What criteria do humans use to classify some people as superior to others? In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck expresses that characteristics that people cannot help but live with affect superiority. Race and age are factors that humans are not able to alter but determine social status regardless. Crooks is a character that Steinbeck writes about to develop the issue of racial biases. For example, Lennie enters Crooks’s room to talk when the others have gone out, but Crooks furiously says, “I ain’t wanted in the bunk house, and you ain’t wanted in my room” (68). Crooks being the only man unwelcome in the bunk house suggests that the ranch hands subject him to racial discrimination. Crooks living in solitude implies that the other ranch hands refuse to live alongside him, presumably because they think less of him due to his skin color. In addition, Lennie questions why Crooks isn’t wanted in the bunk house so Crooks responds, “Cause I’m black.
…show more content…
For example, when George and Lennie meet Slim for the first time in the washroom, he is portrayed as a man whose, “authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject…” (33). Slim is considerably younger than others on the ranch such as Candy and therefore earns a great deal of respect. He is honored by all the other workers and therefore has superiority over most of the other workers. However, Candy persuades George to allow himself to become part of George and Lennie’s dream by saying, “Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk houses they’ll put me on the county” (60). Candy is aware that due to his advanced age and therefore natural decline of abilities, the other ranch hands lose respect for him. His fear of the ranch hands letting him go implies that he is no longer valued on the ranch, and this pushes him further down on the social ladder. Slim and Candy represent two opposing views of how social status is determined by
For example, when George and Lennie meet Slim for the first time in the washroom, he is portrayed as a man whose, “authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject…” (33). Slim is considerably younger than others on the ranch such as Candy and therefore earns a great deal of respect. He is honored by all the other workers and therefore has superiority over most of the other workers. However, Candy persuades George to allow himself to become part of George and Lennie’s dream by saying, “Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk houses they’ll put me on the county” (60). Candy is aware that due to his advanced age and therefore natural decline of abilities, the other ranch hands lose respect for him. His fear of the ranch hands letting him go implies that he is no longer valued on the ranch, and this pushes him further down on the social ladder. Slim and Candy represent two opposing views of how social status is determined by