Equality In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, power struggles are an evident topic in social groups, racial groups and between individuals. Lennie struggles against his ill-equipped mind’s way of viewing the world, Crooks faces discrimination because of the colour of his skin, and three separate people all experience feelings of loneliness and isolation.

In the book, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the Author makes the point that men are going to achieve their dream over the women in the novel by using Curley and his wife as examples. Curley wanted to become a boxer, so he did. Curley’s wife wanted to become and actress, but the execution of her dream relied on other people. Curley wanted a wife, so he set out to find one. Curley’s wife only married Curley because she couldn’t pursue her dream. Curley didn’t have to work for his position on the ranch because his father is the boss. Steinbeck is saying through the book Of Mice and Men that the American dream during the 1930s was only attainable by men that pursued it, Steinbeck uses the characters of Curley and his wife to prove this point.

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.

In the novel Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a source of trouble and danger for the men, not only in how she is described, such as ‘Curley’s married a tart’, but also in how Steinbeck portrays her affect on light and hope. Lennie and George first come across Curley’s wife when ‘the rectangle of sunshine in the door way was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in’. She is blocking one of the only light sources into the bunkhouse, which indicates that she is an obstacle on the path to realising hopes and dreams, for Lennie, George and the other men. George is wary of Curley’s Wife and so he warns Lennie ‘ Well you keep away from her, ‘cause she’s a rat trap ’. He suspects that someday she will cause Lennie to get into trouble, thus making it harder to reach their dreams. In the barn towards the end of the novel when Lennie kills Curley’s Wife, ‘ the sun streaks were high on the wall...and the light was growing soft ’. In this situation the light represents her hopes and dreams

Of Mice and Men, penned by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, analyzes equality and its facets within the themes of dreams (specifically the American Dream), prejudice, weakness, and violence. Ushering in the true beginnings of realism,

How is a woman in an era dominated by men expected to gain attention? Steinbeck wrote the novel titled Of Mice and Men emphasising the male society while displaying American dreams crushed throughout the novel. Whereas, minimal wiggle room for Curley’s wife expands upon her husband’s father’s farm because of its majority being men and her being the inferior sex. Her image demonstrates a sexual figure towards the male workers when Lennie and George saw her for the first time as stated, “She had full, rough lips and widespread eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails red and her hair hung in curls with a cotton house dress,” whereas red usually provokes people as an attention seeking color from its vividness bringing along attention to her hands

In the novella Of Mice and men, Steinbeck is never compassionate on its portrayal of female characters such as Curley’s Wife. Steinbeck offers misogynistic depictions of women who are either deceased parental figures or prostitutes.

Crooks was describing how some white kids were nice to him when he was young; he said, “The white kids come to play at our place… My ol’ man didn’t like that. I never knew till long later why he didn’t like that. But i know now” (Steinbeck 70). Crooks was reclusive as a result of his race. He was also afraid to go outside for the reason of people discriminating him. Crooks does not want to go outside due to society’s judgement; he said, “Cause I’m black… They say I stink” (Steinbeck 68). Crooks was compelled by the people’s judgement that he did not know that he was isolated from the world. Discrimination is also one of the problems that makes people disengaged from the

In the novel of mice and men, Steinbeck presents Curley's Wife is presented in many various ways. At first impression, she comes across as the seductive, troublemaker the ranchers see her as. Nevertheless, as the story progresses, we learn that this is only one of many sides to a very lonely woman. The reader’s sympathy for this character also changes throughout the novel, as her secrets are revealed and the real Curley's Wife is found. Curley's Wife is a very complex character.

Of Mice and Men includes a couple of characters that directly contrast the notion of a dream keeping someone sane and striving. Throughout the majority of the novella, Curley’s wife is a subject of disdain. However it is confided to Lennie that she “coulda made somethin of” herself but “ended up [marrying] Curley” (Steinbeck 88). Curley’s wife is a fine example of an individual that has lost her dreams and is forever affected by it. With her marriage to Curley, she gives up on her dreams and the toil that it takes on her life is evident in the novella. In this way, her life has lost spirit because there is no greater purpose that she has to fulfill. Steinbeck not only represents broken dreams through direct stories of his characters, but also by indirectly referencing the lost dreams of those who have passed. Crooks, a stable buck, sees workers pass by the ranch for years, and sees dreams fade time and time again. Steinbeck uses Crooks to unveil a cold truth that nobody “ever gets to Heaven and nobody [ever] gets no land” (Steinbeck 74). Steinbeck’s purpose in grouping the two ideas, Heaven and the American dream, is to assure that his reader is aware of their main connection. The stable buck sees the dreams of men and compares it to Heaven because he has never seen an individual return with evidence of a dream’s, or Heaven’s, existance. It is in this piece of dialogue that Steinbeck shows how unrealistic it is for a dream to be achieved. The similarities between Crooks and Curley’s wife is their disbelief in the American Dream because it has left them

The divide between humanity due to irreversible characteristics is an issue that individuals face every day, especially when trying to fulfill their dreams. Throughout the tragic novel Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the audience learns just how much these minute differences can affect an entire group of people. Following the life of a migrant worker, George, and his mentally challenged counterpart, Lennie, as they chase after their dreams during the Great Depression, readers get an in-depth look into their lives. After earning a job at the Salinas Valley, they discover that they aren’t the only ones with dreams outside of the ranch’s fence, and facing hardships to get a step closer to their aspirations. Of course, there are many objects that can stand in the way of achieving these, one of which includes doubt.

Crooks worked around the farm, and takes care of the horses. His skin color differentiated him from others, resulting in Crooks living alone in the barn. Later in the book Steinbeck shows the wall between the races when Lennie attempts to speak with Crooks. “…You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room,” (Steinbeck, 68). By creating this conversation between Lennie and Crooks, Steinbeck reveals another large group of people treated unfairly, African Americans. Eventually, Candy and Curley’s wife enter the room leading into an argument. Finally, Crooks speaks up and says “You got no rights comin' in a colored man's room. You got no rights messing around in here at all. Now you jus' get out, an' get out quick. If you don't, I'm gonna ast the boss not to ever let you come in the barn no more,” (Steinbeck, 80). Irony pours out of this quote, for blacks were not respected by most white people and did not have the right to speak against them, yet Curley’s wife also is treated with disparity, like most women in the 1930s. All of the characters, now in Crooks room, coax Curley’s wife out. Confrontation with Curley and other characters was a catastrophe waiting to happen and most likely to of occurred if they had not made Curley’s wife leave. In fact, this conversation may have been a key factor

“A girl was standing there looking in. She had 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 red ostrich feathers.

“I speak not for myself but for those without voice... those who have fought for their rights... their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated”- Malala Yousafzai. Similarly, in the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck speaks for those who were not always able to have a voice in 1930’s America, such as those who had been treated with injustice. In his story, the topic of society’s power play between genders and segregation is overlooked and brushed off by some, but this is in fact a key point that the book heavily focuses on. Believe it or not, racial discrimination and power play of genders was, and still is, a huge problem in society. Steinbeck made two characters to represent segregation and power play. Curley’s wife was characterized to show how women were treated in this era, and Crooks was made to show how a different race was treated. People often respond to these supposed “weak” members of society by treating them unfairly or differently, the consequences of which include isolation and hatred.

Of Mice and Men is a novella by John Steinbeck that takes place around the 1930s in Salinas, California, during the Great Depression. The theme that is one of the strongest is social injustice, and this applies to three of the main characters: Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. Lennie’s mental illness, Crooks’ race, and Curley’s wife’s gender are all examples of discrimination in the novella. The theme of social injustice is used very strongly in the book, which is supported by the characters previously mentioned.