Cruelty In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

A man. A man who was a leader and known in society as an amazing person. He participated in helping a country live on and be strong. This man helped his people succeed and he was one of the most loyal people to his country and religion ever. But… was he a good person?. Although people usually don’t look or sound evil, they have evil on the inside that they don’t often show and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men relates to this in many ways.
Cruelty in Of Mice and Men does not just show in physical ways, it also shows in racist ways towards Crooks, an African American working and living at the ranch. He keeps most things to himself and kind of keeps himself away from the people of the ranch because of racism that they give him. His fleeing

from people, and life in general, is shown in this quote from Steinbeck’s book, “Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego—nothing to arouse either like or dislike” (Steinbeck 119). Crooks has gotten used to being left out and not as accepted at the ranch and he has been treated unfairly by many at the ranch when he is out of his cabin, so he doesn’t bother to go out much anymore. “You got no rights comin’ in a colored man’s room. You got no rights messing around in here at all” (Steinbeck 119). The cruelty towards Crooks in Of Mice and Men does not show very easily until you look inside and find out things about him and his life.
Even the most caring and creative person in this story can be cruel. Lennie has his own characteristics and he can be cruel without even knowing it. He sometimes even kills things without trying, and this part of the book shows how George gets frustrated with Lennie because of his constant killing of animals: “Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em.” He paused. “Tell you what I’ll do, Lennie. First chance I get I’ll give you a pup. Maybe you wouldn’t kill it” (Steinbeck 47). On the outside, he is just a person with a brain disorder and no one would ever think that he could kill an animal, or even a human, but he kills animals and insects all of the time. Lennie, the nice and friendly man killed Curley’s wife in response to her screaming. This is evident here: “And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck” (Steinbeck 131). After this occurs, he is mad at Curley’s wife for being killed and this shows some cruelty that is hidden inside. Lennie also gets very mad after he kills a newborn puppy, but he did not do it on purpose. This is evident right after he killed the puppy: ‘“God damn you,” he cried. “Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice.” He picked up the pup and hurled it from him” (Steinbeck 124). Lennie has a very caring personality, but on the inside, he actually has killed many living things and has been cruel.
The man. The man who was an amazing leader and was very loyal to his country. That man was Adolf Hitler. People can seem great and amazing on the outside, but everyone has evil hidden inside of them no matter how great they seem. Whether its racism, or just random cruelty, people hide their cruelty unless they have a reason to show it. John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a great example of this and their are many instances with characters that show cruelty.