When atrocities occur, the individuals who committed the crime, as well as the act itself are often labeled as “inhumane.” However, with those events being so ubiquitous, it becomes ironic to describe them with a term signifying “not human” - despite the campaigns and endeavors to eliminate these iniquities, they subsist, and humans are the ones to perpetuate them. Similarly, in John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, the two protagonists, George Milton and Lennie Small, experience those cruelties firsthand as they pursue employment as migrant workers during the Great Depression. Yet the injustices and prejudice they encounter are inextricable aspects of society - regardless of their efforts and improvements, their circumstances regress
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To demonstrate, Crooks exploits Lennie’s credulity to satisfy his own desire for authority in the excerpt, “Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture. ‘Nobody can’t tell what a guy’ll do,’ he observed calmly. ‘Le’s say he wants to come back an can’t. S’pose he gets killed or hurt so he can’t come back.’” (Steinbeck 71) In other words, despite the negative experiences someone may have with bigotry and partiality, they still take pleasure in abusing their superiority over a peer. As evinced through Crooks, his lack of respect and recognition received from society throughout childhood and in the workplace exacerbated his hunger for acknowledgment. Comprehending Lennie’s mental disability, Crooks takes advantage of and “tortures” him to satisfy his cravings. For, in Lennie, Crooks discovers someone inferior to him that he can attack. Similarly, other characters display analogous behaviors - Curley’s wife terrorizes Crooks into acquiescence when the other men harass her for her gender, Candy condemns Curley’s wife even after death for no reason other than being a woman, and to a lesser extent, Curley’s pugnacious attitude towards larger men roots from his insecurity of his height. (26, 80-81, 95) Therefore, although oppression can be sourced to the privileged individuals at the peak of the social hierarchy, the disenfranchised …show more content…
To exemplify, Curley’s wife is only ever described in a positive connotation in reference to her corpse - this occurs in the passage, “... the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.” (Steinbeck 93) As a result, when alive and human, society was only capable of understanding the darkness in her disposition, and her gender prevented anyone from ever delving into what resided beneath her label of a “tart.” Death was the only opportunity she had to be viewed with respect and considered worthwhile - as once passed away, she is no longer a human, but a vessel that can contain the perfection and virtues that society wants her, and everyone, to personify. This topic repeats itself several times throughout the text, including with Candy’s old dog, who “ain’t no good to [Candy] an’ ain’t no good to himself” and when Candy addresses how he “wisht somebody’d shoot [him]” when his old age and disability deems his useless. (Steinbeck 60) Both these cases highlight how although typically not considered, death sometimes provides individuals a situation more favorable than life. Those become especially applicable when their current situation is deleterious, which
To demonstrate, Crooks exploits Lennie’s credulity to satisfy his own desire for authority in the excerpt, “Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture. ‘Nobody can’t tell what a guy’ll do,’ he observed calmly. ‘Le’s say he wants to come back an can’t. S’pose he gets killed or hurt so he can’t come back.’” (Steinbeck 71) In other words, despite the negative experiences someone may have with bigotry and partiality, they still take pleasure in abusing their superiority over a peer. As evinced through Crooks, his lack of respect and recognition received from society throughout childhood and in the workplace exacerbated his hunger for acknowledgment. Comprehending Lennie’s mental disability, Crooks takes advantage of and “tortures” him to satisfy his cravings. For, in Lennie, Crooks discovers someone inferior to him that he can attack. Similarly, other characters display analogous behaviors - Curley’s wife terrorizes Crooks into acquiescence when the other men harass her for her gender, Candy condemns Curley’s wife even after death for no reason other than being a woman, and to a lesser extent, Curley’s pugnacious attitude towards larger men roots from his insecurity of his height. (26, 80-81, 95) Therefore, although oppression can be sourced to the privileged individuals at the peak of the social hierarchy, the disenfranchised …show more content…
To exemplify, Curley’s wife is only ever described in a positive connotation in reference to her corpse - this occurs in the passage, “... the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.” (Steinbeck 93) As a result, when alive and human, society was only capable of understanding the darkness in her disposition, and her gender prevented anyone from ever delving into what resided beneath her label of a “tart.” Death was the only opportunity she had to be viewed with respect and considered worthwhile - as once passed away, she is no longer a human, but a vessel that can contain the perfection and virtues that society wants her, and everyone, to personify. This topic repeats itself several times throughout the text, including with Candy’s old dog, who “ain’t no good to [Candy] an’ ain’t no good to himself” and when Candy addresses how he “wisht somebody’d shoot [him]” when his old age and disability deems his useless. (Steinbeck 60) Both these cases highlight how although typically not considered, death sometimes provides individuals a situation more favorable than life. Those become especially applicable when their current situation is deleterious, which