Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation because the society that he lives in is racist. “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody … I tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick.” Crooks’ loneliness is a result of rejection from everyone else on the ranch. He is forced to live alone in a barn. Crooks spends most of his time reading and the only relationship he has is with his books. When Lennie enters his room, Crooks is interested in Lennie’s relationship with George. “Well s’pose, jus’ s’pose he don’t come back.” Crooks wants to make people understand what it is like for him being alone. Crooks becomes so desperate for a relationship that he offers his services to Lennie for free, just to escape his loneliness.
The pay for the migrant workers was very low. This is because it was very hard to find jobs during the American depression and the employees knew that if they were to ask for a raise they may get sacked. This meant the workers would have to go looking for more work which was very hard to find. Once the migrant workers got their pay at the end of the month they would normally go and spend it at a “cat-house” or sleep in a hotel overnight. “No mess at all, and when the end of the month come, I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why I could stay in a cat-house all night.” George says this to Lennie while they are sitting at the brook.
Everyone on the ranch had a dream of what they wanted to do. The most common dream was to own their own land. Curley’s Wife had a dream that she wanted to be an actress and to be famous. We find out about this when Lennie is talking to Curley’s wife in the barn. Curley’s wife quotes “I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’t let me. She says because I was only fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.”
Candy, Lennie and George all had the same dream to save up their wages and to buy their own piece of land to live on together. This is another dream which doesn’t happen, this is because at the end of the story Lennie kills Curley’s wife and George knows that he wouldn’t have enough money to buy the land they always wanted.
The story focuses on Racism, Sexism and Ageism. One example of Ageism is Candy. Candy is a lonely and disabled old man who feels isolated from the rest of the younger workers on the ranch. Candy knows that society rejects seniors such as himself because they are stereotyped as useless and unproductive citizens.
An example of Racism is Crooks. Crook’s is the most isolated character in this story for one reason, his skin colour. He lives alone in the stables with the horses and is not allowed into the stable house with the rest of the workers. Most of the men are prejudiced against Crooks and he is constantly reminded of his “fault” as he is often called a “nigger”.
An example of sexism is Curley’s Wife. Curley’s Wife is the only female on the ranch and is granted no social power. Also, Curley’s wife is not given a name in the story. This is the author’s attempt to draw the readers’ attention to the fact that she is viewed as unimportant or of lower status to the men. Because of her flirtatious manner, Curley forbids her to speak to anyone but himself and she has since approached the ranchers with excuses to find her husband. All the ranchers think of her as a “Tart” or a “prostitute”
Conclusion
This is a novel of defeated hope and the harsh reality of the American Dream. George and Lennie are poor homeless migrant workers, doomed to a life of wandering and toil in which they are never able to reap the fruits of their labour. Their desires may not seem so unfamiliar to any other human; a place of their own and the opportunity to work for themselves. George and Lennie desperately cling to the idea that they are different from other workers who drift from ranch to ranch because, unlike the others, they have a future and each other. But characters like Crooks and Curley's wife serve as reminders that George and Lennie are no different from anyone who wants something of his or her own. By killing Lennie, George eliminates a burden and a threat to his own life. Lennie, of course, never threatened George directly, but his actions endangered the life of George, who took responsibility for him. The tragedy is that George, in effect, is forced to shoot both his friend, who made him different from the other lonely workers, as well as his own dream and admit that it has failed
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