There, they encounter many different characters with their own shortcomings, whether mental, physical, or social. Each character and their handicap together represent a specific theme in the novel. Crooks is the African-American man who works in the stables of the farm. He got kicked by a horse many years ago, resulting in his crooked back. While his back is indeed a physical defect that hinders him, but the thing that segregates him from the others is his race.
He is given his own room to live in since he is unwanted in the bunkhouse, which is where all the other men sleep. He resents the other people working on the ranch because of how they treat him. Crooks is marginalized because he is an African American and this causes him to push other people away from him. Crooks is marginalized
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.
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
In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck many characters are portrayed as weak and inferior. During the time of this story, the Great Depression takes place, which was a time when many workers lost their jobs due to the stock market crash and the dust bowls. Because of this, they had to travel to places to find job opportunities. Workers often traveled to California in search of the rich fields of the Central Valley. This book focuses on two men, George and Lennie, who travel to find work opportunities, and they meet many people along the way.
John Steinbeck’s 1937 historical fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, is filled with issues that are still current today, and in the story, he hints at his own belief set. Some topics found in the book, which was set during the United States’ Great Depression, discussed sexism, prejudice, and friendships. These can be and are as difficult to discuss approximately eighty years later. Throughout the story, characters who are prejudice use victims to make themselves feel better about who they are, showing their own insecurities about their position. Steinbeck shows this idea, people’s way of expressing insecurities, throughout the book.
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.
In the novel Of Mice and Men and the 1930s in general people were brutally judged and treated differently because of the color of their skin and what gender they were. John Steinbeck shows elements of how race and gender are obstacles into the American Dream through Curley's wife and Crooks, a colored stable buck. Steinbeck uses the 1930s as a backdrop of a society infiltrated with racism and sexism, obstructing their characters path to achieving the American Dream. Steinbeck’s novel stands as a testament to the societal change present now where racism and sexism has progressed for the better.
Crooks is a different color, so he sleeps in the barn with the horses (67). When he's alone all day and sleeps alone, Crooks feels as if he can't have friends and feel noticed. All because of his color. Crooks can't even play cards with the “white men” (68). Even the ranch boss “gives him hell when he's mad” (20).
In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck illustrates a ranch in the 1930’s during the great depression where those who fit into mainstream society run the show, and those deemed “outcasts” are rendered useless. Steinbeck depicts characters with setbacks that diminish their value in the eyes of society, and contrasts them to characters that have no difficulties conforming to the norm. Crooks, being a black man isolated by his race, and Candy, a elderly man limited by his age and missing limb are examples of Steinbeck characters that experience hardships because of the differences. The poor treatment of Crooks and Candy by the other characters, and their chronic unhappiness in a place that doesn’t value them, comments on how
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.
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the era of the Great Depression in the 1930’s is revealed through a simple story of ranch workers who hope to improve their lives. Migrant workers, George and Lennie, have a friendship that is based on trust and protection. The other workers lack the companionship and bond that these two men have. In the novel, the absence and presence of friendship is the motivation for the characters’ actions.
Because of Crooks’ race, readers know that he has faced many years of isolation and discrimination. Crooks’ race causes him to be isolated from all the other men on the farm. “Crooks...had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn” (66). Crooks is kept from being able to talk, hang around, and sleep in the same place as the other men just because of his race. Crooks is also left by himself and can’t play games with the other men since he’s black.
Crooks is often left out from the rest of the ranch men and he explains “They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black.” (Steinbeck 68). Crooks is forced to stay in a shed all by himself, isolated from the others and is prohibited from participating in social activities only because of his differences. When certain characters get discriminated against, like Crooks and Lennie, it will cause them to become isolated in their
Crook’s character is being discriminated due to his skin color which soon caused him to be disregarded. Although at a certain point, Crooks stood up but no good has come to him. Challenging discrimination is strenuous, however it is necessary in order for an individual to advance. One of the most lousy assumption made during the novel’s time period is the hierarchy between the color of men.
