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Privilege In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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In Of Mice and Men the characters demonstrates that those who obtain more privilege, possess more power than those who do not fit within the ideal standards of the American society. Firstly, those who are born into a life with privilege are those who dominate with power and control. Those who lack privilege due to the standards of society can not be powerful without fear of consequence. The workers on the ranch do not show power as they are afraid of what might happen if they do speak up. “Don't tell Curley I said none of this. He’d slough me. He just don’t give a damn. Won't ever get canned’ cause his old man’s the boss” (Steinbeck 27). Curley holds much more power on the ranch than any of the other men except for one person, his father. …show more content…

Curley is fortunate because he was born into a life where he had many privileges. Not only because he is white, straight, and wealthy but because he has the ability to exude authority, which ultimately intimidates the workers. This intimidation restricts the workers from ever wrongdoing Curley as they are unsure if he will use such power against them. This fear that Curley strikes within the workers is his power, as he truly lacks much power without all of his privileges. Secondly, people may obtain power in some aspects of their lives, yet lack any power or control when looked upon in a certain light by society. Curley’s wife is powerful because of her race and uses this to her advantage to put those who question her power in their place “Well you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny” (Steinbeck 81). It's easy to see that Curley’s wife is quite promiscuous, she walks around the ranch talking to the men all day, however this power she seems to obtain is not authentic. She uses her body to help fill the void of the power she lacks due to being a woman in 1930’s America. Curley’s wife may be powerful because she is white, straight and, wealthy but her gender takes away

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She resorts to talking with other men by flirting, but only makes Curley more protective and abusive towards the other men she is associating with. People do not see others’ internal selves, but only their external images. By focusing only on the outer appearance, the men on the farm see Curley’s wife as a “tart” (Steinbeck 29). Curley is very pejorative and the men in the ranch

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This showed that even though she doesn’t have any power she still has power over African Americans. She can even threaten to have Crooks killed because he talked to her. After she said that “crooks seemed to grow smaller, and he pressed himself against the wall. ‘yes, ma’am’” (80). This shows that the words Curley’s wife has a terrible effect on Crooks.

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In the 1930’s the stock market crashed and affected many people in America. In the novel “Of mice and men” by John Steinbeck he expresses a lot of what happened. The underdogs define powerfulness because of the setting and their place in society. A way steinbeck got his ideasfor powerlessness is the background.

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Curley is one of the characters that has the most power in the story. He always gets what he wants and he likes to pick fights with guys who are bigger than him just to show them he is tough. Curley’s power comes from the fact that his dad is the boss. He could get any of the guys who work on the ranch fired if he wanted to. The men do not respect him, they are just afraid of what he could do and they try to avoid him to stay out of trouble.

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Turning on the news to see another powerful dictator, or a new segregation issue is heart crushing. The fight for power is never ending, resulting in a disproportionate spread of it. The severity of these problems are rising to be a larger issue, an issue that Steinbeck noticed and brought much attention to in his novella, Of Mice and Men. He uses his characters to display the idea that power is too often unequally distributed, meaning some have too much power and others have too meager of an amount. Differing ranges of power then have negative impacts on people, as does Curley's power.

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