In the Story of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck wrote Mice and Men as a novella. Written in 1937, it demonstrates the perils of believing in dreams, particularly during the Great Depression, while emphasizing the importance of company and friendship. Through the characters of Crooks, an African American stable buck, Candy, an aging ranch worker, Lennie, a mentally challenged laborer, and Curley's Wife, a woman defined by her relationship with her husband, John Steinbeck shows how the less powerful are discriminated against by society in Of Mice and Men. Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie are the three characters who most experience prejudice towards mice and men. Crooks is forcibly suffering from racism as a result of physical violence, racist …show more content…
Card games are going on, but since I'm black, I can't participate. I stink, they say.” Also, Crooks' behavior can be explained by the fact that the ranch workers forbid him from entering the bunkhouse because they feel he is beneath them due to his skin tone. Crooks experiences extreme loneliness as a result of the separation because he is forced to live alone and is separated from his coworkers. By acting as though he needs to be left alone and refusing to interact with the ranch workers of the other race, he only wishes for and attempts to overlook discrimination, further separating himself from them. Also, Crooks makes a dejected call to Candy after getting harsh accusations from Curley's wife, saying, "Remember what I said about hoein' and doin' odd jobs? I wouldn't want to go anywhere similar.” Overall the objectives and dreams of many individuals who are touched by discrimination are destroyed by this powerful cause. A good example of this is the major characters in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, who have varying physical or mental