When people think about discrimination most people just think
its relationship about to racism. But is much more than that. People are discriminated against for every reason like; age, size, knowledge, and even whom their parents and ancestors are, and Of Mice and Men is a book that show exactly this. So lets dig deeper into how discrimination is a key part of this one of a kind novel.
Of Mice and Men is full with characters constantly being discriminized against for a lot of different reasons. These people consist of; Lennie, an oversized, strong man with autistic characters, Crooks, a black stable buck; Curly’s Wife, the farm owner’s neglected daughter-in-law; and Candy, an old, disabled housekeeper. All of these characters are looked down upon in their community.
The man discriminated by his age is Candy. Candy is a wise old man with a loud old dog as his companion. Most of the young folks in the community see Candy as a useless old man who does nothing to help society and just disturbs everybody with his pesky dog. Because of this Candy often keeps to himself and feels especially attached to his dog and doesn’t want to leave him even though it is necessary because of the dog’s old age and bothersome behavior.
The man discriminated against because of race is Crooks. Crooks is a black man who works in the stables. Even though curly obviously is not a dangerous man and means no harm the people treat him like a criminal because of his skin color. One example of people discriminating against Crooks lies on page 34, “They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black.”
One of the most important characters of all, Lennie, who is a very large strong man, whom also shows many signs of mental retardation or autism, is probably the character that receives the most discrimination. Not only do people discriminate against Lennie, they are scared of him because of his massive size and juvenile behavior. Because of this,...