Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck possesses many themes. For example friendship, racism, innocence, false trust, betrayal, and the sexism, are a few themes in this novel. Additionally, another theme that appears incessantly is prejudice. Prejudice is the act of judging someone for his/her race, gender, sexual orientation, social status, appearance, or speech without truly meeting or knowing him/her. An example of prejudice would be if one were to assume another person was stupid because he/she stuttered. Another example would be assuming a woman was weak, dependent, and stupid simply because of her gender. In Of Mice and Men, there are several examples of prejudice. To begin, one example of prejudice pertains to how the stable buck is treated …show more content…
Done pretty good, too. The guys wouldn’t let him use his feet, so the nigger got him. If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigger. The guys said on account of the nigger’s got a crooked back, Smitty can’t use his feet(Steinbeck 11.)” Some may believe, the prejudice in this quote involves racism because of the racial slurs; however, the prejudice here involves the appearance of Crooks. The workers believed because he had a crooked back, they gave Crooks a handicap. Thus implying that because Crooks had an abnormal spine he was weak. In this case, Crooks proved this prejudice wrong because he won the fight. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all scenarios. To explain, not all prejudicial beliefs are incorrect. There are over seven billion people in this world and more than likely one’s prejudicial beliefs will be true at one time or another. For example, a person could be walking down the street and sees a person with a pimple on his/her face with pus and other bodily fluids burgeoning out like magma out of a volcano. The pedestrian could be prejudice and assume because of their appearance this blemished person is lazy, dirty, putrid, and does not keep up with his/her hygiene.
In the book Of Mice and Men, Lennie is one of the first characters to be stereotyped. He is judged by everyone who sees him because he has a mental disability that people have a hard time looking past. They all see him as a big and dumb, even though he is described as tough and hard working many times in the book , for example on page 34 George says “He ain’t bright. Hell of a good worker, though. Hell of a fella, but he ain’t bright.”
John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, depicts race as a critical factor to the dominance of people during this time period. Racism is presented most evidently in chapter four by the treatment of Crooks, the stable buck. Crook’s and his fellow workers discussed ambitions in his quarters, which happened to be separate from the others clearly due to his skin tone. As the men conversed topics regarding the near future, Curley’s wife abruptly barged into the area searching for her husband. Noting the peril with which Curley’s wife is associated with,
Being treated differently based on your physical and mental state is very common in our world. So common, that it is often talked about and written about. Stereotypes are a major focus in Of Mice and Men, particularly stereotypes against the handicapped. There are many instances throughout this book that demonstrates how discrimination against the impaired characters connects to the theme loneliness. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, stereotypes against the disabled greatly impacted the sense of loneliness of the characters.
Prejudice; a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience (https://www.google.com/search). The book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, portrays examples of racial and social prejudice. It is relevant to the issues we face in present times as well as the time the book was published in 1960 during the great depression. Some elements observed in To Kill A Mockingbird were characters, tone, and setting. These elements helped the reader connect to the book in a special way and give understanding.
Those examples show how people will quickly judge people based on their actions or appearances. When someone stereotypes another person it makes them feel like they are better than the other person. People could judge Lennie on his height and his appearance. The narrator states, “Behind him walked his opposite...a huge man shapeless of face with large pale eyes wide sloping shoulders.” That
John Steinbeck published Of Mice and Men in 1937, portraying two struggling migrant workers on their tiring journey; George and Lennie. This narrative hugely reflects the time period in which it was written, since it was the time of The Great Depression (in the 1920-30s) where the stock market crashed. Therefore little jobs were available to citizens and those that were most probably meant travelling rather long way. This ties into Of Mice and Men through the concept of George and Lennie doing to work on the ranch. Also within this historical period there was a lot of prejudice, inequality and discrimination, Steinbeck intentionally mirrors these themes effectively.
Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Common prejudices such as racism and sexism provide simple examples as to how easily prejudice clouds one’s judgment. Prejudice is displayed in Lee’s choice of stereotypical dialect, in Cathy’s apparent innocence, and in Adam’s shame in being a single father. The negatives of prejudice are just one of many themes in John Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden.
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck conveys prejudice through how people act differently based on their relationships and the setting. Of Mice and Men is based during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, when jobs were scarce, as proven by Lennie, Crooks and Curly’s Wife: They all are rejected for different reasons. This makes people have fewer bonds with each other, as stated from the boss when George and Lennie show up. He says “well I've never seen one guy care so much for another guy.” (Pg 22) Which demonstrates that bonds like these are not common during this time.
Discrimination of the mice and men In the book Of mice and men written by John Steinback some of the characters are mistreated by the other people because they are not the same they are the outcast of the group. Curley 's wife is a lonely woman on a ranch with a whole bunch of ranch hands and nobody wants to have anything to do with her she got married to man that she doesn 't even love she is just on the ranch with a lot of people and really nobody likes her and even after death nobody even felt bad for her. Candy said “ You God D*** Tramp”. You did it din you.
Mohammed Abadi Block D January 5, 2016 The Misunderstood Man Racism was one of the biggest problems in the 1930’s and in the human history. African-American people were treated like animals, the white people considered the African-American people as lower than them in social raking and treated them with injustice. In Steinbeck’s story, Crooks displays how hard life was for every African-American man in 1930’s. They were treated like animals, carelessly, disrespectfully, and they were also tortured.
Discrimination When people think of discrimination, the Holocaust comes to mind, but there are many more examples and ways of discriminating against others. This issue has been going on for centuries, and it is still a problem in today’s world. Discrimination is the isolating of others because of race, intelligence, and/or religion.
Everyone Gets Stereotyped Stereotyping others can lead to problems in the future and can cause people to become upset. When the characters George and Lennie from the book Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, are first introduced its easy to tell George stereotypes Lennie as stupid. Since Lennie is stereotyped as stupid, he causes problems throughout the book. George is also stereotyped, but as protective of Lennie. Throughout the book George tries to help Lennie as much as he can, even if it leads to a bad situation.
The novellas Of Mice and Men and The Pearl are both often noted as social criticisms. The author, John Steinbeck addresses real-life issues that society is facing. Whether through direct statements and comments, or through a fictional characters’ situation, Steinbeck criticizes just some of the problems of society. He shows the way people are discriminated against, and why. He shows the issues society faces.
The definition of Prejudice is, “An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason”(Dictionary.com) The majority of humans tend to judge others by appearance rather than personality. Examples derive from culture and treatment of African American people and how others perceive them to be. Prejudice and appearance are prevalent in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein as well as today’s culture which has consequences regarding race, age, religion, etc. In Frankenstein, the monster is a hideous, vicious being of large stature who has the potential to cause injury, so he is perceived to be malicious due to these characteristics.
For example, a company may refuse to hire someone for a job, because of the basis of stereotypes. As a result, a particular person might avoid a part of the city associated with a certain ethnic group. Due to the stereotypes associated