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Racial Characters In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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The book Of Mice and Men takes place in salinas valley on a ranch during the great depression. The book mainly focuses on the life of Lennie and george. Lennie and george have known each other for a very long time and they are traveling companions. Lennie has some sort of mental disability and this hinders how him and george earn money and get work. Lennie’s mental disability creates problems for him along with his strength. He does not know his own strength and he has the mental capacity of a child making him dangerous due. He does not mean to cause harm to anything but he does. As it takes place during the great depression there is even more racist and sexism present than there is today. Women and POC* are discriminated against pretty severely. In the book several minorities are dehumanized by being called derogatory names or not being given a name and being reduced to just a man 's wife. The book also does not pass the bechdel test, which shows that in this time period/in this book minorities are not valued. Curley’s wife was labelled a tart for trying to make friends after curley …show more content…

In the ‘30s people of colour were treated even worse than they are in today’s society. They made crooks sleep separately from the rest of the workers. They discluded him from games and festivities. Worst of all they called him a slur. A slur being a derogatory or insulting term applied to particular group of people, in this case being the n-word directed at crooks. The n-word is highly offensive and that is common knowledge so the ranch workers had to have known and kept calling him that. For example when slim is looking for crooks he calls out to him as the stable buck and then says, “Where the hell is that God damn n***er?” It is abusive and dehumanizing to call someone a slur like that. They call him the n-word so casually and easily that they must be using the offensive term

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Tarik Adenwala 7.3 Lit Response An “Incident” that has happen to me, and still sometimes does to this day, is very similar to Countee Cullen. He was just minding his own business when someone decides to budge in and give their racial comments, and to this day this occurs more than you may know. Cullen was called the N word for his skin tone, while I get called a terrorist for my first name and my heritage.

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The Central Theme And Motifs In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor defines interaction with the “n-word” as a “point of encounter.” I have had many “encounters” of the “n-word” such as hearing it in rap songs, at school, in movies, and sports games and events. It has somehow been normalized to say by members of society and by normalizing the use of the “n-word” we will never be able to advance forward on the problem of racism. Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor argues that the “n-word” is different from other vile words because of its racist meaning and past. She also inferred that it made people uncomfortable, mad, or depressed.

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Black people were also called harsh names, such as the "n" word. Black people must have felt left out, only having what white people weren’t using.

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When America was founded in 1776, slavery was widely practiced and accepted, and the n-word was frequently used as a way to address African slaves. Most, or at least all Americans at that time believed that Africans were sub-humans that had no rights to their names whatsoever. The word itself evolved from the Spanish word negro as well as from the French word nègre, both which have the meaning of the color black. Even after slavery was abolished in 1865, African-Americans still lacked rights and were frequently called the n-word as well. The word holds a heavy connotation which brings up terrible memories from history as well as times of rebellion and the civil rights

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Since Curley's wife never received a letter back from the movie director who promised her a role in Hollywood. However that barrier isn’t changeable, and the only barrier she has is her inability to move on from her dead dream. Crooks is in a similar position to Curly wife. He is crippled which hinders is working ability ,and the color of his skin hinders his ability to be hired. Since this book takes place in 1937, the people living in this time are racist to people of color.

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The Role Of Power In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Crooks is an African American farm worker that works with horses on the land. Being a colored person in this era was harsh, and the color of your skin automatically determined the amount of power you would have, so African Americans did not have power compared to everyone else in society. “Lennie watched her, his mouth half open. Crooks had retired into the terrible protective dignity of the negro.” (79;ch.4).

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Examples Of Archetypes In Of Mice And Men

840 Words | 4 Pages

Archetypes are a manifestation of how our minds envision the roles of characters, these characters come in the form of the hero, villain, temptress, damsel, monster, and mentor. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, we follow the story of two men who struggle to pull through to survive horrible times, on their journey they come across other characters that fulfill the roles of the archetypes. The archetype in discussion is the villain archetype which is the evildoer of a story usually a person who commits a crime against society or against a couple of people. One character in particular that fills the archetype of the villain is Curley, he has an aura of evil that resonates from his attitude and his actions, which triggers people

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