Ostracism In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Alice Foote MacDougall once said, “ Poverty is relative, and the lack of food and of the necessities of life is not necessarily a hardship. Spiritual and social ostracism, the invasion of your privacy, are what constitute the pain of poverty.” Ostracism is the act of denying a person from social interactions. MacDougall explains in her quote that while being poor and not having enough food is terrible, nothing is a larger hardship than living in constant separation. In today’s society, people are ostracized for numerous reasons. Children on the playground will ostracize a girl because her hair looks funny, or do the same to a boy because he would rather play pretend than play kickball. Young adults are forcibly ostracized because of their sexuality,

Because of this she has lost her social companions, and her partner for life. She later loses her son due to the pearl which only makes her more alone in her life. Lennie is a character from Of Mice and Men who is ostracized due to his mental disabilities. Lennie suffers from a learning disability that leaves him in the mental state of a

Child with a body of a full grown man. In a world full of grown men, a child does not fit in at all.

The men ridicule him leaving him mentally ostracized. Physically he fits in better than any other worker. Because of his odd grouping of mental ability and physical strength, Lennie often hurts or kills other living things because he doesn't understand his own strength in comparison to others. John Steinbeck uses all these characters and more to depict the ostracism that people struggle with daily when they are placed in a situation with which society does not agree with.

Readers see that Crooks is ostracized for his color; Kino is ostracized for his sudden wealth and his neighbors’ greed, and Tularecito is ostracized for his physical differences, Curley’s Wife is ostracized because of her gender, Juanna is ostracized because of her husband, and lennie