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Discrimination In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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In the book Of Mice and Men, the story is taken place during the time of the Great Depression. During this time there is a lot of discrimination. John Steinbeck shows discrimination and how it affects the characters. Lennie, Crooks, and Curley's wife are some characters that get discriminated for their mental-health, race, and their gender. Discrimination is shown negatively throughout the story. First, Lennie is one of the main characters that get discriminated. Because he has a mental-health that makes him slow, the other migrant workers don't treat him the same. George is Lennie’s friend that has been looking out for him since his aunt died, and he treats him differently because of his mental-health. ¨So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again do I? Jesus Christ, you're a crazy bastard¨ (4). Lennie’s mental-health makes him not remember certain details and ideas. Later on in the story everyone leaves the farm to go to a bar except Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife. “‘Well he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl squawks and …show more content…

Because Curley’s wife is a girl, everyone on the ranch doesn’t like her. “What kinda harm am i doin’ to you? Seems like they ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live. I tell you I ain’t used to livin’ like this. I coulda made somethin’ of myself” (88). The guys on the ranch call her a tart because they think she’s flirting with them when all she wants is to talk to someone because she’s lonely. “Well I ain’t giving you no trouble. Think I don't like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?” (77). Curley and his wife spend most of their time looking for eachother, and they never find each

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As the only women on the ranch, this causes Curley's wife to be the minority to all of the men on the farm. This causes her to become very lonely and isolated since she is the only women. In the texts Curley's wife says, “‘I get lonely,’... ‘You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad, ‘How’d you like not to talk to anybody?’”

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Curley’s wife responds with, “Aw, nuts! What kinda harm am I doin’ to you? Seems like they ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live… I don’ like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella… Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes…”

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Continuously she is being put down by the ranchers and is told consistently that her presence was unwanted on the ranch, even Curley, her husband, would act mentally abusive towards her. Day in and day out, it is assumed that Curley’s wife is being treated this way, and is putting up with this because she feels and/or knows that because she is a woman, she is inferior to them. Albeit her appearance no longer being near the ranchers, nor on the ranch, they will continue to maintain talking rudely about her, George eventually will start to poke fun at her when he only just met her, exclaiming: “‘Jesus, what a tramp,’ he said, ‘So that’s what Curley picks for a wife.’”.

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George is insecure that they won’t get the job because of Lennie, and it shows again his own insecurities as well as other employers prejudices. During the conversation about how Lennie is not supposed to talk, George calls him ‘a crazy bastard’ multiple times, ‘ a lot of trouble’, ‘a poor bastard’, and ‘a crazy fool’. In the book, he tries his best to make sure that Lennie knows that he, George, is the superior of the two. Looking deeper into this, one will find that George is

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In the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937, John Steinbeck shares the controversial story of two ranch men, George and Lennie. The story highlights the oppression many types of people face by sharing not just the lives of two ranch men, but also the lives of people that experience marginalization or scapegoating or live alongside minorities. George and Lennie are constantly drifting from one place to another looking for work because of the struggles and challenges they, like many others, face living in a world where people like Lennie experience harsh, unfair treatment. Lennie, a mentally disabled ranch man, is unfairly judged and seen as a target of society's frustration. Further into the book, Steinbeck introduces more characters as

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She is expected to stay in all day so when she comes out she acts like she's looking for curley but is looking for trouble. She is always looking for some type of attention. All she wants is to be involved and noticed but nobody understands her because everyone else there are hard working males and they don’t understand females. Another example of her low values back then is the cat house, they were used just to please men had never got any self respect. Once, when Curley’s wife came up to Lennie, Lennie told her “‘George said I ain’t to have nothing to do with you - talk to you or nothing.’”

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She is the only girl on the ranch, and because of this, she faces difficulties from the boys. Curley’s Wife was just trying to find someone to confide in, and Lennie was there, but because she could cause trouble, Lennie wasn’t allowed to talk to her. She says to Lennie, “‘Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely’” (86).

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