Privilege In Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Although the Great Depression was a difficult time for most of the country, some people thrived. This was mostly caused by the privilege and power some had over others. In The Great Gatsby written in 1925 by Fitzgerald and in Of Mice and Men written by Steinbeck in 1937, the female and/or poor characters are portrayed very differently than the rich male characters to show the effects that privilege had on this time. Both Fitzgerald and Steinbeck criticized privilege and power through characterization.
Both Fitzgerald and Steinbeck gave the women in The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men harsh and sexualized deaths through characterization and diction which shows that they had less privilege and power than the men in the stories. In The Great

In The Great Gatsby, Nick had just arrived at the Buchanan's home and described it as “a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion,” (Fitzgerald, 6) The words “Colonial” and "mansion” show that the Buchanan's house was very large and elegant. Even from just looking at the house it was apparent that the family was rich. This makes the reader pity Nick because the Buchanan's mansion is much bigger and nicer compared to his small house. Fitzgerald characterizes the house as extravagant because it is a “Colonial mansion” which is a lot larger and more extreme than the average person's home. This creates a negative connotation because although the Buchanans like having their mansion, everyone passing by probably doesn’t feel good about themselves. After all, the Buchanans have more than them. Fitzgerald condemns the rich for showing off by using their money to buy big expensive things while other people are living in poverty with little to no privilege. In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie’s bunk is described as “the walls were whitewashed, and the floors unpainted.” (Steinbeck, 18) The words “whitewashed” and “unpainted” suggest that the bunks were made very quickly. It also suggests that in building them, the builders were more focused on having somewhere for people to live while they worked, than on the appearance of the bunks. This makes the readers sympathetic towards George and Lennie because they were forced to live in a place that was boring and unfinished just so they could make enough money to survive on. Steinbeck characterizes the bunks as boring and unfinished because the room is very “unpainted” and dreary. Steinbeck included this to criticize the living situations and lack of privilege people in poverty had during the dust bowl. The differences in the description of the houses