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

In the novel Of Mice And Men by John Stienbeck, the hierarchy of the characters in Crooks’ room is Curley’s wife, Candy, Lennie, and Crooks. This is shown by the way each of these characters interact with each other. Crooks is shown to have the least power because he lost his battle with Lennie. Crooks tried to get into Lennie’s head, which worked, until Lennie became violent. Crooks, seeing that he couldn’t compete, backed off, showing that Lennie had power over him.

A’sana Hicks Mrs. Minchella English 11 January 18, 2017 In the novel Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck makes it clear that George and Lennie face obstacles as they travel from ranch to ranch to make a living. The setting of the novel took place in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Lennie and George worked at a ranch that was located in Salinas Valley, California. George’s action was correct at the end of the novel.

Crooks is constantly being discriminated against which is the effect of being colored at this time. During the book talks to Crooks about the farm he desires, Crook says to Lennie, “S'pose you couldn't go into the bunkhouse and play rummy 'cause you was black. How'd you like that?” () Crook is at the bottom of the social hierarchy because of his race. This inequality is the barrier to his dreams of being

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” says Abraham Lincoln. I personally agree with this idea, for many reasons which include the following. The first reason I agree with this idea, because it shows in Of Mice and Men, when Curley's wife knows she has power so, she presents her real character by using racism on Crooks, calling Candy old, and calling Lenny stupid. Without power she would be absent, fearful, and desperate, which would tuck away her real character. The second reason I agree with this belief, is that I have even experienced this with my siblings.

Although Crooks is the only one that has his place the way he complains about not being able to play cards suggests that he would prefer being with the other guys. Also, another form of discrimination Crooks suffered was being called racial slurs. Throughout the book, he is called multiple times racial slurs. " Ya see the stable buck's a nigger."

This theme of strength and power coming up from vulnerability is clearly shown in the book Of Mice and Men through repetition. The pupilage group of characters in the book are insecure and diverse, therefore they pick on the others to make themselves feel more dominant or take everyone down with them. Crooks is a minority on the ranch by virtue of being the only African-American with a crooked back from a kick from a horse. Crooks being the only African-American makes him get discriminated every day.

Crooks is a black man who has been given the nickname because of his crooked back. He is another character in the novel that is discriminated against. Similarly, as Lennie and Candy are discriminated because of their weakness, Crooks is discriminated because of his race. For example, he says how he “ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse… can’t play [cards] because I’m black” (68). His race causes him to be separated from everyone else and be isolated in his own room.

Considered weak, Crooks did not mingle with the strong. Within the male social order contained the weak too, which includes Lennie and Candy, but white men still had more power than women. When strong white men went into town to drink, they left the weak on the ranch. Candy and Lennie shared many of their powers with Curley’s wife, proving that women could gain a miniscule chunk of

b) The impossibility of the American dream The majority of characters from Of Mice and Men at one point during the story, dreamt of a better life. For Crooks, it was in the barn when he imagined himself hoeing on George and Lennie's farm. For Curley’s wife, it was to become a hollywood movie star. George, Lennie and Candy all fantasized a farm. What makes these dreams American is that they wished for unconditional happiness and freedom.

Power has a negative effect because it causes people to be stubborn and argue in such a competitive manner. First of all, when people in power feel challenged or questioned, they allow stubbornness to over take their reasoning. For example, when Creon makes his edict he did not realize that someone close to him would have such an issue with it, to the point where nothing was accomplished about Antigone and her trying to bury her brother. The only thing other than that was just arguing within the family, only tearing their family farther apart than it already was.

Crooks is an all alone, isolated character in Of Mice and Men, he is so isolated that he isn 't allowed in the bunkhouse because of his skin color and this loneliness and isolation affects him. When Lennie comes into Crooks ' room Crooks says "You got no right to come in my room. This here 's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me." Loneliness affects him here because he isn 't allowed in the bunkhouse so he has his own cabin and when Lennie comes in he isn 't used to people and he gets frustrated with Lennie.

They say I stink. Well, I tell you, all of you stink to me” (68). As blacks were no longer enslaved, they were still an outcast in America at the time during the Great Depression. Treated unequally they couldn’t get the same jobs as what most white men could get but, if they do they were separated. As Crooks was working at the ranch just like the other men, he was living separately from the other men making him isolated.

They defined a resource as “anything that one partner may make available to the other, helping the latter satisfy his needs or attain his goals” (Blood & Wolfe, 1960). Blood and Wolfe conceptualized couple (marital) power as the differential control of resources. They believed that socioeconomic, occupational, and educational resources influenced power relations most strongly, and therefore examined these particular resources in their studies. Ultimately, they believed that marital power is determined by the spouse who brings the greatest number of resources to the marriage. Their approach to the study of power became known as resource

Crooks was forced to sleep in a separate room next to the stable, apart from the bunks where the rest of the ranch workers resided. Crooks was unable to participate in anything that the rest of the ranch workers did. All of this was a result of his ethnicity. “ “Cause I’m black. They play cards, but I can’t play because I’m black.

When individuals think of power in families, they think the head of the household has all of the power automatically. However, members of a household all exert power on others. In the Tanner household from the TV show Full House, viewers often do not notice the overuse of power because every individual is loving in their own way. Almost every viewer knows that the members involved in Full House are not enemies with each other. Viewers who watch the show fell in love with the family in an instant.