Discrimination In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck displays prejudice with many of the characters in the book such as Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s and shows the reader multiple ways people can be discriminated, how it’s wrong, and it hurts people. Steinbeck displays Curley’s wife’s loneliness by “I get lonely, she said. You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley” (Steinbeck 87). This shows the reader that no one is talking to Curley’s wife because she is a married woman so she is isolated from the other men. Crook is the only black character in the book. He is stuck in a little shack by himself separated from the other workers. For example, “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse and you ain’t wanted in my

The world is a harsh place. This is shown in many places such as in Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice And Men which made the reader notice how prejudices and opinion are in a direct relationship. This relationship results in harsh opinions and most aggravated actions. Steinbeck uses diction, textual structure, and Simple Story Pieces such as Character Introduction as well as Setting and Character Details to deliver this message. The novel starts off with the introduction of Lennie and George as they enter on a green pond and start conversing on topics such as rabbits and lighter topics; This makes the characters seem more approachable and friendly, which is true for Curley’s introduction as a thin young man with a brown face, which is just as passive and light-hearted as the conversation between George and Lennie. The only factor that changes the opinion of the reader is the prejudice of the characters in the conversation after. Prejudices, Despite seeming harmless, obstruct our views of others.

“We do not show the Negro how to overcome segregation, but we teach him how to accept it as final and just” (Carter G. Woodson). John Steinbeck was able to convey this of message of racism in his time- honoured novella, Of Mice And Men. The novella was released in 1937, the setting of the book taking place in California during The Great Depression. During this time, California had an influx of Dust Bowl refugees, who hoped to find employment and create a better life for themselves (CSUN, 2017). From this piece of history, came Of Mice And Men, a novella following the story of Lennie and George, two men travelling during The Great Depression to a ranch in Soledad, California looking for work after their hasty exit from their previous job. Lennie and George, like many of the migrants who have come before them, have their own dreams of buying land however once arriving at the ranch they realize the challenges and the harsh reality of those dreams. Film directors are constantly on the prowl for novels which present potential to be the next movie blockbuster. In fact, over 50% of movies are adapted from novels, however, when turning what’s on paper into a film, a portion of the book is taken out or new scenes are added to either cut down the run time of the film or to satisfy the filmmaker's plans for their interpretation of the novel. So how often are the film director’s attempts to recreate the essence of the ideologies provided by the author of the book successful? And was

“Want me to tell ya what’ll happen? They’ll take ya to the booby hatch. They’ll tie ya up with a collar, like a dog” (Steinbeck 72). Discrimination plays a large role to feeling lonely. In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, characters endure attempts by society to make them “invisible.” These include racism, ageism, sexism, and isolation. More specifically, three of these characters experience loneliness from acts of discrimination. Factors contributing to their loneliness include ageism, disability discrimination, and racism. Each of these characters are migrant workers during the Great Depression who are discriminated against in different ways. Thus, through Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife, Steinbeck reveals the powerful

unlike a simple misconception, is actively resistant to all evidence that would unseal it”. This gives insight as the true meaning of being prejudiced. Prejudice is more than an opinion: it is an opinion without any prior knowledge or evidence. The novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck relies on the concept of prejudice. If there was not any prejudice, this novel would completely lose its emotional sense. The novel would lose its ability to make the reader feel sympathy for the characters. The main two characters affected by prejudice are Lennie and Crooks. Lennie is affected because he is mentally challenged. People don’t understand this at first, so his coworkers make false opinions. For Crooks, his prejudice comes from being colored. Of Mice and

In the novel, Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck, he develops a theme that shows racism is a learned trait. He uses Crooks, the black stableman, and presents readers of a flashback of his father telling him, “The white children are you friends now, but as you grow up things will change and they will hate you because you're different”. To most this statement shows racism on a surface level, but as readers start to analyze text they see this theme represented by Lennie. He is stuck in a childlike state, yet he does not discriminate against Crooks, contrasting to how the adults treat him. This helps develop the theme that racism is a learned trait.

Creating this difference from other people, people without a disability treat this man differently and discriminate because of his differences. An example of this would be “He cried make um stop, George. Then Curley attacked his stomach and cut off his wind”(pg 63). Curley picked on him because he was different and he knew it which created this issue to getting him beat up. Others also take advantage of him because of his intellectual disabilities, from the text “His voice grew soft and persuasive. ‘S’pose George don’t come back no more. ‘S’pose he took a powder and just ain’t coming back. What’ll you do then… Crooks pressed forward some kind of private victory”(pg 71). Crooks took advantage of him because he knew he would be able to manipulate him, and get his own person pleasure out of doing that taunting to him because he doesn't know any better and he cannot differentiate what he's saying is the truth or a lie. Another sad reality is the one where George the one who takes care of him and his own best friend makes him feel bad that Lennie was born that way and can’t help it that he needs help getting through life. An example of this from the text would be “God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take

First of all Lennie is discriminated because of his brain. He was born with a brain problem and people think that he’s not smart because of that and they don't really know that he's smarter than they think. “Jesus” he said. “He’s jus like a kid, ain’t he” (43,ch3). Because Lennie didn't really know what was right from wrong right away people would advantage of him. They thought that he's useless. The only things he's good for is entertainment. “One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and say, ‘jump in.’ An’ he jumps. Couldn't swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him”. (40,ch3). This is why Lennie is discriminated because of his brain.

Lennie Small has a mental disability. Not only does Lennie get treated differently by people, he also gets treated differently by the person who looks after him, George. “I got you! You can’t keep a job and lose every job I get.” (pg.11).

In the novella 'Of Mice and Men', by the well-known author, John Steinbeck, the reader is introduced to a various range of different characters on the ranch, within this realm prejudice attitudes and discrimination play a significant role. The characters in this short novel act in a world of their own, having no connections to any other type of society; through this Steinbeck strongly depicts what discrimination was similar to during this period of time. At the ranch are the white-males, who retain power over the lesser groups of people. This inequality causes discrimination against people of color, women, and those that are disabled, either mentally or physically. To add to, discrimination is intensified due to the loneliness of the itinerant lifestyle, where Crooks was even isolated even more than the rest of the workers, and heightened due the time when this novel was produced. During the 1930s, America was in the height of segregation and prejudice attitudes. This resulted in a patriarchal society where women and ethnical groups only has limited opportunities. Particularly, women where viewed by many to either be a housewife or, the polar opposite, a sexual object. In this book Curley's wife was presented as a seductive wife trophy, relevant to how women were treated then. With reference to how Steinbeck presents Crooks and Curley's wife, I will further show how far I agree that they face the most discrimination the novella and conclude which character I believe faces

This is because they were different from everyone around them. People struggling with disabilities may have found it difficult to fit in with society. This is because everyone surrounding them just pushed them away. Luckily, few people knew that Lennie had a disability. If more people had known, they would have put him into an asylum for testing and treatment.

She is often given a disrespectful name by the workers and called a ‘tart,’ and ‘tramp.’ Her makeup and the way she looks at the men (‘gives them the eye’) entail that she is a tramp who wants to seduce men. When Curleys wife is first introduced Steinbeck’s description of her is full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.’ From this vision she look like stereotypical tart. However Curley’s wife has an dream to be a famous performer. Curleys wife resents Curley because he is ‘not a nice fella,’ so she isn’t dressing up for him. Curley’s wife could imagine that the workers are her audience and try to impress them with her fancy attire. This could be her way to pretend to live her dream, and keep her mind off the loneliness. However the way the protagonist George believes and states she is a ‘tart,’ we believe him as he is a charismatic, smart character who we sympathise

Of Mice and Men: Discrimination “I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life” (Oprah Winfrey). Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel that talks about a little of discrimination. Discrimination play a big role because back in the 1930’s during the Great Depression a lot of people didn’t like color people. Crook is one of the characters that faces a lot of discrimination because of his color.

Our world has always been faced with the problem of discrimination throughout history, from Hitler persecuting the Jews for religious reasons to Africans being enslaved based on their skin color and so on. The definition of discrimination is the denial of opportunity or equality to a certain group of people that may be differentiated by their skin color, gender or religion. Well in this book “Of mice and men” the author shows various examples of discrimination. There were two characters in this story that were affected by discrimination.

“Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other.” Susan Shillinglaw wrote that men will always treat someone the same way they are being treated. She said that “knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.” Shillinglaw’s writing is very thorough and in-depth she uses many descriptive words but also gets straight to the point, similar to John Steinbeck’s writing. Both authors write about social injustice which is the unfair situations carried out in our society. The TED talk about injustice explains that people are quick to judge others by their identity. It is unfair that people have to shape their identity so others will accept them. Curley’s and Lennie’s relationship is an example