The Ranch in Of Mice and Men

The ranch portrays a harsh, callous society with no place for the

weak. Discuss.

‘Of Mice and Men’, Steinbeck portrays a world dominated by powerful

white able-bodied males. It is the views and opinions of this social

type that permeate ranch society and those who come from outside these

boundaries are ostracized and persecuted. Thus we have a world where

Steinbeck describes the plight of women, black people, disabled people

and those with mental disabilities showing the persecution and

suffering they have to endure.

In 1930’s American people had no work. Migrant workers moved from

place to place to find work, without any proper relationship with

others. They looked after themselves. It was a selfish and violent

society of working and living in harsh environments, and where sexist

attitudes towards women were commonplace.

As George and Lennie arrive at the bunkhouse of the ranch, Steinbeck

describes the bleak scenery of the bunkhouse. The wall of this

“rectangular building…”, “the floor unpainted….”, and “there was a

nailed apple - box”. Almost every part of the bunk is made of things

that were already used. It wasn’t a nice place to sleep at all. When

George and Lennie came into the bunkhouse, George immediately

commented “What the hell kind of bed you giving us, anyway?” George

said this because the bed was very dirty and full of lice. Bleakness

and darkness are the general atmosphere of the world at that time and

we learn that bunkhouse is a metaphor of the society which characters

live in. Through this metaphor, Steinbeck tried to show harsh

environments of human society, which force people to be selfish and

violent to survive.

In this novel, there are many social outcasts. Crooks, the stable

buck, may be the most persecuted character in the novel. He lived

separated from other people because he was black. At Christmas, they

made Crooks fight with white men with his hands tied back. They didn’t

care how Crooks felt as they only wanted to have fun at the expense of

the weak. Most of the men was prejudiced against Crooks referring to

him as the “nigger”. They treated him badly and used him for

entertainment. Calling him “nigger” is similar to it. It is so ironic

that Crooks the most persecuted one with no dream, has a copy of the

California civil code for 1905 and read more books than any other. The

book is about human rights. This represents the callous society very

well. There is nothing that can protect the weak including the law and

what decide people’s lives are not contents of their mind but colour

of their skin.

Another excellent example was when they were having dinner in the