Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men has been described as a protest statement

Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men has been described as a protest statement

Steinbeck’s novel, “Of Mice and Men” has been described as a protest

statement. To what extent do you think that this is true?

Steinbeck protest’s about the way that several different types of

people were treated during the early nineteenth century. He protests

against the treatment of the mentally retarded, cripples, African

American people and the viewing of women as possessions. He does this

by creating a character for each of these groups of people, and

exposing these characters as victims, which generates the reader’s

sympathy for them. Steinbeck was a sympathizer with the migrant

workers and this is shown in the book. Steinbeck wrote a series of

articles and made a documentary film about migrant workers. For John

Steinbeck this book was used to highlight the issues generated in the

situation. Each character has their own traits. Normally they all

have at least one good quality and they all have a negative quality.

Firstly in this essay I am going to look at the segregation and racial

hatred that Crooks experiences during the novel. Like other hardships

experienced in the book by other characters this kind of treatment

eventually turns Crooks and he is bullied into thinking like his

oppressors. Crooks is more permanent than the other ranch hands and

has his own room off the stables with many more possessions than the

other workers. This room is made out to be a privilege and also

because it means he is nearer to the horses but in fact it is really

because the other ranch hands do not want him in the bunk house with

them. An example of how the men are discriminative towards Crooks is

that he is forced to live in a shack ...

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...wned by men who read this book would probably realise that they

should live up to their dreams rather than having their place in the

home. The cripples and elderly who read this book must have felt

sorry at the fact that they were being bullied into making a hard

decision that they did not want to make and the mentally retarded

people that can read this book might be interested to know that it is

not their fault. However Lenny’s character affects more than just the

real Lenny’s in the world. It sends a message to others, people who

have to live with mentally retarded people every day, it tells them to

understand what they are going through and to take care as Lenny like

characters may not fully understand what they mean. This book can be

summed up as a statement, perhaps even as a leaflet to inform people

of the hardships of the nineteenth century America.