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Class discrimination john steinbeck of mice and men
Racism and literature
John steinbeck's of mice and men essay
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Have you ever taken a personality quiz test? One about your signature color and such? Well I think if the book Of Mice and Men would have taken one of those quizzes It would be the color light grey, the color of fog. I think it would be this color because it has unseen unexpected turns, the prejudice and inequality towards certain characters and it's a very serious ending. One reason why Of Mice and Men is a light grey is because it has unseen twists and turns is the plot. Since grey is misty/hazy and unclear sort of color I feel it hides the next event very well especially in the ending of the book. (Steinbeck 91). In the end, Curley’s wife and George were talking and Curley’s wife was bragging about her curly hair and she said that Lennie could touch it, which he did. Though apparently he was messing up her hair, for she got mad at him and started yelling at him to stop but Lennie panicked and grabbed her hair making her scream …show more content…
more and in an attempt to silence her in fear of getting in trouble he covered her mouth. Though when he did this he was unaware that he was not allowing her to breathe but in an effort to get away she kept screaming and Lennie shook her a little to forcefully trying to get her to be quite resulting in a snapped neck. There really was no foreshadow to this go earlier in the book it was said "I've beat the hell outta him, and he coulda bust every bone in my body jus’ with the han’s, but he never lifted a finger against me.” (Steinbeck 40). Throughout the book there are some remarks about Lennie being a gentle giant and never hurting anyone . But they were very small statements that seem to go perfectly in with the text and you wouldn't think twice about. As said by Slim, ““He ain't mean,"..."I can tell I mean by a mile off.”” (Steinbeck 42). In the book there is so many demonstrations of prejudice, this mainly occurs to the colored stable buck, Crooks.
Crooks already is being treated differently because he lived in a small room in the barn whereas the rest of the men lived in the bunkhouse. ““ ’Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, all of you stink to me.”” (Steinbeck 68). In this quote Lennie had just walked into Crooks’s room and he acts very defensively saying that Lennie's not wanted in there just like he’s not wanted in the bunkhouse. It really comes to show that really people of color of commonly called “nigers” in the book were treated with little dignity and respect. This is a very serious topic and often times serious matters are associated with grey. I personally feel like grey is a solemn color, capable of hiding things, big or small and as much as we may hate to admit it, equality was not popular back then. Back then white males were the only people with authority and
respect. My final reason why grey is a good color for the book is because of the serious ending. In the vary tail end of the book when Lennie runs away from the farm in fear of getting in trouble, he waits down in the brush by the river where George told him to go if he ever got in trouble (Steinbeck 15). George finds Lennie sitting there in the brush, just like he asked him to. Lennie starts apologizing for his wrongs, for killing the puppy, Curley's wife and for being such a trouble. George accepts his apologies and apologies himself for all of his wrongs and faults but proceeded to hesitantly and solemnly puts a gun to Lennie's neck and shoots him. He’s aloof after the killing, saddened and upset that he did what he had to do (Steinbeck 102-106). Overall i feel if this book were to take a personality color quiz it would get the color grey because it has unseen unexpected turns, the prejudice and it's a very serious ending. Honestly, when it comes right down to it, every choice you make is just another answer made in the quiz of life.
Crooks also feels a great deal of loneliness, as he is an outcast on the ranch. He lives in his own room where hardly anybody ever bothers him. He is never invited to play cards or do anything fun with the other guys. One day a curious Lenny asked, “Why ain’t you wanted?” Crooks replies “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They think I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me” (pg. ). Crooks’ attitude towards this is shown when he saw Lennie playing with his puppy outside of Crooks’ quarters. Crooks states that “if me, as a black man, is not allowed in the white quarters, then white men are not allowed in mine” (pg. ). However this is merely a front as the more open side of Crooks is shown later on in the book.
From the start of the film it is apparent what time frame it is taking place in and the differences in the social stratification through the lack of colors. One of the most obvious portrayals of the bleakness and desperation of the era is the overall faded and washed-out look of the whole film, due to manipulation of the film saturation; the heaviness of it almost cries out to the audience. Though the film was shot during the summer, cinematographer Roger Deakins and Cinesite colorist Julias Friede were able to use digital technology to change the appearance of the colors. “Together, they worked on manipulating the [digital] saturation of the images, and in particular selecting the greens of the trees and grass and turning them into dry browns and yellows” (Escaping, 2). These dry brown and yellows enhance the audience’s impression of the desperation of the characters and the time period.
Steinbeck clearly shows that Crooks never has any say on the ranch. No one cares about him. He’s just a “negro stable buck” (66). In this novella, No one ever talks to him except for candy. Lennie finally finds himself going into his room. While in there they speak about racial profiling. Crooks tell lennie that he’s the only African Americans on the ranch. He tells Lennie how he’s “alone out here at night” (73). He has nobody to talk to all he does is read books and think. The people on the ranch care less about his needs and wants, all they want him to do is to continue his work...
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
Crooks, the black stable buck, is isolated from the community of migrant workers because of his racial status. When Lennie goes into the barn to see his puppy, he and Crooks have a conversation. “'Why ain't you wanted?' Lennie asked. 'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black'” (68). Lennie is too kind-hearted and intellectually slow to visualize the apparent racial boundary that sets Crooks aside from Lennie and the rest of the workers. Crooks is so isolated from the rest of the workers that he says he “can't” play cards, not that he isn't allowed to, which means that the racial boundary is like a wall Crooks cannot cross. Because he is black, Crooks believes that he cannot play cards with the white men. He can't get over the racial boundary, and believes he will be forever separated from the white men. In the beginning of chapter 4, Steinbeck describes Crooks' living space. “Crooks, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the...
The use of diction is powerful, with the gripping use of words and description. Golding creates tension and reinforces his theme and tone with the use of specific words. Many are connotative and therefore create a story abundant in meaning and symbolism. Golding uses colors such as pink to symbolize particular things such as innocence, as shown in the piglets and the island. The word yellow makes the reader think of the sun, enlightenment and Ralph; the words black and red bring to mind evil, blood and Jack.
In conclusion, Fitzgerald uses colours to express the different themes in the novel. The colour grey in the Valley of Ashes symbolizes all of the corruption, while the colour blue represents the reality that is blinded throughout the plot, and green represents all of the jealousy and envy. In the end, the colours have a lot of important significance to the book, just as certain colours may have importance to people.
...teristics. In Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, the author utilizes the color orange to represent hope that Pi survives his endeavor with a Bengal tiger at sea. Orange signifies life and ensures that Pi lives to tell his story. Throughout the course of events, the orange tiger aboard the lifeboat drives Pi to fight for his life. In contrast, the fading yellow color in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper steers the woman further into mental hysteria. Rather than leading to salvation, the aging yellow embodies her illness and leads to her ultimate demise. Whether a color provides positive or negative thoughts and emotions, any piece of literature remains incomplete without splashes of color throughout the text.
This prevented the characters from reaching their full potential and causes tragedy. Racial discrimination was one of the aspects of the discrimination in this story. Consequently, Crooks had to battle with various difficulties and conflicts, which prevented him from reaching his full potential. The ranch hands did not let Crooks live, eat, and play with them because his skin colour was different. It led to the conflict between him and Lennie.
...26). Not only was the Valley of Ashes described as gray, but its people were as well. Fitzgerald fashioned George Wilson as a spiritless and demoralized lower-class American worker. He highlighted this lack of animation and vitality by describing Wilson as covered with the same stiflingly gray dust that carpeted the rest of the Valley. Fitzgerald used gray in this case to convey a feeling of lifelessness to the reader and deepen the symbolism of the Valley of Ashes. In contrast to his symbolic use of bright colors elsewhere in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald chose to illustrate with his words the Valley of Ashes and the people who lived there with the color gray, symbolizing the bleakness of the area and the depressing lack of hope that the people living there displayed.
The book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck may have many themes present in the book. However, I think that there is only two. Those two themes are friendship and human nature. These two subjects play a recurring role throughout the whole book to make it what it really is.
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck brings out the themes of Lonliness and companionship, and strengths and weaknesses through the actions, and quotations of the characters. Irony and foreshadowing play a large roll on how the story ends. Lennie and his habit of killing things not on purpose, but he is a victim of his own strength. George trying to pretend that his feelings for Lennie mean nothing. The entire novel is repetitive in themes and expressed views.
Historically, the black American solution to racially imposed loneliness and homelessness was to embrace the structure of family. White characters in the novel appear without families, for whatever reason. However, black Americans were compelled to come together as a people despised by others, to shelter and protect, even to the point of the creation of extended families, much as George assumes a protective all four. Significantly, Crooks does not receive an invitation to join George, Lenny, and Candy on the farm, even though he broaches the subject. Racial and ethnic minorities in America in the 1930s understood the importance of this strategy for survival because otherwise they would not have survived. Crooks gets described by Curley’s wife as “weak” because he is crippled and a Negro, two conditions which Steinbeck conflates into being synonymous in the novel. He functions in the role of a victim-savant. Acting as an insightful thinker and clarifying the meaning of loneliness for the reader, he remains an “outsider,” someone for whom the reader feels more pity than respect.246 By remaining on this ranch, experiencing unfair treatment, Crooks chooses his own racial victimization each and every day.246
Color symbolizes a lot in the story. In the story you see excessive use of colors. The first most clear color symbol is white which doesn't express the purity but the false purity and goodness in the people. The next is gray, valley of ashes, which expresses the lack of spirit in that area. The green shows the hope of a new start, or to work for something. Red is death , or blood. Yellow expresses the corruptness in society and dishonest behavior in society. Also yellow represents the coward image of characters.
Racial discrimination has been around for a long time, judging people for the color of their skin. Crooks is affected by this because he is black. Blacks in that time were thought as lesser than the white people. The racial discrimination affects Crooks' life in only negative ways. He is plagued by loneliness because of the color of his skin. His lack of company drives him crazy. Only when Lennie comes in to his room does he feel less lonely. He talked of his loneliness using a hypothetical scenario of George leaving Lennie. Crooks' responds to this discrimination by staying in his barn and being secluded. He doesn't want anyone to be in there but deep down he does so he can have some company. He isn't wanted in the bunk house or to play cards with the others because he is black. This effected the story by letting people walk all over him, letting them think they can do whatever they want, and ultimately making the people think they have a lot of power when really they do not.