Sympathy For Characters In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

“There is no greater disability in society , than the inability to see a person as more” by Robert M. Hensel . Discrimination is a unjust treatment, both women and men have been discriminated by their differences between themselves. In Of MIce and Men many characters are discriminated for their disabilities, gender, age, and the most known the discrimination of color. Curley’s wife is discriminated for her gender. As the wife of the son’s boss, she is isolated by many other men, but is not able to make any contact with them due to her jealous husband.

It is shown multiple times through Of Mice and Men that Curley can be very unfriendly. Even when Curley first met George and Lennie, he did not have the decency of being nice to them. He gave off the vibes of being unfriendly to George and Lennie. When he first saw George and Lennie he gave them a cold stare, and clenched his fists. He threw words of anger at the two, and didn’t even give them a chance.

‘What the hell you laughin’ at?’ Lennie looked blankly at him. ‘Huh?’ Then Curley’s rage exploded.”(Steinbeck 62) Curley fights people for no apparent reason, and this time it came back to bite him. “George was on his feet yelling, ‘Get him, Lennie. Don’t let him do it.’”(63) Lennie then proceeds to break Curley’s hand, and Curley realizes he shouldn’t have messed with Lennie. Curley also treats his wife as property, as the author doesn’t even give her a name.

The narrator’s impoliteness is a major factor of him being blind. The narrator goes on a rant about Roberts wife and how pathetic she must have felt when she died, because she died knowing the fact that Robert never knew what she looked like. As the story proceeded we learned to dislike the narrator as he was rude towards most the characters in this story. He doesn’t even give us his wife’s name. He blames Robert for many things before he even meets

Notwithstanding, he has had controversy with almost everyone on the ranch. He abused Lennie, a mentally disabled man, he publicly exposes his and his wife’s sexual lives, and he treats his wife as if she is his slave. Moreover, the actions Curley has done are corrupt, but they are not solely because he is an abominable person. An infrequent amount of readers will look at Curley’s actions and have sympathy for him, but Curley has reasons for his mistakes. Nevertheless, Curley is a disastrous man due to the way he grew up being an only child, he is astoundingly short, his father is a wealthy ranch owner, and he grew up in a racist and sexist community.

An example of a relationship without caring or connection to the other person. His anger and desire to fight is seen when he fights Lennie, a mentally handicapped man on the ranch. Curley’s wife does not care about Curley which is seen when she appears happy when Lennie breaks Curley’s hand in their fight. Curley’s wife says “think I don’t like to talk to somebody every once in awhile” (p.77) meaning that she feels being with Curley is like talking to no one, because they never talk about her feelings or concerns about life. Another example of their uncaring relationship is when Curley’s wife dies and when he sees her dead body is not sad about losing her but simply uses this as a reason to fight the person who did it.

In the story of “The Lady with the Dog”, the character Gurov’ character changes because of the events that occur in the story. At the beginning of the story, Gurov seems heartless, he does not respect the people around him including his wife, “he has begun being unfaithful to her long ago -- had been unfaithful to her often, and, probably on that account, almost always spoke ill of women, and when they were talked about in his presence, used to call them "the lower race” (172). He also does not feel anything toward women and thinks “their beauty aroused hatred in him and the lace on their linen reminded him of scales” (175). Love could be a reflex action. People find themselves victim of it; frequently in the worst place, time and circumstances

The readers feel angry. When Joe asks Lena if he is her husband Hurston says, “Lena looked at him real disgusted but she don’t answer and she don’t move outa her tracks”. The reader feels angry as Lena does not show any sympathy towards Joe, her loving husband. Lena does not care about Joe’s emotions as she does it in front of his face! The reader feels angry again when Spunk says, “‘doan give up whut’s yours, but when youse inside don’t forgit youse mine, an’ let no other man git outa his place wid you!”.

In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, nearly every character is discriminated against and it's had a lasting effect on their lives. Whether it's from being a woman, old or disabled it's made the characters dependent on others and overall lonely. Lennie, Candy and Curley’s wife all experience inequity from people who want to use them for personal gain or to make themselves feel better. Another person discriminated against is Curley's wife, who doesn't even have the honor of being named. With her controlling husband and being the only woman on the farm, Curley’s wife is constantly ignored or dismissed,“ Well you keep away from her, ‘cause she's a rat trap if I ever seen one.

“Curleys wife” (Pg 79) represents how they do not respect her enough to call her by her own name showing how much she lacks an identity of her own and is treated as a piece of property to her husband making it hard for her to do what she wants without being critiqued by the men on the farm. Another way Steinbeck objectifys Curley 's wife is by using specific vocabulary “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don 't care what she says and what she does. I seen em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her. You leave her be.” (Pg 32) Through this quote Steinbeck is able to reveal the