Inequality In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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In the book Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, the motif of social inequality prevails throughout the story. What this portrays about the society back then is that people did not care about others but only themselves. If they had truly cared about others, they would have done something about the inequality. But as it is shown in the book, nothing was done about inequality at all; in fact, it was viewed as normal. Since Crooks is a black man, his human rights are not respected. Due to his race, Crooks does not have any right to speak or even live near the white men. He is all alone, which makes him so cynical. Crooks has lost his rights to freedom, too, since he is unable to move anywhere because he won’t be able to get a new job. …show more content…

The woman who is mentioned in this book does not have a name and is known as Curley’s wife. The role of Curley’s wife in this book reflects how society viewed women back then. Curley tells his wife to stay home and that she does not belong anywhere else but in the barn. Curley’s wife at first wanted to become a movie star but Curley refuses to let her go. This shows gender inequality since women are not able to make any decisions. Due to her lack of freedom, Curley’s wife is bored and starts seducing men at the …show more content…

The frontier of justice is being whether George’s action is justified or not, whether it is a merciful act, or an act of crime. On the inequality and difference of people which determine their lives, this book questions the value and belief and whether it is right that people’s lives are determined by their race and gender. What is most shocking is the fact that there are people who do not understand the value of life at all. Two of the characters are Curley and Carlson, who see Lennie’s death as something normal. Nobody gives justice to Crooks, who is a black man. This novel also uses improper language to portray the striving for life since it shows that people has no education, and that people are barely able to live and has no time for schooling. In this story, there is no police mentioned, which reflects the belief of people back then; they thought that it was perfectly normal for someone to be killed because they did something wrong. In this book, there is no justice system involved which indicates the prevailing value of insignificance of life of those who are

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