Ostracism is like a winter night. Cold and harsh, but gets better when with a friend. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, this is what he tells us. When I first read this book, like many others, I thought that it was mainly about discrimination, but upon further reading I learned that it was really about ostracism. Ostracism means being excluded from a group. This appears many times throughout the book, mainly to Crooks, the African American stable buck, who is mainly treated poorly due to his race. The clearest moment when we see this is when Lennie joins Crooks in his room, and Crooks tells him that he want’s him to leave since he is always getting excluded from card games in the bunkhouse. “I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room.” (Steinbeck 68). This quote shows that when Crooks is ostracised, he gets angry and treats others the same way. The reason Crooks is being ostracised is …show more content…
because of his race. On page 68, it shows this. “They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black.” (Steinbeck 68) Another example of this is when Crooks says “Guys don’t come into a colored man’s room very much.” (Steinbeck 75) This is important since it shows us how sad this is making Crooks feel. The people he works with would ignore him and he would get left in a small room all on his own. It also shows that he is being ostracised for something that he can’t even control, his race. The quote specifically says “a colored man’s room”. This shows that they will still enter anyone else’s room, but not his since he is black. On page 74 we see even more about how Crooks feels.
“S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black… A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.” (Steinbeck 74) This quote shows that the ostracism makes Crooks feel lonely and depressed. This quote also shows that ostracism isn’t as bad when you have someone there for you, who you could talk to. In this quote Crooks is talking to Lennie, and we can tell that he is calmer and more relaxed. A quote on page 68 shows us that Crooks isn’t the only one being ostracised. “Ever’body went into town… George says I gotta stay here an’ not get in no trouble.” (Steinbeck 68) This shows that Lennie is also being ostracised because of his disability. Even though it seems like he isn’t being ostracised because they are being mean, unlike what they are doing to Crooks, it is still ostracism and makes Lennie feel lonely. Lennie though doesn’t really care about being ostracised as much as Crooks does because he doesn’t understand it fully due to his
disability. Some might point out that on page 20, Crooks is invited into the bunkhouse to play cards on Christmas. “They let the nigger come in that night.” (Steinbeck 20) Even though they do let him in, they were not inviting him in to be nice, but instead to see a fight. “Little skinner name of Smitty took after the nigger. Done pretty good, too. The guys wouldn’t let him use his feet, so the nigger got him.” (Steinbeck 20) This proves that even though they did invite him, it was not out of kindness. This shows us that he is often being set apart from the group due to his race. It also shows that the people he works with only need him for entertainment, and that they don’t treat him like a parson. They treat him like a toy that you don’t care about anymore. Even though on the surface, this book may seem like it is about discrimination, which it is, it is really even more about ostracism. It tells us what it feels like, and how it looks like, so we can learn how to deal with it, and how to stop it. By showing us multiple characters, it also shows us how they were affected and how it has changed them. It even shows us that there is a way to help someone who is being ostracised, which is just to simply talk to them.
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.
There are moments in which they are driven out of an emotional need to show immortalization to George or show deference to him. In the altercation between Lennie and Crooks, the controversy of companionship is raised. Crooks lives a life alone and he possesses a sense of enviousness towards the friendship that Lennie have a hand in with George. When Crooks wanted to make his point, he talks to Lennie about how his (Lennie's) world would fundamentally change if George left and went out on his own: Crooks advances this in discussing with Lennie the assumption such an action, suggesting that George might simply fall victim to getting hurt. However, Lennie paraphrases this vision as a threat of harm against George: At this moment, Lennie threatens Crooks through body language and voice inflection because of his motivation to chaperon George. The motivation of bulwarking George initiates his actions of becoming aggressive, something that Crooks immediately realizes in backing down from his initial stance. Lennie's motivations to champion George inspire his actions in wishing to do harm to anyone or anything that would cause danger to George.
Crooks, Curley’s wife, and most defiantly Lennie are the outcasts on the ranch. The novel presents Lennie as a mentally challenged, but an unusually strong worker who travels with his friend George. George takes care of Lennie as if he was his own child and Lennie cares for George the same way. “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you” (14). Lennie describes how he cares for George although he honestly just messes everything up for George. Lennie has the mind of a child and does not understand how to act and be an adult. Lennie continues to pet dead mice, feel shiny and smooth objects, and not know how to interact with other people. From time to time, George continues to care and try to make improvements with Lennie, but it just does not happen. Lennie continues to have the mind of a child and can never distinguish the different between right and wrong. Throughout the novel; from being a mentally challenged; tall, muscular man; Lennie is most definitely an outcast in the story Of Mice and Men.
Imagine being discriminated against because of your ethnicity; or being the only woman on a ranch, stuck in a loveless marriage, when all you really want is someone to talk to. What about having to kill that friend, and bury all chances of breaking free from the life of the average migrant worker? How would you feel? These scenarios in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men illustrate the need and desire for companionship in life. There's Crooks, the negro stable buck; Curley's wife, whose marriage to Curley hasn't exactly been lively; and George and Lennie, whose friendship is strong enough to get them to a better life and out of the negetive cycle that the average migrant worker became trapped in during the Great Depression.
Right off the bat, Lennie is described as lesser, and rather than helped he is given a “slap on the wrist”. To begin with, Lennie is always described as less capable or unable to do certain activities to the extent of others. For example, at the beginning of the book George and Lennie were attempting to get a job. George always said, “He can do anything, just give him a try” (22). George implied that the likelihood of Lennie receiving a job is significantly less due to him being disabled. Lennie being less likely to receive a job due to his mental disability shows discrimination and expresses how difficult it could have been for a mentally handicapped person to get a job during this era. Moving forward, rather than George helping Lennie, Lennie is put down and scolded for his mistakes. During a scene between Lennie and George, George exclaimed, “You forget. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it” (23). As it is not necessarily Lennie’s fault, George is in the wrong to put down Lennie for his actions. However, rather than attempting to help Lennie, George puts him down for his mistakes and then is forced to apologize for his own actions later. Lennie is a prime example of oppression against the mentally disabled in Of Mice and Men.
“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.
The idea of suppression on weak people or characters can be seen in many literary works. Suppression is the act of doing away with by or as by authority or to abolish. One literary work this can be seen in is the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. There are many characters seen as weak in the novella. Some of which are weak physically, others mentally, and one because of their gender. These weak characters are Lennie, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife. Through these characters it is easy to see that it is human nature for the strong to suppress the weak.
Crooks was excluded from the group and had his own barn which was his only freedom. When Crooks said “Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ’cause you was black. How’d you like that? ” (Steinbeck 72), he wants to seek someone’s company like Lennie has George’s. Crooks threatened Lennie into the fact that George might not come back because he wanted Lennie to feel loneliness, but to his disappointment he was in vain. Crooks also conveys through his body language and the way he speaks that he doesn’t want to be excluded from the others and wants to participate in all the activities with them.
He was treated like a little kid and someone that they just fooled around with him. George, his best friend even played with him too. “‘Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet.No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show ya who’s yella.(62)”’ The people on the farm enjoyed messing with his mind, although Lennie thought they were serious. Due to his special condition he had, he was bullied and treated in a negative way, that could’ve ended very bad. As a friend, George could’ve stood up for Lennie but instead he went along with the mistreatment and bullying. “I turns to Lennie and says, 'Jump in.' An' he jumps. Couldn't swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him. (57)”’ Lennie is a very gullible person that will do anything you say if he trusts you. Letting him jump in the pool when not knowing how to swim was not a smart choice of the farmers and could’ve ended very badly. All the other workers do not respect him and just use him as a toy when they want to have fun. This shows that social hierarchy and classification towards the mentally challenged has been shown throughout this
This isolation prevented Crooks from reaching his full potential, as he could not cooperatively work with the other.... ... middle of paper ... ... In this novel, discrimination that Lennie had to face prevented him from showing his abilities.
If George wouldn’t have met Lennie, he would be a drunk in a whorehouse dying of cirrhosis. If Lennie didn’t meet George he would of died soon after his aunt did, because he would either have got himself in a bind with no one to help him or he would of simply wondered off and died of loneliness. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; Crooks suffers from loneliness, because he is black, not because he is an unfriendly person. Crooks, though, may seem mean, but he is just tired of being rejected and disrespected by everybody around him. Crooks has a horrible life. He will never have a companion or anybody that will respect him unless he meets another black person.
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 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.
Instead of buying into what Crooks is saying, Lennie becomes defensive and says, “Ain’t nobody goin’ to talk no hurt to George,” he grumbled” (Steinbeck 72). In this situation, Lennie looks after George and defends him. Crooks is doubting George; proposing to Lennie that George may not be as good of a person as he may believe. This angers Lennie because he knows just how great George is, so he decides to step in and stand up for George by using intimidation. Lennie is a pretty big guy, so this strategy of his works well and shows Crooks to not mess with him. In doing this, Lennie is showing how he cares for and looks after George. He does not want people to be saying untrue things about George because he cares about him and knows that he is an outstanding person. A final way that George and Lennie show how they are always looking after each other is because they constantly remind each other of it. While George was talking to Lennie about how their partnership is