Candy, Curley’s wife, Crooks, and even the ranch workers, are marginalized from the society. Ranch workers like George, Candy, and Lennie have nowhere to go, and they do not have anybody to care for them. Especially for Lennie, he is mentally challenged, too. Crooks, being the colored man, suffers from discrimination. Curley’s wife is constantly surrounded with loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, marginalized people who are neglected from the society, create a society of their own; they share their dreams and help each other out although they are all different from each other.

In a room right off the side of a barn sits a crippled colored man. A big, kind, mentally disabled man sits on a nail keg. An old, one-armed man leans against one of the walls. A lonely wife looking for company stands in the middle of the doorway. They are the outsiders and prime examples for a theme that is the backbone of the story. Discrimination not only affects the story’s characters, but it also impacts the story itself. Discrimination greatly affects the outcome of the story and its characters’ actions and thoughts in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Although each character faces discrimination in various ways, Lennie, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife are all viewed as outsiders and share the common key theme of discrimination in their lives.

In the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the diverse set of characters individually handle oppression on a daily basis. For these characters, racist, sexist and degrading remarks are normal for the time period (early 1900’s). The story is about two men, Lennie and George, trying to find work in a troubling economic time while also trying to overcome Lennie’s mental handicap. They also meet other people that have to overcome their own “setbacks”. The author shows oppression of the characters through their effect on others, actions, and their dialogue.

In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men characters in the novel are segregated by sex, race, age, physical and mental disabilities. John Steinbeck portrays the intolerance and bigotry of 1930’s America through the separation of his characters based on their handicaps. Lennie, Candy, Candy’s dog, Curley’s wife and Crooks all face social pressure from the other characters on the ranch based on their intelligence, physical disability, age, sex and color. Stereotyping based on ethnic or physical characteristics is typical to the 1930’s depression where civil rights for minority groups had not yet been addressed. Almost all of the characters who, in

John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men is an extraordinary novel with unique characteristics. The novel is about an uncommon friendship between two extremely different individuals who are living and working together. This story belong to the genres tragic realistic fiction, historical fiction and drama. The linking between the novel and The Great Depression emphasizes throughout the story, which makes the novel very realistic and down to earth. The author touches on several themes such as: the unreachable American dream, the economic injustices, loneliness, friendship and people’s propensity for cruelty. In this book review, we will get into a deeper understanding of what the actual story means.