John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men, Hard Times In America

Of Mice and Men, Hard Times in America

The story “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck can be interpreted in many ways. The book took place during a very hard time for America, and this was shown throughout it. Women weren’t treated equally to men, humans were more judgemental and rude to people with a darker skin color, and many struggled with money and finding a job because of The Great Depression.

Steinbeck makes it easy to tell that racism was very common in the time that “Of Mice and Men” was written. The only colored character in the book, called Crooks, was treated unequally and badly compared to the other characters because of the color of his skin. On page 19 of the story when Candy is describing Crooks to George, he says,“Ya see the stable buck’s a nigger. The boss gives him hell when he’s mad.” The fact that Crooks is called a …show more content…
On page 89 of the novel, Curley’s wife confides in Lennie and says, “I don like Curley. He ain’t a nice fella.” Curley’s wife dreamt of being an actress but when she couldn’t, she married Curley. The quote shows that she didn’t like Curley, let alone love him. Like Curley’s wife, other women during the same time period in America might have married a guy they didn’t really love because they couldn’t get their own job or follow their dream, so they felt they had to be with a man that had money. On page 87 of the story, Curley’s wife says to Lennie, “I get lonely. You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.” It wasn’t fair that Curley got mad whenever his wife talked to anyone other than him, and she never got to do much except sit around the house. Steinbeck shows that the time “Of Mice and Men” was set in was a hard for America, because women like Curley’s wife were treated unequally and couldn’t do much on their