Discrimination In Of Mice And Men

In April 1968, Mrs. Jane Elliot conducted an ‘exercise’, through which she attempted to educate her students more thoroughly on discrimination. She stated that blue-eyed people are inferior to brown-eyed people, and created a discriminatory hierarchy. In just one day, the brown-eyed kids were calling the blue-eyed kids names. This also affected the performance of the students in class, as formerly excelling blue-eyed students began to perform poorly, and formerly failing brown-eyed kids began to perform very well. Similarly, in Of Mice and Men, a novel by John Steinbeck, the characters who were subject to prejudice began to feel inferior and accepted it. One character named Crooks is a black stable buck, and he is often subjected to racism,

The opinions of Candy, an old man, are seen as less important than the opinions of other workers. Candy had an old dog that stank a lot and struggled a lot every day. The other workers suggested that the dog is shot down, but Candy tries to delay it by requesting for it to happen tomorrow. In response, Carlson, a younger worker, says, “I don’t see no reason for it … Let’s get it over with” (Steinbeck 47). Candy tried to convince him and the other workers to let his dog live for longer, but his efforts were futile. When Candy attempted to tell the others to delay the put-down of his old dog, they stuck with their own opinion, because they didn’t want to sleep with the dog’s smell. This suggests that Candy’s opinions aren’t as valued as the opinions of younger workers. This could be because they believe he isn’t capable of having smart ideas or opinions due to his old age. Also, Candy himself believes he can’t work as efficiently as other younger workers. This is proven when George and Lennie were talking about their version of the American Dream, and Candy showed interest in joining them. When trying to convince them that he could help them in return, he says, “I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some” (Steinbeck 59). Candy believes that he wouldn’t be able to work as efficiently as George or Lennie, and he tells them exactly what he believes. Just like in Mrs. Elliot’s exercise when the performance of the blue-eyed students declined because they believed they were inferior, Candy’s work efficiency decreased because he believed he would not be too useful as he is of old age. This proves that ageism can make the affected person view themselves from a somewhat negative