Social Stereotypes In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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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. To begin with, when George and Lennie entered the farm looking for a job, they were viewed as lower class ranch workers. In Chapter 2 George and Lennie just entered the farm and are having a talk to their boss about getting the job. “‘So you wasn’t gonna say a word. You was gonna leave your big flapper shut …show more content…

Curly’s wife was someone who experienced sexism and loneliness. Towards the end of the book, before she gets killed she talks to Lennie about this. “‘ I get lonely.’ She said. ‘You can talk to people, but i can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody. (87)”’ She is talking to Lennie about how lonely and depressing her life is, due to her only being able to talk to her husband. Since Curley gets angry when she talks to other men. At the time, this demonstrates that women were not equal to men. Her feelings were that she was not a part of everyone else, and could not do a lot of things. Such as have just a simple conversation with other men due to her genders, nor play cards or games with everyone. Crooks on the other hand experienced racism. He was the only African American working on the farm and injured his back severely when getting kicked by a horse. Around the end of Chapter 4 Curley’s wife is disrespecting Crooks. “Well, you keep your place then, nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny.(81)” After Curley’s wife gets angry at him and then even threatens him, Crook begins to obey what she is saying and stops talking. This quote proves that African Americans had to obey what everyone else said like slaves, and were considered at the very bottom of the social class during that …show more content…

He was treated like a little kid and someone that they just fooled around with him. George, his best friend even played with him too. “‘Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet.No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show ya who’s yella.(62)”’ The people on the farm enjoyed messing with his mind, although Lennie thought they were serious. Due to his special condition he had, he was bullied and treated in a negative way, that could’ve ended very bad. As a friend, George could’ve stood up for Lennie but instead he went along with the mistreatment and bullying. “I turns to Lennie and says, 'Jump in.' An' he jumps. Couldn't swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him. (57)”’ Lennie is a very gullible person that will do anything you say if he trusts you. Letting him jump in the pool when not knowing how to swim was not a smart choice of the farmers and could’ve ended very badly. All the other workers do not respect him and just use him as a toy when they want to have fun. This shows that social hierarchy and classification towards the mentally challenged has been shown throughout this

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