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Literary analysis of mice and men
Literary analysis essay of mice and men
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Of Mice and Men Prompt E: Allegory Of Mice and Men can be categorized as an allegory because the characters and plot represent concepts different from the literal meaning. The majority of the story takes place on a ranch in which George and Lennie work on. While on the ranch they will meet many different types of people that they could be working with or just seeing on a daily basis. For example: Crooks would be considered segregated, Curley’s wife would be considered an outsider, and Candy would be considered handicapped. In Of Mice and Men there is one colored person who works on the ranch whose name is Crooks. Crooks is considered segregated on the ranch to everyone. He has his own room in a stable in the barn and the other people won’t include him in anything. In Of Mice and Men Crooks tells Lennie, “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse and you …show more content…
She is considered the outsider. One thing that makes her an outsider is that she is the only girl on the ranch. With her being the boss’s sons’ wife no one wants to get involved with her. That also gives her another reason to be an outsider because she has no one to talk to, so she tries to get attention from the other men. In the novel, George tells Lennie, “I never seen no piece of jail bate worse than her. You leave her be.” George tells Lennie this cause he knows that if Lennie tries anything with her then it will just end up as them getting fired, put in jail, or killed. There is more than one character who is handicapped in Of Mice and Men, whether it be mental or physical. A character who is physically handicapped is Candy. Candy was the swamper on the ranch. Unfortunately, Candy lost his hand working on that ranch. That’s why candy is the swamper because he is limited to what he can do and is getting old and slow. Candy says to George, “I ain’t much good with on’y one hand. That’s why they gave me the job swampin’.” The quote shows how Candy is stating he is
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.
The novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinback, has many allegorical qualities. The majority of these qualities are based around the characters; however, some may be based around the items and places in the story. These qualities are very well thought out and are strung together perfectly, giving the novella much more meaning than perceived at first glance.
In the book Of Mice and Men, the author,John Steinbeck, uses stereotype characters to convey his message. He wants to empathize with his characters as human beings. He uses stereotype characters such as Lennie, George, Curly, Slim, Candy, Crooks, and Curly's wife. Steinbeck's goal is to inform people how life was like for a migrant worker in the 1920's to 1930's.
Most if not all the characters in Of Mice and Men can be seen as
Crooks, the most isolated character, is treated differently by everyone on the ranch. They treat Crooks with less respect than they do each other. They call him names, which might not have caused uproar, but still disrespectful. In fact, when Curley was looking for him, he demanded to know where Crooks was. Curley asked, "'Where the hell is that god damn nigger?'" (Steinbeck 29). Curley's harsh words, are some of the reasons Crooks...
Crooks expressed feelings of loneliness through out Of Mice and Men. Crooks? loneliness is caused because he is black, at the time the story took place there was racism. Since Crooks is black he wasn?t able to socialize with the white men. When Steinbeck describes all of Crooks? possessions, it shows that Crooks has been at the ranch a long time and that his possessions are all the he cares about. In Crooks? room, Lennie comes to talk to him. Crooks is cautious at first, this was from the years of racism that Crooks endured, he learned not to associate with white folk.
“A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. ‘I tell ya’ he cried. ‘I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” (Page 72-73) As you can see, Crooks also spends most of his time alone because he is black. He is not allowed to enter the bunk house nor go to town with the guys. He is not allowed to enter the bunk house, he is not allowed to go to town with the guys and nobody likes him because he is black. This shows that he has no friendship and his whole life is filled with loneliness. His case is different from Lennie’s.
Back in the day far too often people looked down on or took advantage of people with mental or physical disabilities. Those are the kids nowadays that ride the short bus, are in a wheelchair, or their brain or other organs or limbs never completely developed so they have trouble completing simple everyday activities. About 15% of the people in the world today have either a significant mental or physical disability (according to Disabilities of America website). In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, Lennie Small displays three common qualities of a person with mental disabilities. Lennie is innocent, loyal, and has amazing physical strength.
Throughout the novel Of Mice and Men, Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie could not reach their potential because of the discrimination against them. In the Depression era, people discriminated against African-American people by using derogatory terms, physically assaulting them and limiting their socialization. They discriminated against women by calling names and making offensive assumptions. Mentally disabled people are targets of brutal actions, stereotypes, and betrayals. Steinbeck warned people not to discriminate against others by showing various conflicts and tragic endings that are caused by discrimination.
When you’re first introduced to a character you can depict their role within the story, but sometimes they can portray a much larger meaning. Many characters in numerous stories can be considered allegories due to author trying to show a bigger picture. Such as the story Of Mice and Men. This John Steinbeck novella can be viewed as an allegory due to the characters being able to embody certain groups in society. Three characters that symbolize a particular group are Curley’s wife, George, and Lennie.
Crooks is a black stable hand who has been called Crooks due the hunched back he has after a horse kicked him. In the 1930’s, being black was an extreme disadvantaged. You would be discriminated for your colour and this would lead to loneliness. Crooks was always being blamed for everything that went wrong even though he was hardly involved. The boss picked on him because of his colour “An’ he give the stable buck hell” (page 21) “Ya see the stable bucks a nigger” (page 21). Candy says this when George and Lennie arrive at the ranch and after Candy said that Crooks was a nigger, George accepted the boss’ treatment of Crooks. Another time Steinbeck talks about Crooks being discriminated was when he writes about the Christmas party where Smitty took after Crooks and the men did not stop the fight because Crooks was black, but did not allow Smitty to use his feet in the fight due to Crooks’ disability.
An example of how the men are discriminative towards Crooks is that he is forced to live in a shack away from the bunkhouse and also Crooks says that "They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say "I stink" and "I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse." An example of when Curley's Wife is critical towards Crooks is when she looks into his room to see what Lennie and Crooks are doing and then she states, shaking her head, that they left the weak ones behind. Also, she threatens to have Crooks hanged because a black man should never talk to a white woman the way he just had. As a result of all of these discriminatory acts against him, Crooks feels unwanted and lonely because of his color and placement on the farm.
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.
The central element of this novella is its symbolism. This novella has plenty of symbolical forms, such as people, creed, and some of the animals. Candy has several terms of symbolism, for example his disability is a symbol of the migrant workers who are just literally forgotten about, they are forgotten when they are no use to the owners. Candy’s dog is a symbol of a life only for advantage to others Lennie also for shadows this, he is belittled of his mind but enormously commented for his strength. Also he is compelled to lie about the fight he had with Curley, this is a symbol of typical male society in the, “Depression era”.
The conversation on page 68 of the book perfectly explains the discrimination against Crooks: “‘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. They say I stink.’” (Steinbeck, 68). Crooks is unfairly treated solely based on his skin color, and the other men only say that he stinks to avoid dealing with him. In addition, Crooks displayed his need for attention when, on page 69, after Lennie had walked into his room, he states, “Come on in and set a while.” (Steinbeck, 69). He is proving how extreme isolation can cause one to crave human interaction. Although Crooks acts like he is reluctantly inviting Lennie in, he was truly excitedly welcoming Lennie, who stopped to talk in Crooks’ own house where no one else ever goes.