Similarities Between Of Mice And Men And The Help

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Comparison Between Of Mice and Men and The Help
Being African American in the thirties and sixties was dangerous. Things such as the KKK and the Jim Crow laws that were put into place, made it near impossible for African Americans to go about an everyday life. A close look at the way Crooks from Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, and Minnie Jackson from The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, confront the discrimination that they face in different time periods demonstrated the struggle of being an African American excluded from society.
To begin with, the two works of literature: Of Mice and Men and The Help, both have many similarities. For example, both of the characters, Crooks and Minnie, are both African American and are struggling to support themselves. Crooks is an African American man who lives on a ranch and works as a …show more content…

On Christmas Eve every year, Crooks is cruelly beaten by the other guys on the ranch, more specifically, the Boss and Curley. “They let the nigger come in that night. 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” (22). Because he is African American and in living in the midst of the Great Depression, there is not much that he can do. In The Help, Minnie is stuck in an abusive relationship with her husband. “ Minny had that big bruise on her arm cause that's what Leroy do when he come home from work” (8). She also has kids in the house, and it is unimaginable how terrified they must be of their father. Not only is she an African American, but she is also a woman which makes the circumstances for her even worse. “If I didn’t hit you Minny, who knows what you become?” (30). Women in the 1960’s had no say or power in America’s patriarchal

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