The novel “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck written in 1937, is set in the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression. Crooks was one of the main characters who is mainly presented as an outcast within the ranch. The way Crooks is presented, illustrates all the idea of discrimination and racism during the 1930’s. In this period many struggled to survive and it was hard to earn a living and In the case of Crooks, Steinbeck uses him as a voice to portray the black community, so they can learn and understand the different ways of how black men lived and struggled, to survive but also how they were mentally and physically abused.…
"No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's a thing I want ya to know"(Steinbeck 106) -George…
Today prejudice issues have improved a lot since 1930’s, this has only been the case for 30 or 40 years. But they are still little problems such as the Ku Klux Klan. This is a secret organization founded in the southern states during Reconstruction to terrorize and intimidate former slaves and prevent them from voting or holding public office. In the book people wouldn’t even talk to Crooks and they could be hanged for no reason. Today, this would never happen, this might be because now we are more civilized but between 1930 and now it is a whole different world out there. Crooks from ‘’Of Mice and Men’’ its used to prejudice all his life since he lives in the time period were people were racist to blacks. Also in the movie ‘’What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’’ Arnie’s mom is prejudice all the time because of her size and people always give her dirty looks. Both of this characters have to live their life lonely because people always leave them out of things. Crooks lives alone and Arnie’s mom might as well live alone because her family leaves her out all…
“Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.” -Bill Gates. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men takes place during The Great Depression is 1937. In Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck uses some of his characters to show discrimination. The characters that i’m choosing to tell about the discrimination are Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Lennie. Steinbeck’s focuses are showing how discrimination was used during the early 1900’s from slavery, gender, or just people that are disliked.…
[Candy] said miserably, "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else”(Steinbeck 60). Candy is introduced in the start of chapter two, he is described indirectly by the narrator as a “Stoop shouldered old man”(Steinbeck 18). He is said to have a round stump on his right arm, but no hand. His dog enters later in chapter two, whom is described as a “dragfooted sheepdog, gray of a muzzle, and with pale, old eyes”(Steinbeck 26). Through these characters, Steinbeck helps the reader understand the stereotype of the uselessness of the elderly and disabled. Along with this, Candy and his dog create a parallel with George and Lennie.…
“Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for” (Bob Marley). The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, was set in the Great depression. In the novel George has to deal with Lenny every single day and it’s not easy, but he loves him and he just has to accept that Lenny is part of his life. In this book, society was frustrating. People were very sexist, and instead of coming together and helping each other everyone kept to themselves this is also known as isolation. Also, during this time people who suffered from mental and physical disabilities were often isolated and faced discrimination. Steinbeck identifies many societal problems during the Great Depression, and brings them to light in his novella Of Mice and Men.…
“Of Mice and Men “by John Steinbeck tells of two partners- George and Lennie- with goals to get enough money to obtain a home of their own. The two are put down by those around them. They tell them that too many other people come by with the same dream and it won’t be achieved, but they keep hope. The theme of this tale is that people who are misjudged are often mistreated. Three people in the novella that suffered mistreatment are Crooks, Lennie, and Curley’s wife.…
In John Steinbeck’s classic novel Of Mice and Men we are left with a question, “Now what do you suppose is eatin’ them two?” At the time Carlson did not understand the pain that George was going through after shooting his best friend. Many people also aren’t aware that John Steinbeck wasn’t just trying to tell a story but he was also trying to focus on the many injustices that surrounded him. Monumental topics like racism, sexism ageism, and discrimination towards the mentally slow. Constantly we see he comes back to these themes. John not only wanted to tell us a great story but he wanted to make us aware of the injustices that are very present in our everyday lives. One of the many themes he constantly comes back to in his novel is sexism, he tells us about Curley’s wife and how she is constantly pegged as a flirt when all she wanted is a friend, he also pointed out that women are discriminated because she never had a name and was looked at like property, then finally at the end of the novel after she dies no one mourns for her. Throughout his novel John was trying to help us realize how we treat people in our society, and the price we have to pay for it in the end.…
John Steinbeck shows that discrimination can lead to aggression in the novel, Of Mice and Men, through the character Lennie. Lennie tries to explain to George that he doesn’t try to kill the mice, but he ends up killing them anyway; “I’d pet ‘em and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead-because they was so little” (Steinbeck 10). Lennie wants the comfort of having something to take care of even if it is just a mouse. George doesn’t understand why Lennie wants to pet the mouse and discriminates him for it, making Lennie act aggressively. Lennie says they died “because they was so little” and that he didn’t mean to act aggressively, but since he was discriminated, he killed the mouse. When Lennie…
Slim, who wonders why more men don’t travel around together and theorizes that maybe it’s because everyone is scared of everyone else, appreciates the closeness of their friendship. One of the reasons that the tragic end of George and Lennie’s friendship has such a profound impact is that one senses that the friends have, by the end of the novella, lost a dream larger than themselves. The farm on which George and Lennie plan to live—a place that no one ever reaches—has a magnetic quality, as Crooks points out. After hearing a description of only a few sentences, Candy is completely drawn in by its magic. Crooks has witnessed countless men fall under the same silly spell, and still he cannot help but ask Lennie if he can have a patch of garden to hoe there. The men in Of Mice and Men desire to come together in a way that would allow them to be like brothers to one another. That is, they want to live with one another’s best interests in mind, to protect each other, and to know that there is someone in the world dedicated to protecting them. Given the harsh, lonely conditions under which these men live, it should come as no surprise that they idealize friendships between men in such a way.…
Minorities and women are often stereotyped and are often thought of as being impotent. This refers to the often portrayal as less dominate or powerful. Impotence is especially common in older eras when discrimination for these two groups was much greater than today. Steinbeck uses impotence tone toward women in minorities in Of Mice and Men.…
During the 1930s in America, life for people with colour was difficult due to racism, segregation and isolation which was seen as normality back then. Black people did everything to stay out of troubled and avoid been lynched; especially by the Ku-klux-klan who still had a lot of power. Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck reflects to all these themes and other such as: The American Dream, discrimination, friendship, prejudice etc. It also reflects to the Great depression of the 1930s through Lennie and George who travelled from place to place to work (frontiersmen) and through Crooks, who reviews how Blacks were treated in the 1930s. For example, he worked as hard as or even harder than anyone in the ranch but still was unworthy because of his race and position in the society in the 1930s. The title Of Mice and men comes from Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse”, this is relevant to the novel as Steinbeck portrays his characters to be at the mercy of fate, almost as powerless as mice. The purpose of my essay is to show how Steinbeck portrays Crooks in the novel.…
In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck one of the main themes is stereotyping. A stereotype is when people are grouped as being the same. There has always been stereotyping, and while some people break stereotypes or do not believe in them, there is still a number of people who do. Being stereotyped can make people want to act like what they are stereotyped as. Being stereotyped can slowly change how you act and who you are. Trying to break stereotypes, Lennie and George, Slim, Crooks, and Curley’s wife go against the norm for people like them in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.…
Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment different categories of people or things. Hatred: is an intense dislike or ill will towards someone or something. Alienation is the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved. All these words describe how certain people felt in America during the 1930’s if they were “different.” Day after day of these hard feelings and hurtful words takes a toll on someone. Heaviness and sets in whenever they are out in public. Those who bare a skin pigment atypical to the predominant color in the United States experience this the most. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, he symbolizes discrimination, hatred, and alienation of race through a character whose name is Crooks.…
Imagine having a negative reputation of flirting with mean when you have a husband or being alienated for a skin color you cannot control. This was the situation faced by Curley’s wife and Crooks in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Discrimination occurs in this novel because both Crooks and Curley’s wife are discriminated against for things such as race and gender. Even though both characters are discriminated against on the ranch the reasons they are discriminated against are different. Both characters are minorities, have bad reputations, and open up to people who are willing to listen and talk to them.…