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Deprecation Of Others In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Of Mice and Men is a short novel written by John Steinbeck in 1937. The book takes place in southern California during the time of the dust bowl, and focuses on 2 migrant workers, George and Lennie. Throughout the book, there is many belittling of others. Steinbeck uses various scenes involving the discrimination of minority people and character development to show people have an inherent need to make others feel powerless in order to feel more power themselves.

One of the main ideas of the novel is the deprecation of others in order to feel more powerful. Of Mice and Men is a miniature scale of our society as a whole, and this belittling can be seen in society on a greater scale with racism, sexism, ageism, and discrimination of the disabled. …show more content…

One example of this is where Candy explains why Curley was picking a fight with Lennie. “He hates big guys… S’pose Curley jumps a big guy an’ licks him. Ever’body says what a game guy Curley is. And s’pose he does the same thing and gets licked. Then ever’body says the big guy oughtta pick on somebody his own size, and maybe they gang up on the big guy. Never did seem right to me. Seems like Curley ain’t givin’ nobody a chance.” (26) This quote shows that Curley will do whatever it takes to be respected, especially when it involves fighting. Another example of this belittling is where George says “Used to play jokes on ‘im ‘cause he was too dumb to take ‘imself. But he was too dumb even to know he had a joke played on him.” (40) This shows that George used Lennie’s mental disability to amuse himself, completely disrespecting Lennie as a person and making himself feel more powerful. A third example of this from the book is where Curley’s wife says to Crooks “Well you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.” (81) This shows the inherent racism of the

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He shows his malevolence through his unnecessary need to provoke a fight with Lennie, even though the big man did not directly attack him in any way, but after first seeing Lennie, Curley is described: “His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and

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Chapter Five Constructed Response John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” was inspired by Robert Burn ’s poem “To a Mouse.” This means his novel has a similar meaning to Burn’s poem: animals have no dreams, but still experience melancholic feelings along with the human dreamers. The title “Of Mice and Men” is also a quote straight out of “To a Mouse.”

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Everyone Gets Stereotyped Stereotyping others can lead to problems in the future and can cause people to become upset. When the characters George and Lennie from the book Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, are first introduced its easy to tell George stereotypes Lennie as stupid. Since Lennie is stereotyped as stupid, he causes problems throughout the book. George is also stereotyped, but as protective of Lennie. Throughout the book George tries to help Lennie as much as he can, even if it leads to a bad situation.

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People today with mental disabilities are often criticized for not being “up to par” with everyone else in the world. This is true especially in the 1920’s, in which the novel Of Mice and Men takes place. Take Lennie Small for example, a large and hefty man, who has a mental disability. He, as a character, is blamed for the heinous act of murdering the antagonist’s wife, whose name is never revealed. It is true that Lennie does fracture her neck, but he does so without knowing.

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Of Mice and Men Literary Analysis Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” As a writer, John Steinbeck’s weapon is the written word and in his famous novel Of Mice and Men, he ventures to change the ideas and opinions of his readers. Of Mice and Men is set in 1930’s America during the Great Depression. Even though there are some instances in the novel where Steinbeck seems to mirror the attitudes of the past, there also are several instances where the author he displays the need for societal change. He uses characters in the novel, such as Lennie, to demonstrate the mistreatment of the mentally disabled.

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Unlike George who displays referent power, Curley displays coercive power or power through threatening/intimidating someone. Curley is the Boss’ son and because of that he has authority over most of the workers on the farm. Along with those reasons, Curley has coercive power because he is hot headed. With his past of being an amateur boxer he enjoys picking fights with men physically bigger than him. One instance of his is when he starts a fight with Lennie.

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Curley assumes that Lennie thinks more highly of himself and thinks that he’s being disrespectful when he didn’t reply to Curley as he demands that “he’s gotta talk when he’s spoke to (25).” This shows how Curley is insecure of himself because he’s a little guy, unlike Lennie. Curley acts like “he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy (26)”, which contributes to his boastful

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Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is a story about discrimination due to someone being different in any way. The reader learns how people were treated and discriminated in 1930s during the great depression. This is important because this issue continues even to this day. This problem has been around for a very long time. Steinbeck uses Archetypes,Symbolism, and Setting to convey the theme of discrimination.

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̈. ̈(Steinbeck 64).In this quote, power has been shown by Curley over Lennie. Lennie laughed at Curley like everyone did, but Curley was trying to show everyone that he is strong and decided to start fighting with Lennie because he has a disability even that Curley knows that Lennie is stronger than him and could beat him.but Lennie didnt want to hurt him or to get in trouble because he knows that curly in

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Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, is about the lives of working men on a ranch during the Great depression. John Steinbeck was highly capable of capturing the lives and thoughts of working men during the Great Depression, also bringing in the suffrage of mentality and how it was viewed by others in that era. However, there was one character, Slim, who fully understood the concept of a corrupted mentality and how one should deal with that dilemma. When it is stated “His hands, large and lean, were as delicate in their action as those of a temple dancer” (Steinbeck 33-34) the author is showing that though he is a skinner, his hands seem rather sophisticated and set off a soothing mood. From this evidence, it is shown that if one closely

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“If you look at great human civilizations, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union, you will see that most do not fail simply due to external threats but because of internal weakness, corruption, or a failure to manifest the values and ideals they espouse” (Booker). No one likes feeling weak; even more so when it’s their own fault. Weakness can be caused by a multitude of reasons such as the lack of a comprehension or for health reasons which sometimes lead to negative outcomes. John Steinbeck 's novella Of Mice and Men proves that weakness leads to a variety of repercussions by using irony to show weakness, Candy’s self troubles, and the use of foreshadowing. Irony was used to the show the outcomes caused by weakness in Of Mice and Men throughout the entirety of the story.

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In the 1930’s, migrant workers were very common and were usually treated very unfairly by their bosses. Of Mice and Men is a novella by John Steinbeck that focuses on two migrant workers who are best friends. The story focuses on their experience working on a ranch with a group of strangers. John Steinbeck reveals the weaknesses of migrant workers in his book to show the Marxism that migrant workers went through in the 1930’s. When George and Lennie meet their fellow workers, they are told how angry their noss was that the two didn't get to the ranch on time.

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is one of the most widely read modern novels in high schools today. John Steinbeck uses dialogue that can be seen in the times of The Great Depression but also does an outstanding job by making it sound familiar and seem more accessible in the eyes of young readers. The book's main focus is ranch travelers struggling to find work in the 1930’s. Steinbeck uses the themes of friendship and loneliness that is vastly seen in the characters of George and Lennie as well as Candy and Curley's wife.

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”(Steinbeck, 62) Likewise, throughout the novel you see George grow angry with Lennie because of his tendency to do stupid things. For example, when George says in reference to Lennie wanting ketchup with his food “What ever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty if I was alone I could live so easy!” (Steinbeck,

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John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a short novel that packs a punch and really looks back at America’s past and mistakes. Steinbeck paints a picture of the late 1920s and early 1930s through two men, George and Lennie. George looks after the mentally challenged Lennie and must take action by soon ending Lennie’s life. The characters in the novel all struggle with heartbreaking conflicts but, no one else suffers more than Lennie and George. These conflicts are often supported imagery in the text.

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