Minor Characters In Of Mice And Men

Form 3 Set 5 (6) Michael Lam 3B (8) 2016/4/11
Explore the significance and role of minor characters in ‘Of mice and men’

‘Of mice and men’ was a novel about two men in the early 1930s during the Great Depression. Its theme was mainly about American dreams and the powerlessness of people due to social problems at that time. The book introduced these ideas in certain ways through some minor characters in the book.

The first one was about American dreams. The author showed this through one of the minor characters – Curley’s wife. He described her background and used her speeches to show her dream she had before and how she finally failed to achieve it. In chapter five, she talked about her dream to Lennie, which

was to become a famous Hollywood movie star. However, her mum did not allow her due to her young age. Few years later she had a chance, she met a guy saying that he would write a letter to invite her for Hollywood, but she ‘never got that letter’ (p.84), Curley’s wife never had a chance again and her dream has finally broken, ending with being a normal woman in the farm.

Through the description of Curley’s wife’s past, the author implied a message that people – Americans, had dreams, they tried to chase it, but they failed at last due to different reasons, such as lack of opportunities like Curley’s wife.

The next problem showed was social inequality. The author wrote about Curley’s wife’s weakness and powerlessness through her conversations and the author’s description. In chapter four, most of the people went out and left the rest here, which were Lennie, Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife. She described them, included herself, as ‘the weak ones’ (P.73). In chapter three, she told the people about how lonely and helpless she was. Also, throughout the novel, the author never served her a name, she was only called ‘Curley’s wife’ at any time. These great details showed that Curley’s wife hadn’t got rights or freedom to do everything, which caused her became so weak. And the fact that she hadn’t been given a name, meant that she was not important or unappreciated comparing to others.

Another character called Crooks also faced the problem of social inequality. In chapter four, he was named ‘Negro stable buck’ (P.63) and called as ‘nigger’ (P.77) by Curley’s wife because he was a black. Also, he explained why he was unwanted, he said: ‘ Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t because I’m black. They say I stink’ (P.65). At the same time, the author described how Crook acted like when he was discriminated, which he ‘stared hopelessly’ (P.76) and he ‘seemed to grow smaller’ (P.76); he even described himself and his room as ‘colored man’ (P.76) and ‘colored man’s room’ (P.76). These showed that Crooks was teased and boycotted by others, caused he had low self-esteem and no confidence.

From the above cases, we can see the main problem – social inequality. Curley’s wife’s examples reflected gender inequality, which she got no rights to do or decide things as men, she could only listen to others; Crooks’ examples reflected race inequality, which black or colored people were unpopular to others, he could only obey others. These were symbols of what was happening in the society, where gender, race were important judgments to determine a person’s social status, leading to the problem of large gaps between people. And this was not fair at all.