Representation Of Crooks In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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After reading Of Mice And Men, I began to think about Steinbeck's representation of Crooks. Throughout the book Crooks is referred to using racial slurs and is the recipient of disrespectful name calling and discrimination. I understand that during this time this was something that was common, but given the fact that many other well written books came from this time I feel that not only the amount and the degree of what was said was unnecessary but the use of it at all. The dialogue that includes these words and phrases to some people may seem important to the characterization of characters in the story, the only characterization that i got from it was how terrible people can be. I began to feel detached from certain characters after reading what was said because when I thought about them as people I felt no sympathy towards them and felt they deserved everything that came to them. The discrimination of Crooks is just the beginning of the overall theme of “normal” …show more content…

The first one is an obvious example of what I'm referring to “Stable buck oh, st-able buck!... Where the hell is that damn n*****”. Right in that quote, you can see not only is crooks referred to with a racist slur. Another example of clear discrimination against crooks is this quote "…You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room." "Why ain’t you wanted?" Lennie asked. "’Cause I’m black…" right here we learn that crooks have been battered down so much by this hatred that he himself thinks he is not worth as much as others. The way that Steinbeck also uses indirect characterization through dialogue to say crooks is worthless and his words mean nothing Crooks "This is just a nigger talkin', an' a busted-back nigger. So it don't mean nothing, see? These are just a few of the many examples of Steinbeck

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