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Discrimination In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

695 Words3 Pages

Findlay Eyre
Ms. Moussa
E.L.A. 9-C
Findlay Eyre
Race also needs its breathing space
We all once thought racism was just people discriminating a race, but if you dig just a bit deeper its more than a one-sided conflict it is, in fact, a domino effect, easy to start but hard to stop. You can quickly realize how racism isn’t just so simple, and neither sides help each out. This builds more tension and provokes even more racism sometimes leading to people being completely isolated to “stop” the racism. But clearly isolation doesn't stop it either as I have seen with Crooks, a black stable buck in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” (Penguin books 1993). As a reaction to the racism Crooks faces he actually makes his isolation and discrimination worse …show more content…

The first way he had been isolated from others was, as Cooks recounts playing with white kids on his father's farm, but his father had stopped letting him play with the little white kids because of Crooks’s race and Crooks now rarely interacts with his fellow white farm mates. His dad stopping him from playing with the white kids is also a great example of how later on when he got his job on the farm he was put in his own little room isolated from the other white farm hands simply because he is black and he, therefore, isn't. Crook’s position as a stable buck is a strong reflection of the racism, the term stable buck simply is a derogatory term meaning a black man who works in a stable and the term buck is also a military designation, a private buck, which is the lowest rank in the army. All the whites simply don't like Crooks or any black people so the best way to get rid of them is to make them “disappear” into their own dark and isolated

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Crooks is a instrestring character according to the story because he is only mentioned once or twice. He is interesting because by the two times he was mention you could tell right away that crooks is one of the loneliest people on the farm just like curley wife. In the story crooks is the only black person on the farm and this was a time of segregation so white people were not allowed to talk to black people. Crooks was lonely according to the story because he lives in his own bunk and is separated from everyone. Crooks has no one to talk to on the farm.

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Crooks confines himself in solitude. Crooks, a colored man, was situated along the horse stables, in a shack, by the commander. For his skin color complexion, Crooks suffers from discrimination, leading to isolation. Declaring his loneliness, Crooks proclaims, “ … there ain’t a colored man on this ranch an’ there’s jus’ one family in Soledad… If I say something, Why it’s just a nigger sayin’ it” (Steinbeck 70).

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John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, depicts race as a critical factor to the dominance of people during this time period. Racism is presented most evidently in chapter four by the treatment of Crooks, the stable buck. Crook’s and his fellow workers discussed ambitions in his quarters, which happened to be separate from the others clearly due to his skin tone. As the men conversed topics regarding the near future, Curley’s wife abruptly barged into the area searching for her husband. Noting the peril with which Curley’s wife is associated with,

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Crooks is a character that is very overlooked in the novella. The book took place a little after the American Civil War, and lots of these vets are still alive and well. So, the basis of racism is still prominent around the nation and especially in the vast regions of the farming lands. Which keeps Crooks contempt from reaching his dreams in life because of his race. For example he says, "S'pose you didn't have nobody.

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Crooks is portrayed as different from everybody else, not just because of his race, but also because of his disabilities. He gets the name “Crooks” because of his crooked back. His back makes him disabled, which results in him being looked down on as “not capable” as the others. As a result, this is another illustration of how he is separated and looked down upon by the other workers that cause him to be lonely and isolated from the rest of the farmers. “‘You got no right to come into my room.

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Crooks is isolated from others because of his race. He feels useless just sitting in the barn with the other animals. Crooks can’t fit in because no one will accept him. Moreover, Crooks wants to be someone more important because of his huge knowledge of things. Crooks knows if he wasn’t African American he would be able to use his knowledge to help the other men.

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Discrimination Present in Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck was born at the beginning of the twentieth century and experienced the turning point of many eras that are evidenced throughout his writings. Steinbeck lived through the strong economic years during World War I, the dirt poor years of the Great Depression, and even saw the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s; all of his dreams for these decades are evidenced in his works, more specifically, Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men is set in the 1920’s in the Salinas Valley of California. Other writers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, char-acterize the 1920’s as a fun decade with a booming economy filled with men rising from rags to riches, but Steinbeck shows how life was for men

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Crooks being the only black person on the farm, there was a lot of racism towards him. He had been isolated, and got threats because of his skin color. Though sometimes he thought it wasn't all that bad. He had also been accepted by Lennie. Crooks never really left his room because they had kept him isolated because he had a different skin color than the rest.

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And as a person of color, Crooks realizes and sees all this happening, just before the conversation, Lennie asked, “‘Why ain’t you wanted. Cause I 'm black,’” Crooks responded (OMAN 68). Crooks sees all of the small but racist actions that are done upon him by the other workers, not letting him play cards, saying he stinks, Crooks knows that this is all just because he is

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Crooks is rather blunt about the fact that he is unable to hang out with the other workers because of his race, which suggests that he is used to it. Being “more permanent than other men” (67) means he has

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Within the novel Crooks deals with loneliness, because he is segregated by his skin color. “S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black... A guy goes nuts when he ain’t got nobody” (72). Crooks is black, and in

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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.

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George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in at his family’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland County, of the British countryside of Virginia. His father is Augustine, and his mother is Mary Washington. He had nine siblings three brothers, three half-brothers, one sister, and two half-sisters and he spent most of his time at Ferry Farm a plantation owned by his father. It was near Fredericksburg, Virginia. He spent most of his time working on the farm until he was twelve because his father had died.

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In a conversation between him and Lennie, Crooks expresses his feelings about being discriminated. The boss had separated him from the rest of the white men as he sleeps in another building. This cuts off most human interaction between Crooks and the other workers. He expresses depression and sadness because of his lack of socialization with

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Crooks was forced to sleep in a separate room next to the stable, apart from the bunks where the rest of the ranch workers resided. Crooks was unable to participate in anything that the rest of the ranch workers did. All of this was a result of his ethnicity. “ “Cause I’m black. They play cards, but I can’t play because I’m black.

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