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Discrimination

Many themes can be obtained from the book Of Mice and Men, where John Steinbeck examines the life and well being of those who worked in ranches as they migrated in the 1930s. The book takes a historical context introduce intense crises in the United States in the 1930s —the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl which was brought about by drought on the prairies .These crises had great impacts on individuals’ lives which included high rates of unemployment. The reader of the book most likely sympathizes with the main characters of the book, where subsequent moral issues were introduced. Moral issues are addressed in the book through other aspects such as the need for companionship and loneliness. The major types of discrimination discussed in this book are racism, sexism and ageism where African Americans and women are found to have suffered more during this period than anyone else. These aspects are demonstrated through the characters Crooks, Curley’s wife and Candy.

The author uses Crooks, who is a black and crippled man, to bring out the immoral aspect of racism. Crooks’ skin color and aspect of being crippled make other workers in the ranch not consider him to be one of their own. “Crooks shows outstanding performance in his job” (Steinbeck 45). However, he is still discriminated against as Slim says that he is of less value due to his aspect of being African American. Crook is denied entering bunkhouse and live with other workers. This is revealed in the conversation between him and Lennie (Steinbeck 82). He also has a desire for companionship. As his original home is Africa, Crooks considers himself homeless and lonely. He ignores the fact that he was born and raised in America as his ancestry. Crooks also told of having never been treated like an American. He lived his whole life isolated except for few times during his childhood when he played with some white children. All the time, no other worker in the ranch or the community wants anything to do with Crook. However, Slim does not treat Crooks with prejudice like others, he treats him fairly unlike other white workers in the ranch.

Sexism is one prominent themes which is broadly discussed by Steinbeck. George says “Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her ’” (Steinbeck 135). George sees all the women as same as in the brothel. He sees all the women as exchangeable subject to satisfy men's needs. He did not think women could be hard working and diligent like men. Curley’s wife is also found to be severely lonely. Her husband is extremely jealous and could not allow her to interact with any man on the ranch. Considering that she is the only woman on the ranch, she has no one to talk to. Lennie is a strong, simple-minded and lumbering man who is unaware of his surroundings and have low IQ. he is not judgmental by character and the same as Crooks, Curley’s wife confesses to him of her loneliness where she tells him that she always wants to talk to someone, but the only person she can talk to is her husband. She asks “How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (Steinbeck 98). All the men isolates Curley’s wife because of her sexuality and she deliberately get attention from other men causing them to push further away from her. She was desperate lonely and hangs her hope to anyone who is willing to listen as appears Lennie was the only person willing to. She wants to be friend to Lennie. Lennie, her only friend, killed her by accident. She died with loneliness and desperation.

Ageism is a big discrimination brought up in the novel. Candy is a permanent resident at the ranch, who is a handicap. He does cleaning jobs. He is old and notices that he is aging—growing older and weak and he has no family. Candy is looked down by other workers because of his age and condition, which makes him isolate himself from others. Candy is only friends with his dog, that is killed due to old age and deteriorated health conditions. This keeps Candy lonelier, so that he wanted to be killed as well. The aspect of killing the dog, even though its condition was wanting, shows some degree of immorality by taking away from someone the only thing he cared about. George and Lennie plan to use their savings to buy a home, of which the idea makes Candy excited. This shows the desires that the men had. They wanted to move out of the depressing and lonely environment and move to a place where there is freedom and more importantly, where a character like Candy would not be looked down on because of his disability and old age.

The issues of racism, sexism and ageism are vividly brought up in the novel. These three are revealed through the characters Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife. Think carefully because the society at that time was divided into levels—physical, spiritual, social, and human races. The society during that time was corrupted and people don’t have any protection from the government. Steinbeck was trying to show us what is it look like that people live in a society with those big social issues. Women and men were treated completely different through their occupations and social statues etc. Women don’t get to do any jobs and seen like object from men. African American do not have any rights and no one wants affiliate with them. African men don’t get to work with white workers and treated indifferently. These migrant workers are at the bottom of the society and struggle for their own little dreams, but waiting for them is an irresistible cruel reality, and the beautiful dream is as light as a soap bubble bursting. Steinbeck portrayed characters in the book represented many people such "special ordinary people" who have dreams, but spiritual loneliness eventually caused them to fall into the deep well of society.

Work Cited

Steinbeck, John. "Of mice and men. 1937." Of Mice and Men . Penguin, 2002.