Examples Of Powerlessness In Of Mice And Men

Steinbeck uses powerlessness as a major theme of this book. Powerlessness plays a major role during that time because there is always aa boss that tells others to work. The people that are usually powerless are the migrant workers during that time. Some try to save money to buy a land like George and Lennie, but others blow it on drinks over the weekend at bars. No one would want to be fighting with the boss’ son because he can easily tell on the boss and get the workers fired. In this book, the main powerless people are the workers, George and Lennie, and Crooks.
The first type of powerlessness is money. In this world, people relies mainly on money to live. In this book, George, Lennie, and Candy all chip in to buy a land for $600. They currently have $450 and they will have $150 in total coming at the end of the month. That would add up to $600 witch means that they could buy the land. But if one of them does something and gets fired before the end of the month, then there won’t be enough money for the land. Another example is that “They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake, and then they go into town and blow their stake” (Steinbeck, 13). In this book, stake would mean their profit or

earnings. This means that the migrant workers don’t know how to manage their money so they are always stuck working on ranches.
In this book, Curly is the boss’s son so if anyone messes with him, they will be fired.

Curly always wants to pick a fight with the workers. He always suspects that Slim, the skinner is always with his wife at the barn. As a result, he always loses because every time he tries to “Put a scare into Slim, an’ you couldn’t make it stick” (Steinbeck, 62), but whenever “Slim threw a scare into you. You’re yella like a frog belly.” (Steinbeck, 62) This means that Curly is trying to look tough to show it off to his wife, but he is actually scared of others. It is not always the worker’s fault that Curly suspects them flirting with Curly’s wife. Candy says that he’s seen her “Give the eye” (Rowling, 28). If she didn’t do that, there will absolutely be no problem between Curly and the

rest.
The colored people are often separated from the white people. In this book, they are
separated because "They say I stink" (Steinbeck, 68). The reason why he is called Crooks is because he has a “crocked back where a horse kicked him” (Steinbeck, 20). Crooks is not welcomed in the bunk house where the white people live. Since he is colored, he has his own room in the stable. When Crooks told Curley's wife to get out of his room, she reminded Crooks what she can do to him. In this case, it is to hang him. She does not have power over anyone since she is a woman, but Crooks is black and she is white, so she has power over him.
Powerlessness plays a big role during the time because migrant workers are always traveling and working for another boss. It is because they want the money and they don’t want to lose their jobs. Every person in this book is powerless because of different reasons. The workers are powerless because they have Curly as the boss’ son. George, Lennie and Candy are powerless because of their economic status. Crooks is powerless because of his race. Overall, this is a very good book.