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

The Problems and Frustrations in Society “This society is driven by neurotic speed and force accelerated by greed and frustration of not being able to live up to the image of men and women we created for ourselves; the image has nothing to do with the reality of people.” - Yoko Ono. In the novel Of Mice and Men, the frustrations of societies are found all over. This novel takes place during the Great Depression. The characters face a lot of problems in their society such as racism, sexism, and depression. I think that the one that played the biggest factor in this story is depression. In the Great Depression racism was very present in the United States. Steinbeck uses the Character Crooks who is a black stable buck. “This is just a nigger talkin’, an’ a busted-back nigger. So it don’t mean nothing, see?” (Steinbeck …show more content…
Steinbeck uses the character Curley’s wife, she is one of the only women in the book and she faces a lot of discrimination based on her gender. George said, "She’s gonna make a mess. They’s gonna be a bad mess about her. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger. That Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it ain’t no place for a girl, specially like her." (Steinbeck 54.) Based on this quote in the book, it shows that the men in the book don’t think highly of Curley’s wife. They think that a woman should not be on the ranch with a bunch of men because all she is going to do is cause problems. During this time period of the Great Depression women didn’t have very much rights. They were not allowed to vote and they were allowed only low paying jobs such as sewing, bookbinding, caring for the elderly, and working in school lunch programs and nursery schools. They were not allowed to work in bigger work environments such as factories and plants. Obviously, Curley’s wife was discriminated based on her sex throughout the duration of this