Racism In John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men'

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Our Crooked History Racism has been a problem since the beginning of time. In the 1930s racism in America was at it’s height. Whether for or against racism, 1900s literature was completely overcome with racism. writers such as Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and Louise Edrich expressed their thoughts on racism. A prime example is in John Steinback’s Of Mice and Men. The stable buck, Crooks, in this book was black, and the way he was treated was horrid. He was he was treated as though he was an animal. Crooks was not allowed to sleep in the bunk house with the other ranchers and forced to sleep in the barn with the animals. He could not socialize or eat with the ranchers and her was extremely mistreated. Also when the owner of the ranch got mad or frustrated he would beat the poor stable buck just because of his skin color. Because he was so mistreated he became lonely and bitter.…show more content…
the other ranch workers treated him as if he was less of a person than they were conveyed to be. Now, because of that behavior Crooks began to think he was not as good as the other workers on the ranch. As he said to Lennie in the barn, “this is just a nigger talkin’ an’ a busted-back nigger. So it don’t mean nothing, see?” (Steinback 71) This is suggesting that if a white man said what Crooks said to Lennie it would have been looked at differently and taken seriously. another example of racism is throughout the book Crooks was referred to as a “nigger”. This is a racial slur that is degrading and no longer
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