Comparing The Great Depression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men Essay The Great Depression is remembered as an economic pothole in America history but it was also a time were a lot of people faced prejudice. John Steinbeck realizes this and uses the characters in Of Mice and Men to illustrate it. The Great Depression influences the struggles the characters face negatively by the cultural ignorance that causes the population to mistreat people with mental and physical disabilities as well as people of different races. The most affected characters are Crooks because of his race and physical disability, Candy because of his age and physical disability, and Lennie because of his mental disability.

Lennie struggles with a mental disability in a time where people with mental disabilities were viewed as dangerous and bothersome. George is responsible for Lennie much as a parent is

The Great Depression forced the people of the 30’s to become victims of their environment and view people who couldn’t work well as unequal because employers would only hire people who could do the most work. For instance, “That dog ain’t no good to himself. I wish somebody’d shoot me if I was old an’ a cripple” (Steinbeck 45). The dog is a metaphor for Candy because they have the same factors that make people think less of them like their age and physical disabilities so Candy worries that he may suffer a similar fate to the old dog. Another example is, “I ain’t so much good with on’y one hand. I lost my hand right here on this ranch. That’s why they gave me a job swampin’. An’ they gave me two hundred an’ fifty dollars ‘cause I los’ my hand” (59). Despite the payment Candy received as compensation for losing his hand he has to continue working to support himself because the amount was not enough for him to be able to stop working. Candy is just one example of the prejudice people in the Great Depression