Discrimination In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Discrimination The theme of discrimination runs throughout the novella, Of Mice and Men. Many people in the story experience discrimination for their race, sex, and mental disabilities. The three main characters that struggle with intolerance are Crooks, Curley's wife, and Lennie. Crooks is discriminated by race, Curley’s wife by sex, and Lennie by mental disability. All three have to deal with this throughout the book and even outside of the book in discussions of the characters. Crooks is a prime example, because he is black and goes through extreme amounts of disclusion. He is not allowed to stay in the bunks with all the other men, he stays in his own little room in the stables. Crooks does not receive treatment like the other workers. A conversation between Lennie and Crooks reads, "’…You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room.’ ’Why ain’t you wanted?’ Lennie asked. ‘’Cause I’m black…’"(Steinbeck 67) There’s clear proof of discrimination in the fact that he is not even allowed to set foot in the bunk house. …show more content…
She is not allowed to leave her house or talk to any of the workers on the farm. Curley’s wife experiences about as much, or more, intolerance as Crooks does. She tries to get the men’s attention and talk so someone, but her only way to really get attention is to flirt. Since she does this, she's labeled as “jailbait” and many other offensive names. In this passage, George says to Lennie, “‘I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her. You leave her be.’ George said.”(Steinbeck 33) George tells Lennie to ignore her, which proves that she is discriminated against just for wanted some