From the first look, there seems to be little to no justice in Steinbecks' novella Of Mice and Men. Set on a ranch in Weeds during the Great Depression, Steinbeck portrays a simplistic Lennie and a well defined George, who seem to depend on each other in certain ways. Lennie is seen as having the mental capacity of a child, but he makes mistakes by harming creatures; human and animal alike. Steinbeck seems to have slipped in more morals in the story than at first glance. Steinbeck introduces Lennie, one of the characters that faces the most injustice in the book. Lennie is described as a “huge man, shapeless of face..with wide, sloping shoulders”(2), he is also mentally ill, and know not to control his strength. George admits to Slim that the reason they left the other town was because Lennie “‘jus’ wanted to touch that red dress”(41) on this girl, who then screams and runs away.
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Lennie has the mind capacity of a young child, and is therefore easily influenced by others actions and affected by their words. An example of injustice is when Curley meets Lennie. He seems as if he is intimidated by Lennie’s rather large size, and as most guys do, bulk up to show dominance. Curleys’ “hands [closing] into fists”(25) made Lennie uncomfortable from the beginning. Curley, as most others back in these times, doesn’t understand the way Lennie acts nor does he seem to care. Curleys jealousy over Lennie leads to him later swinging at him, in return, poor Lennie gets frightened and reached for his fist, holding “the flopping little man”(63) like a fish on a line, and ends up breaking his hand. Later in the story the reader is faced with the conflict of Lennie accidentally killing Curley’s wife and then proceeded to an attempt to be tracked down. Slim and George are the only ones who really comprehend Lennie’s disability, but they agree its time to do something. So George is faced with three options: find Lennie and deal with him, let Curley hunt him down like an animal, or have him caged up. So George sneaks off to the brush where Lennie is and lets him die happily, even if he didn’t get proper justice, at least he was at peace. Speaking of Curley’s wife, she was also an example of Steinbeck’s genius inequity. Men ruled the world with an iron fist in these earlier times, and women were expected to be seen and not heard, if she were anything but, she was seen as “‘tramp..jailbait..[or a] rat-trap’”(32). She seems to be the only women on the ranch, and women were only supposed to talk to other women, she didn’t have anyone else and all the men would call her degrading names. So she tries to talk to the other men while Curley’s out bragging about his new wife. Before her final moments, she confides in Lennie stating “‘I get lonely..you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad’”(87), and it’s not like anyone could blame her, everyone at the ranch has their own loneliness they’re dealing with in one way or another. Steinbeck also portrays racial injustice through the character Crooks. The same concept with women applies to anyone of color in this time - their opinions did not matter. Crooks was almost shunned since the
Lennie has the mind capacity of a young child, and is therefore easily influenced by others actions and affected by their words. An example of injustice is when Curley meets Lennie. He seems as if he is intimidated by Lennie’s rather large size, and as most guys do, bulk up to show dominance. Curleys’ “hands [closing] into fists”(25) made Lennie uncomfortable from the beginning. Curley, as most others back in these times, doesn’t understand the way Lennie acts nor does he seem to care. Curleys jealousy over Lennie leads to him later swinging at him, in return, poor Lennie gets frightened and reached for his fist, holding “the flopping little man”(63) like a fish on a line, and ends up breaking his hand. Later in the story the reader is faced with the conflict of Lennie accidentally killing Curley’s wife and then proceeded to an attempt to be tracked down. Slim and George are the only ones who really comprehend Lennie’s disability, but they agree its time to do something. So George is faced with three options: find Lennie and deal with him, let Curley hunt him down like an animal, or have him caged up. So George sneaks off to the brush where Lennie is and lets him die happily, even if he didn’t get proper justice, at least he was at peace. Speaking of Curley’s wife, she was also an example of Steinbeck’s genius inequity. Men ruled the world with an iron fist in these earlier times, and women were expected to be seen and not heard, if she were anything but, she was seen as “‘tramp..jailbait..[or a] rat-trap’”(32). She seems to be the only women on the ranch, and women were only supposed to talk to other women, she didn’t have anyone else and all the men would call her degrading names. So she tries to talk to the other men while Curley’s out bragging about his new wife. Before her final moments, she confides in Lennie stating “‘I get lonely..you can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad’”(87), and it’s not like anyone could blame her, everyone at the ranch has their own loneliness they’re dealing with in one way or another. Steinbeck also portrays racial injustice through the character Crooks. The same concept with women applies to anyone of color in this time - their opinions did not matter. Crooks was almost shunned since the