Of Mice And Men? Is More Than Just The Tragedy Of Lennie; It Shows Th :: essays research papers

The world in the 1930’s was a very uncaring place. Due to the depression, many families were split up, so loneliness was running ramped. Ranch hands were thought of as the loneliest people in the world â€Å"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world† (page 15). Loneliness wasn’t the only kind of sadness and suffering that was endured by the workers. Lost dreams, discrimination and being disabled were only some of the problems faced. But these were not only limited to workers, women also felt these kinds of sadness and suffering a lot. In the book, Crooks, Curley’s wife and Candy are the main examples of these. Crooks is a black stable hand who has been called Crooks due the hunched back he has after a horse kicked him. In the 1930’s, being black was an extreme disadvantaged. You would be discriminated for your colour and this would lead to loneliness. Crooks was always being blamed for everything that went wrong even though he was hardly involved. The boss picked on him because of his colour â€Å"An’ he give the stable buck hell† (page 21) â€Å"Ya see the stable bucks a nigger† (page 21). Candy says this when George and Lennie arrive at the ranch and after Candy said that Crooks was a nigger, George accepted the boss’ treatment of Crooks. Another time Steinbeck talks about Crooks being discriminated was when he writes about the Christmas party where Smitty took after Crooks and the men did not stop the fight because Crooks was black, but did not allow Smitty to use his feet in the fight due to Crooks’ disability. Crooks has a room to himself because the guys won’t let him into the bunkhouse because he smells. This makes Crooks a very lonely man. Candy says â€Å"Got books in his room† (page 21) as if that is some sort of replacement for the company of another person. â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody† (page 72) â€Å"I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick† (page 72). This Crooks way of trying to explain to Lennie that Lennie is a lucky man to a friend like George, and he is also saying something about his own death to loneliness. Curley’s wife experiences nearly, if not more sadness and suffering than Crooks. She is discriminated like Crooks, but for a different reason.