In 1937, John Steinbeck published a novella titled, Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men is a short and simple story evolving around the bond between two lads who share an optimistic dream to one day live on a piece of land of their own. Although the novella may seem short and simple to many, the themes are in fact very unique, meaningful, and relates to real-life circumstances. In this blog, two themes that are to be discussed further on includes: discrimination and the corrupting power of woman.
Discrimination is one of the major themes that have been conveyed exceptionally well throughout the novel. Throughout the story, Candy, Curley's wife, Crooks, and Lennie have all been discriminated because of their age, gender, race and size. In the novella, Candy is discriminated due to his old age. "They'll can me purty soon. Jus' as soon as I
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(Page 60). His age makes him feel as if he is too ancient to be of use and assumes that he would be fired pretty soon, which may not be the case. On page 59, Candy also explains, "That's why they give me a job swampin'. An' they give me two hundred an' fifty dollars 'cause I los' my hand…I got fifty more comin' the end a the month," and on page 60, George replies, "Look, if me an' Lennie work a month an' don't spen' nothing, we'll have a hundred bucks." In the past, Candy has lost one of his hand. "I lost my hand right here on this ranch." (Page 59). As a result, he has been given a job 'fit' for employees with only one convenient hand. Additionally, due to the absent of one of his hand, Candy has also been payed the amount equivalent to George and Lennie's pay, when really, Candy should have had his pay increased ages ago. Being a victim of discrimination, Candy has willingly chipped in a massive 350 bucks to the dream land, afraid he would not have anything worthy in the future to waste it on. He even said himself on page 59 that he "ain't much good", when in reality, people could be of
... (pg 60) . Candy so desperately wants his dream to come true so he is willing to invest his saving on the land that George picked out so that he can finally have his dream come true. But after George kills Lennie not only is Georges dream shattered but so is Candys ,and part of him still wishes that he and George still would've bought the land.
Candy’s amputation was caused by a farm machine incident on the ranch he works now. For Candy, the only way to get a farm and live happily is through George and Lennie, and the most probable thing to get in their way is Curley. In chapter three, Lennie crushes Curley’s hand after Curley starts to punch and thrust his face. Slim, saving Lennie and George’s job and Curley’s dignity and ego, tells Curley, “I think you got your han’ caught in a machine” (Steinbeck 62). Now the going story of how Candy’s obstacle in his journey was injured in the same manner that could have prevented him from achieving it in the first
In Of Mice and Men the character Candy is an old ranch worker. Candy has been working on otheres farms for years, while working on one of these farms he lost one of his hands in a farm accident. Candy was seen as a outcast to the other rach hands just like Lennie, Crooks and Curly's wife. The reasons they are seen as outcast is different and is what seperated them into different groups in American Society that they can relate to.
“People are always going to stereotype others… it may be without conscious thought, but it still has the same negative effects.”- Author Unknown. In the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, he includes many stereotypes; for example, Lennie was mean and dumb and Curley had small man syndrome. Other characters were stereotyped as hot headed, a tart, and a leader.
John Steinbeck’s creative and carefully planned writing expressed the difficulties of oppression in this Era. Of Mice and Men explored the effects of systemic oppression on women,
In the movie, this part of the story takes place a couple of days after the dog has been shot. Candy overhears and quickly offers up his money to help with the dream. (DVD) In the book, the event happens on the same night as the shooting of the dog, when the emotions of the characters are still raw and on edge. The other men have left the bunkhouse and George and Lennie begin to talk about their future plans. In the film version, Candy is visible in the background, but in the book he is not mentioned as the other two men talk to each other. The reader, as well as George and Lennie forget Candy is in the room until ask if George knew of a place. The text says that he was excited and eager when he speaks (56). It describes how he sat up on the edge of his bunk. He had just lost his only friend, but now here was an opportunity to not be alone. Here is a chance for him not to be lonely. He is so desperate for that, that he is offering every penny he has in the world plus his future earnings to a couple of strangers. He knows this is his only chance. "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn 't no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody 'd shoot me. But they won 't do nothing like that. I won 't have no place to go, and I
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck walks us through the journey of best friends named George and Lennie, who work on a ranch during the Great Depression in California’s Salinas Valley to achieve their goals. Throughout the book, Steinbeck suggest that social hierarchy and classification can lead toward a treatment to lower class workers, different genders and race, and the mentally disabled, when compared to white men workers.
Steinbeck utilizes the character of Candy to show he is aspiring the dream of owning land. Candy is an old swamper — a person that cleans — who lost his right hand in a ranch accident. The Boss keeps him around as long as he keeps the bunkhouses and everything else tidy. Candy fears of being fired; he wants to own land so no one could ever get rid of him. While listening in on Lennie and George’s plan, Candy decides this could be his opportunity to pursue his desire to own land. Candy says, “‘I got hurt four years
In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, many character experience different challenges throughout the book. One main thing that three characters struggle with is discrimination. People are constantly treat them in an unfair way and always look at them like they are not equal human beings. This does make sense though for the time period in which this novel was wrote, most people had not yet accepted that people were in fact, equal. Even though there is less discrimination today, it has not completely gone away. Things need to change because people are not enforcing consequences when someone is being discriminated against, as well as there are not many good models to show younger generations not to treat others different based on age, gender, race, and so many more. Three characters that face discrimination the most in the novel, Of Mice and Men, are Curley’s wife, Crooks, and Lennie.
This is the piece of speech, when Candy is trying to persuade George to let him in on the ranch their going to get. The language Steinbeck uses here, makes Candy seem overly eager to get in with George and Lennie. Mainly because, he’s dog dies so now he doesn’t have anybody, and he feels he might get canned. So as soon as he hears the opportunity to break away from being lonely, he jumps at it. I feel extremely sorry for Candy because he has nobody to turn to. He really does try to find friendship in people, but sometimes tries to hard.
The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the ground of race, age, or sex. In book of Mice and Men back in history many kind of people are discriminated against and the kind of discrimination gets harsh on 3 people. Discrimination affect characters in of Mice and Men through Crooks being Ignored and isolated from people, Curley 's wife not being looked as equal as the other people, and Lennie being looked as not a normal person.
John Steinbeck describes a world where the American dream is simple, yet hard to achieve. In the novel Of Mice And Men, Steinbeck paints a tragic portrait of America in the 1930´s. Steinbeck reveals the struggles and obstacles people faced during the Great Depression. The novel had situations that were tragic as well as major conflicts. The novel is full of complicity and twisting.
Throughout Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck displays how isolation through sexism and racism causes one to crave attention, and he helps the reader to understand the problems in society about racism and sexism through portraying Curley’s Wife and Crooks both craving attention in their own ways and experiencing various setbacks.
Discrimination was one of the issues that caused conflict in the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. One example of discrimination in the novel comes in the form of racial discrimination against Crooks, as he is an African American. Another example of discrimination is gender discrimination against Curley’s wife. Finally, there is discrimination against mentally disabled people, which is evident in Lennie’s character. The ranch hands' actions and conversations demonstrated the racial discrimination against Crooks for his skin colour, gender discrimination against Curley’s wife for her gender, and prejudice against Lennie, who was mentally disabled individual. This prevented the characters from reaching their full potential and causes tragedy.
Despite the perception that women are inferior and incompetent, seldom do women withstand this consistent discrimination upon their sex. Under the jurisdiction of men in their families, women are oftentimes restrained from opportunity and development. Curley, a man with an intimidating complexion, forces many, including his flirtatious wife, to succumb to his power. However, he fails to recognize his wife’s rising empowerment as she manipulates men around him into becoming her pawns. John Steinbeck’s usage of Curley’s wife in the novel Of Mice and Men delineates the desire of women to eliminate the over dominance of men through deceit in exchange for their own power.