Discrimination In Of Mice And Men

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In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, two men, George and Lennie, find a new job at a ranch and many problems occur while they are there. Being migrant workers, George and Lennie find themselves traveling a lot, looking for new jobs. This pair of men find it even harder that it is to find new jobs because of the disability that Lennie has. Lennie’s disability doesn’t allow him to process ideas and situations in his brain as well as many others. Because of this, many problems happen when the men find new jobs which then causes them to get fired and lose their jobs. At their most recent job, a lot of problems and events occur and many characters there face the problem of discrimination. How do you think it feels to be discriminated …show more content…

Sexism is a type of discrimination due to gender. The character that faces this type of discrimination is Curley’s Wife. She is the only female at the ranch and is discriminated against frequently by the other men. An example of sexism in the story is when we are told that Curley’s wife is constantly ignored and is treated poorly by the other men. When George and Lennie meet Curley’s wife for the first time, George tells Lennie to stay away from her because he thinks that she will cause trouble for the two of them. “‘Don’t you even take a look at that b**ch… You leave her be,’” (Steinbeck 32). This quote shows that men can be prejudice towards women. They can discriminate them before they actually meet or talk to them. This relates back to the theme of discrimination because Curley’s wife was discriminated against before some of the men actually met her. Another example of sexism in the story is when the men talk about her behind her back. “She ain’t concealin’ nothing. I never seen nobody like her.. I don’t know what the hell she wants,” (Steinbeck 51). This shows sexism because they are judging her behind her back and continue to do it throughout most of the story. This relates back to the idea of sexism because men were constantly judged by men. One of the less obvious examples of sexism is the fact that Curley’s wife’s name isn’t actually said in the book. The author of the story may be telling the …show more content…

These examples illustrated the general idea of discrimination due to the isolation of characters. Some were discriminated against because they were different and didn’t fit in with the other people at the ranch. Once we finished the story, I thought that it was just a story about two men’s lives but after deeper thought, I realize that there is much more to it. There are problems occurring in the story that still happen today and the story does a great job in showing us that. The author of the story may be trying to tell the readers that discrimination was a big problem back then, and is still a big problem today. In cases nowadays, some people are discriminated against and judged because of small characteristics that a person may have. People get discriminated against all the time about these things and the author may be telling us that we should think twice about discriminating against

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