ipl-logo

Outcasts In Of Mice And Men By John Steinbeck

776 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The Great Depression and impact on African Americans

Life isn’t fair for many people, and in the Novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, this is evident through the characters of Crooks, Lennie, Candy, and Curley’s wife. In comparison to the other workers, these four outcasts are more closely related to each other than one may at first realize. Lennie has a lack of mental capacity, Crooks is black and has an injured back, Candy is missing a hand and is also old, and Curley’s wife is isolated by the other men due to being too flirtatious. These qualities, albeit unfortunate at best, gives these characters all one thing in common; they’re neglected and undesired by the other workers on the farm. These characters are all undesirable in their own way, and this is why they are outcasts. …show more content…

These characters are all outcasts because they either lack the ability to be of worth in a functioning society, or because of their ethnicity, gender, or traits which make them overall undesirable. This theme and this theme alone is very easy for people around the time period of the Great Depression to relate with. It was a time of great desperarity for many people, and the outcasts resemble this disparity to a very accurate degree. Like many of the average Americans at this time, they wanted a place in the world to call their own. They wanted to be accepted and they wanted to fit in. These outcasts were clumped together to reach out to a variety of either shunned, unaccepted, or prejudiced people. The outcasts all strive to make a connection with someone, and Crooks even says while speaking to Lennie on page 76, “It don’t make no difference if he don’t hear or understand. The thing is, they’re talkin’, or they’re settin’ still not talkin’, it don’t make no difference. George can tell you screwy things, and it don’t matter. It’s just talking, It’s just bein’ with another guy. That’s all”. This quote alone shows that despite how isolated Crooks has been his whole life, he, just like all the other outcasts, seek some form of acceptance, place, and

Show More
Related
708 Words | 3 Pages

The outcasts are run out of town because they are not observed as being reputable as the other citizens. The only reason that the outcasts, called the “deported wickedness” (Hart 2), are saved is that the town people who won money from Oakhurst took mercy upon them. A gambler, a drunkard, a madam and a prostitute are banished because Poker Flat is a God-fearing, Christian town and cannot tolerate such people. There are

Read More
577 Words | 3 Pages

It must feel horrible to be an outcast, especially when you do not understand that you are one. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Candy’s dog is an outcast to the men in the bunk house. The dog has multiple conditions which make it unwanted and unaccepted. Though Candy’s dog is not human it is still considered an outcast because it is old, smelly and suffering.

Read More
819 Words | 4 Pages

(Steinbeck 60) This essay is about the novel Of Mice and Men that of which takes place in California around the time of the dust bowl. Many of the characters in this novel may have impairments that may be physical or mental that make work on a ranch difficult for them. Lennie is dull, Curley is short, Crooks has a crooked back, and Candy is missing his right hand all these characters have to learn to live with these impairments and keep working hard so they don’t lose their

Read More
398 Words | 2 Pages

In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses Crooks as an example of minorities, marginalization, and scapegoating by highlighting the specific treatment of black men in the 1930s. One example of this is George and Candy’s conversation at the beginning of the story. In this conversation, Candy gives George a run down of where George and Lennie will stay and what the workers are like on the ranch. He states with a bit of pity, ‘“Yeah. Nice fella, too.

Read More
1082 Words | 5 Pages

Every story needs to have a climax and that is usually when the outcast and hero confront each other. Both outcast and hero are important in their own way to a story. The hero is the one that the other characters look up to. Also, the other characters intently fall in love with the hero. Then the outcast is the one that the other characters do not like.

Read More
748 Words | 3 Pages

This shows Crooks’s true values and feelings as he cares enough to protect Lennie from himself. This shows his brotherhood even for someone of a different race than

Read More
353 Words | 2 Pages

Discrimination of the mice and men In the book Of mice and men written by John Steinback some of the characters are mistreated by the other people because they are not the same they are the outcast of the group. Curley 's wife is a lonely woman on a ranch with a whole bunch of ranch hands and nobody wants to have anything to do with her she got married to man that she doesn 't even love she is just on the ranch with a lot of people and really nobody likes her and even after death nobody even felt bad for her. Candy said “ You God D*** Tramp”. You did it din you.

Read More
962 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, two men, named George and Lennie, start a new job working on a ranch to save to buy a piece of land to achieve their American Dream during the Great Depression. Lennie is a big man who is mentally challenged who represents innocence, and George is a small man who represents conscience for his actions determine main events throughout the story. George’s enthusiasm for a farm inspires others to work towards his American Dream. Lennie’s innocence that allows him to be a friend to anyone has an impact on the outcasts of society, and his death is such an impact on George that his ‘American Dream’ was obliterated. George has a dream of owning a piece of land and growing crops on it.

Read More
339 Words | 2 Pages

Outcasts The theme that John Steinbeck illustrates throughout his novel Of Mice and Men is that “society seeks out people who are different, labeling them as outcasts, and condemning them to a life of misery.” He does this by using three quotes that show the effects of being an outcast, and the loneliness that comes with it. Lennie is the main character and the best example of an outcast in the novel. He is seen as too stupid for his own sake and is not allowed to be involved in many situations.

Read More
945 Words | 4 Pages

f Mice and Men Essay - Essays and Analysis Critical Context and Evaluation print Print document PDF list Cite link Link Of Mice and Men is one of the most widely assigned modern novels in high schools because of both its form and the issues that it raises. John Steinbeck’s reliance on dialogue, as opposed to contextual description, makes the work accessible to young readers, as does his use of foreshadowing and recurrent images. Equally important is the way in which he intertwines the themes of loneliness and friendship and gives dignity to those characters, especially Lennie and Crooks, who are clearly different from their peers. By focusing on a group of lonely drifters, Steinbeck highlights the perceived isolation and sense of “otherness”

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

Steinbeck displays through the dialogue and characterizations that these characters experience isolation because of both social barriers and personal choice. Crooks being an African-American on the ranch, full of whites, struggles racially which causes his withdrawal from the society. Crooks explains to Lennie his when he’s accompanied by him “ A guy goes nuts if he ain 't got nobody. Don 't make no difference who the guy is long’s

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

For example, on Saturday night, Lennie innocently attempts to make friends with Crooks; however, Crooks is immediately contemptuous, snarling, “ ‘You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me’ ” (Steinbeck 33). Because Crooks is a racially discriminated against black man, he is used to being scorned by everyone; therefore, he despises most people and would rather be left alone to protect himself from further derision, as well as to conceal his deeper feelings of desolation and despair.

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

All people have goals, but some have no chance of achieving them. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Candy, Crooks and Lennie all live on the same farm, but are faced with different circumstances holding them back from achieving what they desire. Through the characters of Candy, Crooks, and Lennie, Steinbeck shows that issues outside the control of an individual often limit the achievement of an individual’s dream. Throughout the novel, Lennie is faced with obstacles that are in the way of him attaining his ultimate goal.

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

“And her eyes traveled from one face to another. ‘They left all the weak ones here’” (77). This quote appears late in the novel when Slim, George, and a few others from the ranch left to go into town. This means they left the others that were considered ‘the outcasts’ behind. In Of Mice and Men, these outcasts, Candy, Crooks, Curley’s Wife, and Lennie, are discriminated for their physical capabilities, race, gender, and mental abilities.

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck portrays the theme of social injustice throughout the story in the lives of several characters that include Lennie, Curley’s Wife, and the stable buck, Crooks. All of these characters are mistreated in some way, shape or form. The hardships that these characters faced help guide us to see the social injustice that is prevalent in the story. Lennie is a victim of social injustice due to the fact that he is mentally disabled. He is not treated fairly when he was accused of rape.

Read More

More about Outcasts In Of Mice And Men By John Steinbeck

Related Topics

Open Document