Of Mice and Men Commentary

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by the 1962 Nobel Prize winner, John Steinbeck. It is an emotional tale of the exceptional friendship between George and Lennie, who are traveling workers in the harsh depression years of the 1930s. George is a caring psyche whose love to Lennie is just like a father-son relationship, where Lennie, a ment anyy challenged composition whose strength lies in body rather than brain, appears to be very dependent on George. Of Mice and Men teaches a universal penning about the nature of human beings that a person whose baron exists over another turns corrupt.Steinbeck exploits the theme of power and control in his novel through the bulky use of sexism, racial discrimination, and the power of the strong over the weak. Sexism is the belief that one sex is superior over the other. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck undoubtedly shows that the power is revolve around on the majority sex, which is the males, against the minority, the females, where in this no vel is Curleys wife. By simply keeping the character nameless and using the expression Curleys wife to identify her is a clear example of referring to her as an object without any respect rather than a person. Curleys wife shows how women during the early 1900s were inferior down the stairs the men. She is merely the spouse of Curley as far as all the men in the counterpane are concerned. They are only forced to relate to her through Curley if they fear him or indirect request no trouble, the men entrust stay extraneous from her. George, for example, has set goals in his mind that he is committed to, thus he will stay away from her in order not to reward into any trouble. On the other hand, if they do not fear anyone, they can jollify their time with the intention of forming a physical relationship with her.Lennie, whose childish mind cannot comprehend why he should stay away from Curleys wife, falls into the trap and gets severe consequences for doing so. She is simply a per son living in the ranch with the purpose of only to obey Curley with no voice to complain to. All the men including Curley may go to the cathouse and enjoy their time Curleys wife on the other hand, may not dare to do the same, along with Crooks. During the 1900s, racial discrimination was widely used throughout America, a land that is filled with various ethnic groups. Steinbeck portrays the cruel racist manner that is used throughout on the stable buck, Crooks.He lives a separate, isolated life under everyone in the ranch, and is incapable to protest, merely because he is black. He is terribly labeled with the epithet of a nigger from everyone else. Steinbeck portrays him as an unfortunate man for being innate(p) black with no power at all and may not do anything about it. He is not allowed to enter any white mans room, and to more or less raise his own degraded dignity, does the same, not allowing any white man to his room although he only says so, it is not necessarily true as we later on on see that George and candy enter.Crooks is a person where all the sorrows and miseries of another can be thrown on him because he is powerless to object. As concisely as Curleys wife feels insulted from him and Candy, she threatens him verbally, using her superior social status as a white woman, Well you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you draw out in a tree so easy it aint even funny. Although most people in the ranch appear to want friendship, they all live with hidden fear of each other.The years of the great depression left everyone trying to look stronger and better than the other, or otherwise the strong will get rid of them the killing of Candys dog is a great symbol for that which makes it clear. Candys dog is ought to get shot and killed, even though it has spent its lifetime with Candy, because it is right away old and useless. The stronger, in this case man (Carlson), mercilessly shoots Candys dog, who knew nothing of his grief fate. Candy then sees his reflection upon the killing of his dog, that he will soon get too old and therefore useless, which will then have him left alone.This pushes him into desperately asking George to permit him to join with him and Lennie for the pursuit of their own dream ranch, Thas trinity hundred an fifty bucks Id put in, I aint much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. On the contrary, Curley is a man who takes advantage of his authority and power to oppress and mock others to make himself seem stronger and even more powerful. He uses his power and gender to boss around with workers of his ranch and his wife, respectively. However, when he chose to do so towards Lennie, Lennie reacts angrily and smashes his hand.Through the intense use of sexism, racial discrimination, and the power of the strong over the weak, Steinbeck successfully exploits the theme of power and control. Whether it is mentally, physically, or money wise, power seems to be moving from o ne person to another depending on the situation. Perhaps it really is the roots of evil that occurs as a result of soulfulness realizing his power over others, and then uses it for his own personal desires, while taking advantage of others. In other words, as the Arabic proverb professes, a persons power and freedom is corrupt when it limits the power and freedom of another.