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Why was there so much discrimination in the early 1930's? John Steinbeck’s highly renowned “Of Mice and Men” is an outstanding novel that paints a depressingly realistic portrait of America during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In the novel, Steinbeck attacks the many issues that plagued the country during that time. His purpose in writing “Of Mice and Men” was to reflect on some of those issues, such as racism, sexism, and the poor treatment of people with mental disabilities.
In the novel, the author presents discrimination. Crooks is the only colored man on the ranch and deals with a significant amount of racism and discrimination. He is lonely and isolated, making him resentful and bitter towards the other characters. This is just a ****** talkin’, an’ a busted-back ******. So it doesn’t mean anything, see? (Steinbeck, 50). Racial slurs are used to describe Crooks frequently on the ranch. Crooks uses the same language as the white men to describe himself, to show that he is fully aware of how disrespectful everyone is to him. Not one person on the ranch is interested in anything that Crooks has to say or do and he acknowledges this. Well, you keep your place then, N*****. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny (Steinbeck, 39). Overall, Crooks experiences prejudice on the ranch by being segregated from the white workers, treated as an outcast, and having to endure racial slurs and threats without being able to defend himself. Graphic phrases like being told he will get strung up are an example of what he goes through daily. Racial slurs are used to describe Crooks frequently on the ranch and uses the language of the white men to describe himself, which shows how fully aware he is about how little he is respected.
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, the author presents sexism and the degradation of women, because of how flirtatious Curley’s wife is, how she is talked about by the men and the way her death is treated. “She’s gonna make a mess. They’re 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, especially like her” (Steinbeck, 52). George speaks in a sexist way about Curley’s wife, saying she has no place on the ranch which should be for men only, and also senses trouble ahead, as she is the only woman there. “'I get lonely,” she said. ”You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley, or else he gets mad. How
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