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Examples Of Racism In Of Mice And Men

Decent Essays

Of Money and Malice
Just like the recent recession of 2008, the Great Depression brought fear upon our country like no other force in our nation’s history. Throughout the Great Depression, racism was at an all time high and money was at an all time low. Prices skyrocketed as inflation took hold of the economy. But these occurrences were not left undocumented. Steinbeck accurately portrays historical and cultural elements of the 1930’s, such as poverty and racism throughout his novella, Of Mice and Men. During the 1930’s poverty was an overarching problem caused by the Great Depression. In the novella, many of the characters were deprived of basic necessities and lived off of a salary that we would now recognize as pocket change. Because of …show more content…

African-Americans from the south started to migrate north as the economic crisis worsened. Steinbeck's representation of racism in Of Mice and Men is readily available through language and the aspects of various characters. In the story, Steinbeck shows the discrimination imposed on individuals such as Crooks and how other characters speak and act towards him just because of his skin color. For example, “Crooks, the negro stable buck had his bunk in the harness room, a little white shed that leaned off the wall of the barn,” (Steinbeck 66). This quote shows the racism undertones that the setting imposes on Crooks. Diction is used to dehumanize him when they describe Crooks as a “negro” and classify him based on his skin color. On a similar note, the fact that Crooks lives in a small storage room separated from the other workers symbolizes the physical disconnect and harsh segregation that he faces each and everyday. Conditions of discrimination represented in the novella are very accurate from a historical standpoint. As shown in the story, African-Americans are migrating to places other than the south. For example, the story takes place in California, and in the past, the black population was only prevalent in southern societies. But as seen in the book and in American history, African-Americans are now seen all over the United States, …show more content…

Like the American population during Great Depression, the characters in the story faced many hardships they had to overcome, including but not limited to those mentioned previously. In brief, the Great Depression was a devastating event in the history of America’s economy and Capitalistic standpoint, that had the potential to abolish the United States’ world power status

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