The Power Of Women In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Equality has been a hot topic in the past century. Women and African-Americans have not had equality for that long. Women gained quality in the 1920s and African-Americans gained equality in the 1960s. It took them a lot of time to get those rights and dream in Of Mice and Men, show equality must be worked for. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck utilizes the characters of Crooks and Curley’s wife to illustrate that equality takes a long time to come by.

The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck begins and ends in 1930’s southern California, during the great depression. This book is centered around two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is a short, quick thinking man, and Lennie is pretty much his opposite: huge, clumsy, and mentally ill. The book starts off with George and Lennie walking to a ranch to get work, which they desperately need. Once they get to the ranch, they meet several other folks, most of which suffer from some sort of oppression. There’s a black, a cripple, a woman, and a whole lot of poverty. In Of Mice and Men, oppression is presented as a major issue, one that affects nearly every character in the book to some degree, whether it be through racism, sexism, or ageism.

John Steinbeck uses different methods to present Curley’s Wife and women in the 1930s. Throughout the novella Steinbeck represents women to be lower in society than men. In the novella women only have three different roles. A wife, an aunt and prostitutes. Steinbeck uses these roles to show the roles of women in society. Curley’s wife, Aunt Clara and Susy and Clara from the cathouse represent he microcosm of the women in American society.

Relating to Crooks as an equal, they share the plan to buy a farm. Race is forgotten, until Curley’s wife appears. Forgetting to remember that he is black, Crooks’s orders her out of his room when she becomes belligerent and insulting. The backlash is immediate. Curley’s wife attacks Crooks in the most despicable display of racism in the novel. Warning him to remember his “place” and stay in it, she reminds Crooks that she can have him “strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny,” implying that she has the power to kill him by accusing him of rape or some other heinous assault. The threat is chilling because Crooks knows it’s true. His word means nothing, and Lennie and Candy’s testimony would not save him from her false

American journalist David Grann once said, “You want the story to be about something, have some deeper meaning, but there is also an emotional, almost instinctual element, which is, does this story seize some part of you and compel you to get to the bottom of it?” Every piece of text has a meaning that goes deeper than the page it is printed on. Of Mice and Men is an example of this. Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck in 1937. The story takes place in California during the Great Depression, a time where it was laborious to be anything close to successful. Everyone believed that with a minimal amount of hard work and money saved up, the American Dream could be at their fingertips. The two main characters George and Lennie struggle to get land to call their own. Lennie is driven by his dream of tending rabbits, but he makes it challenging when he is the main reason of their setbacks and complications as they move from job to job. Fortunately, George is always there to clean up the mess. Of Mice and Men is studied as an allegory because the characters symbolize problems more substantial than the ones Steinbeck clearly writes about. John Steinbeck zooms in on other problems that America struggles with besides the enticing desire for just materialistic things. Steinbeck criticizes racism, the mistreatment of those who are disabled, and the disrespect of women.

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.

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.

In 1929, tears swept the nation and gloom bestowed itself upon a once happy place. The Great Depression had started. People lost everything ,so many became migrant workers. Of Mice and Men, a classic novel written by John Steinbeck, emphasizes many sad themes, but gives us a good insight on what life was like in the 1940’s for many people. Although there are other themes, rootlessness, loneliness, and poverty are extremely prominent throughout the novel in many characters.

The novel ‘of mice and men’ was written buy john Steinbeck in 1937.Its about two migrant workers who move from place to place in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in California, United States. These were the time when America was poor and had no money. The banks were all shut down and people became homeless, people struggled, there were beggars everywhere, they would walk miles and miles to look for job that they can settle to work and earn money for the family. Women joined the work force and would do jobs that men previously had held.  These women worked as hard as they could to support their families during this difficult time. Women in the Jacobean Era had to obey their husband‘s /fathers every decision

“I don’ like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella,” (86) Curley’s wife did not actually like him; she married him to prove her mother wrong. She thought he was too focused on how well he could fight. However, Crooks grew up always being discriminated from against the world because of his color, but even that after a while got to be lonely. Although he did not put his self out for everyone’s attention, he just stayed alone and read his books.

The novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ was written by John Steinback, whom depicts how life was like for men and women in the 1930’s. From the outset, we were shown through the title itself ‘Of Mice and Men’ that the novel wouldn’t end well for George and Lennie. As this title was inspired by a Scottish poet whom said in his famous poem ‘To a Mouse’ ‘…the best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men, Gang aft agley’, conveys how no matter how well we may plan the future, things will often go wrong and obstacles will appear. Additionally, despite the American dream – the lack of hope, violence and harshness surrounding the men; gave a clear view into the lives of migrant workers such as George and Lennie. Portraying how the American dream is deemed unattainable for the men at the ranch, whom are destined to fall prey to a vicious cycle of harshness and violence – unable to escape from the world that they are living in.

All humans are different. We have different skin colors, not everyone is the same sex. That is what make us human. These differences are what bring us together, but they can tear us apart. Humans can be plain and simply cruel to one another. John Steinbeck shows us how us as humans can be cruel and our cruelties of the past that still live one to today. He brings to light that people who stand out or are mistreated to say the least. Humans were cruel in the past and they’ll always be cruel. It’s just human nature.

An example of this is when Candy, Crooks, and Lennie are talking about their dream in Crook’s bunkhouse and Curley’s wife comes in. After she comes in, she begins to accuse Lennie of breaking Curleys’ hand. Trying to defend Lennie, Crooks threatens Curley’s wife by telling her that she will ask the owner to stop her from coming to the barn. Hearing that, “She turned on him in scorn. ‘Listen, Nigger,’ she said.

However, Curley’s wife gives him a grim reminder of the cruelness blacks receive for disobeying whites by saying that she can easily have him hung. “Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easily it ain’t even funny.” (Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, 81) This shows that Crooks might not be able to ever get accepted by white men at the ranch solely because he’s black and underprivileged compared to the white men.

From black people to white people, to the old and the young, almost every person was discriminated against in some way during the depression and even today. Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men takes place during the Great Depression, 1940s era and describes a very realistic situation about characters who are simply trying to get by and chasing the “American Dream” but struggles with conflict within themselves and the outside world. Discrimination was a common theme of Of Mice and Men and greatly affected the lives of the characters in the novella. Some characters include: Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy. The novella is a realistic representation of discrimination in society.