Social Hierarchy In Of Mice And Men

The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poorer, this was the motto of the Great Depression. In many societies, the wealthy have a lot of power and influence whilst the poor cannot argue with their policies because they don’t want to be out of work. Written by John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men tells the tale of two migrant workers in California called Lennie and George. Lennie is physically strong and loyal to his friends, but has an unfortunate mental illness that weighs him down. On the other hand, George is short and quick-witted. They have a simple dream to own a farm, but due to many hardships they face along the way their dream is never realized. The social hierarchy displayed in Of Mice and Men creates many problematic events that ultimately …show more content…
During this time, because so many people were out of work, job openings quickly filled up. This made George and Lennie desperate for any job, and George does not want Lennie messing up anything for them to reduce their chances of getting work. George’s and Lennie’s relationship is a rather peculiar one, as it was not very common to travel with anyone let alone travel with someone who has a mental disability. This causes Lennie, who wants their dream to be realized, to not do anything rash without the consulting of George. George and Lennie are heavily dependent on their employers, and because they can be easily replaced, they don’t want to act up to provoke the boss in anyway. Even when attacked by Curley, Lennie is originally unsure of what to do as he does not have George’s order to attack as shown here. “Lennie looked helplessly at George, and then he got up and tried to retreat. Curley was balanced and poised. He slashed at Lennie with his left, and then smashed down his nose with a right. Lennie gave a cry of terror. Blood welled from his nose.~” - Page 63. People’s first instinct would be to try and retaliate or to even defend themselves, but Lennie is “too frightened to defend himself”. He doesn’t actually defend himself until George tells him to fight back! If there was more freedom in the job market and employers actually paid their workers the amount they should be paid, George and …show more content…
Candy is a good example of this system being corrupt. He lost his hand when he was working, and was relegated to a cleaning job, but as soon as he is physically unable to work again he has a high chance of being fired and never getting a job again because of this disability. Candy explores this real possibility when he says “I got hurt four year ago," he said. "They'll can me purty soon. Jus' as soon as I can't swamp out no bunkhouses they'll put me on the county.” - Page 60. This is a key example of how employers exploited their employees, and as soon as they can’t find a use for them just throw them out. Due to the nature of this superiority the employers have, people who are even remotely related to the boss feel very powerful. This is the case of Curley, who feels very comfortable in his position, which is being the son of the boss. Curley and everyone who works there knows that if you upset or challenge this man, your job will become terminated. This makes him have a very cocky and disrespectful demeanor. His whole character is summed up perfectly by Candy “ He'd slough me. He just don't give a damn. Won't ever get canned 'because his old man's the boss."(27). Curley’s wife is just a pretentious, using her ‘beauty’ to try and get anything out of the workers, and if they do not comply she reminds them of her position.