“Of Mice and Men” during the 1930’s Essay

John Steinbeck wrote â€Å"Of Mice and Men† during the 1930’s when the Great Depression would’ve started. The dustbowl was wiping off all the good soil so all the farmers lost there jobs and they lost all their money. Also loads of people lost money in the Wall Street Crash when the stock market crashed. Many men had the dream like George and Lennie and work like them so they can get their fifty bucks or work up a stake to buy some land of their own. Many people were racist so Crooks had a very hard life even though he had nothing different about him but his skin colour. Also he is a cripple so he can’t do too much work except tend the horses. Candy is a bit the same because he has a busted hand and got a bit of compensation but nobody else would employ him so he has to stay there. Lennie is really dumb and even though he is strong no one would employ him because of his intelligence. He is lucky that he has George because it was George that would have probably got him the job. George is a very intelligent person who is a hard worker but can never live the life he wants to because Lennie keeps ruining it. Slim is a very good worker and is very efficient and is essential to the ranch. He is the only one who can speak to Curley’s wife and get away with it. â€Å"This is just a nigger talking’, and a busted back nigger. So it don’t mean nothing, see?† this shows how disrespectful Curley’s wife and other people can be to Crooks. Crooks are portrayed in the book as a black, enabled person who is beaten and tortured for fun. He has only a few human rights like being able to live and do what he wants to a certain extent but is beaten by the boss when it’s not even his fought and he is used for games. Just like when they set dogs on a bear even though the bear is chained up, one of the workers will have his hands or legs tied together so that poor old Crooks has a chance. Crooks is always mentioned by the Boss and the workers as the nigger, a bit like an animal, like you call a dog, dog when talking about it, they do the same to Crooks. They treat him like an animal. Smitty was the guy that had the fight with Crooks but lost. He said â€Å"If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda got the nigger† which proves the point that he was treated like a game. Crooks will never fit in the 1930’s because of all the racism with the KKK. He is also enabled so he has got two main problems with him that is why he is pushed around and beaten. Crooks is placed in the novel by Steinbeck to show another aspect of how not being strong, young, male and intelligent can cause loneliness and discrepancy about whether they can really enjoy themselves without a little bit of help. Crooks don’t like white folk as we see when Lennie goes into his room. He says â€Å"You got no right coming into my room† Crooks tries to get back at Lennie for him not being able to go into the Bunkhouse. He wants to make Lennie feel left out by saying things like â€Å"Sometimes he talks, and you don’t know what the hell he’s talkin’ about?† shows this in a way that Lennie doesn’t understand. Lennie is probably cautious of that because it’s true, he then tries to scare Lennie by saying â€Å"What would you do if George don’t come back tonight?† and Lennie gets all worried and scared. In the end Crooks stops doing it because he wants someone to talk to. He tries to act normal but his anger is let out he complains how â€Å"Books don’t keep a man company. They gotta have a person to talk to or they will go mad† shows this, he can’t control himself. He portrays a lonely man with no friends or anyone to talk to and it isn’t his thought. He is like an untouchable. The other characters in the book which are marginalized are people like Lennie, Curley’s wife and Candy. Lennie is marginalized because even though he is young and strong he is so dumb. People realize he’s so dumb they even play tricks on him, like when George is talking to Slim he says â€Å"He was so dumb one time I told him to jump into the water, he jus’ jumped and when we pulled him out he was so God damn grateful he was being all kind again† proves this, Lennie being so dumb must make it hard for George or anybody to have a real conversation with. Candy is left aside because he is unable to work properly because of an accident when he got his hand caught in a machine. Even though his $250 compensation he can’t move on with his life or move away so he has to stay at the ranch. You can tell that he’s lonely because when he over hears Lennie and George talking about their special little place their getting he jumps at the opportunity and says â€Å"How much do they want for that place?† shows that Candy is very interested in the farm. He even offers them every last cent he has to go with them and his will, will be left to them. He says he can’t wait and is thoroughly excited. He is just a useless old man, just like his dog a waste of space but seems very wise because he tells George and Lennie how he can cook, clean and wash and even tend chickens so he advertises himself as a slave just to get out of the ranch. Curley’s wife doesn’t fit in with everybody else because of her sex. There are no other women on the ranch so she has no one to talk to when all the men go out to work. This is why she always tarts herself. She just wants to be noticed a lot of the men say â€Å"You have Curley to talk to† but she just replies â€Å"all Curley talks about is how he’s gonna get some guy and lead with his left† so she shows that marrying Curley was a big mistake. She must have been drunk or just been let down and grabbed whatever she could. You can tell she is lonely because of the way she always asks â€Å"Have you seen Curley?† and trying to get noticed. She is a perfect example of Steinbeck using her character to show loneliness when she says â€Å"Standing here with a bunch of Bindle stiffs† and then says â€Å"and likin† shows that she shouldn’t really have to stay there and talk to them because she is young and beautiful but because she is a woman she can’t go out with the men. Curley’s wife is very different from many other people and the opposite to Curley because she wants to be Lennie’s friend. None of the other men implied that they don’t want to be friends with Lennie but you don’t hear in the book many other people talking to him except for George. This is because Curley’s wife knows that Lennie is interested in her because when they first met he â€Å"wouldn’t move his eyes away from her† and unbeknown to Curley’s wife Lennie says â€Å"She’s Purdy† and Curley’s wife tries to exploit this feeling by saying hello to him every time she sees him and lets Lennie stroke her hair not realising that it would cause her death. In the book Steinbeck makes most of the characters that do have the characteristics of being young, white, male and strong to succeed in the world like George and Slim. This because Steinbeck wanted to show the World that anyone not in that category would not survive like Lennie and Curley’s wife. He believed that this was realistic and that his book could have been a true story. George and Slim, these type of people would have survived because of the fact that they would have become so vital to the ranch, Slim already has. George will definitely become like slim because he is a good worker; he is strong, white and male but is also very intelligent so he knows where to be careful. You can tell that Slim is vital because Candy says â€Å"She’s been giving him the eye† and then says â€Å"if anyone can mess with Curley’s wife its Slim because he’s so damn good at his job† which shows that any other person messing with Curley’s wife, Curl ey would try to pick a fight with but he knows that the boss wont like that because of how essential he is to the ranch. George will become this way unless he moves because he has already shown a lot of his intelligence by saying to Lennie â€Å"don’t say anything† and how he explains to the boss when they first meet â€Å"He isn’t the smartest guy but he can sure back a packet of Barley quick† showing that he tells the boss about Lennie’s bad points but then over emphasized about his good points. He is also very smart right at the start when he says â€Å"Were gonna sleep here because I got a reason† and the reason is because he knows that if he goes tonight he’ll have to get up tomorrow and go to work when he can just stay here. Lennie doesn’t realise this and asks why. George knows better than to tell him the truth because he knows that Lennie might let it slip to the boss and he doesn’t want that so he says â€Å"I just like this spot† and Lennie doesn’t seem to care and just carries on getting fire work. To conclude this essay Crooks was placed in the book to show how bad racism is and to show how he was treated. Lennie, Candy and Curley’s wife are put in to show that if you’re not white, male, intelligent and strong you won’t be able to survive. Lennie got killed by George, Candy will die shortly because of his age but Crooks he will survive but with a wretched life of racism and it probably will not get any better in his life. The people that do survive are characters like Slim and George and they survive because they are fit into the elite category of being string, intelligent, white and male. Soon George will become indispensable to the Ranch just like Slim who â€Å"Is so God damn good at his job† unless of course they want to move, but where ever those two go, they will become very good at what they do. George’s whole life awaits him now because he hasn’t got Lennie to mess up things and can do what he wants like he says â€Å"I could go into town and buy a gallon of whisky and sit and play pool or visit a whore house. But I’m stuck with you† so really he should do a lot better without Lennie.