Discrimination In Of Mice And Men

What does it take to be discriminated against? The story Of Mice and Men-- written by John Steinbeck-- answers this question. Of Mice and Men is an action-packed tale about two men named George and Lennie; these best friends acquire a job at a ranch and experience adventures, dreams, and discrimination while they are there. George tries to keep Lennie out of trouble as much as possible because Lennie can not look out for himself-- but this gets both of them into a lot of trouble. Discrimination is when someone acts prejudicial towards a group of people-- it usually has to do with age, race, disabilities, or gender. In Of Mice and Men, Crooks (an african american stable boy) and Curley's wife (the only woman on the farm) are discriminated against because of their race and gender. Crooks experiences discrimination in the book Of Mice and Men because he is african american. The first example of discrimination in this book is when Crooks explains to Lennie why a black man is not wanted on the farm when Lennie barges into his bunk: “‘I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink” (Steinbeck 75). This quote shows that Crooks feels left out because of his race-- this makes Crooks feel unwanted and
The first example of this is when Curley’s wife leaves the bunkhouse after looking for Curley and “George [looks] around at Lennie ‘Jesus, what a tramp.’ he [says]” (Steinbeck 35). This quote shows that the men in this novel are rude to women. Another quote that represents discrimination against women is when George talks about Curley’s wife: “Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her” (Steinbeck 57). This quote shows that men in this time period thought that women had a certain place to be, and a farm was not that place. Curley’s wife accepted the discrimination by embracing it and acting like a ‘tart’, and living up to the stereotype of