Exploring Discrimination in 'Of Mice and Men'

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Have you ever experienced discrimination or witnessed someone treat another person with cruelness and hate? In the novella, “Of Mice and Men”, by john steinbeck, three main types of discrimination are shown. The time period of the book is set in is during the great depression, allowing us to see what life was like for women, disabled, and most importantly, colored people. One of the main ideas suggested throughout the book, is the fact that discrimination comes in so many different forms, whether we notice it or not. Characters that are discriminated throughout the book are Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie. Because of the discrimination towards crooks, crooks doesn’t trust most of the men, and shuts them out of his life and feelings. During …show more content…

This time it’s directed at curley's wife. When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch, one of the first characters they meet is curley's wife. After meeting her, George says to lennie, “well, you keep away from her, ‘cause she's a rat trap if i've ever seen one. You let curley take the rap. He let himself in for it,” (32). Even after George and Lennie meet her for the first time, George is already calling her a “rat trap”. They had such a brief encounter that the two men are already talking about her is ridiculous. If that’s how they treat one women they barely know, imagine how awful she is treated by the rest of the men. Eventually, curley's wife took a turn for the worse. When she went to go talk to lennie, a simple conversation caused her death. After the death of curley’s wife, sexism is still shown when candy whispers, “you god damn tramp… you done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knows you mess things up.” (95). Her death wasn’t even her fault, so when candy says that she's probably dead, it’s showing how much she was blamed for everything and how disliked she was. The men didn't try to hurt her, they ended up killing her. After all, she would have lived if it wasn't for how negatively she was treated. Steinbeck is able to show how women were treated, and how everything was their fault, thu the way curley's wife was treated throughout the

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