Of Mice and Men. Disadvantaged Characters!

How does Steinbeck present disadvantaged characters?

John Steinbeck’s novel ‘of mice and men’, is set in California during the 1930s. At this point in time was the ‘great depression.’ Steinbeck got the name of the novel from a poem called ‘To a mouse on turning up her nest with a plough.’ There are many reasons why Steinbeck wrote this novel: one is that he was briefly a ranch hand, meaning he had a great comprehension of the difficulties and disadvantages of working on a ranch. Another reason is because Steinbeck writes about realism meaning there was a great interest in the lives of the poor rather than the rich people at this time. All of the characters are disadvantaged because most of them have no lasting friendships and have come from broken up families. The characters I will be presenting as the most disadvantaged are – Lennie, Crooks, Candy and Curley’s Wife.

Steinbeck introduces Lennie into the scene by contrasting him to George. Lennie mimics every move that George does, this immediately suggests that Lennie can’t do things for himself and relies on George as the responsible one. Steinbeck also presents Lennie as a follower rather than a leader. ‘Even in the open one stayed behind the other.’ This again suggests that Lennie relies on George most of the time. It also suggests – early on in the book – that Lennie has a child like mind and can’t think for himself. Steinbeck also describes Lennie as a ‘huge man’ which means he is using irony to link his build and his last name ‘small.’ This suggests that his last name emphasises his massive appearance. He is also described ‘the way a bear drags his paws.’ This suggests to the readers that Lennie has unreal strength which could possibly turn on him, causing drastic consequences later on in the book.

Lennie’s disadvantage is also shown by the speech Steinbeck has used. For example ‘“look, George. Look what I done.’” This immediately shows that Steinbeck wanted Lennie to speak like a child so we know that he is disadvantaged mentally. Again it also shows that he relies on George most of the time. The disadvantageous combination of a huge, strong adult body with a child like mind is one of the main causes of Lennie’s misadventures.
In section 1 we can see that Lennie has a huge obsession with rabbits. Whilst he forgets where they’re going ‘“Where we going, George?”’ He only remembers one thing, the rabbits – ‘“I remember the rabbits, George.’” The rabbits symbolize a superior future for Lennie, fixating him on one point – the rabbits. Next we discover one of the reasons for Lennie’s love of rabbits and soft things, when we discover he has a dead mouse in his pocket. This is because he wanted to ‘“pet it with my thumb while we walked along.”’ Lennie clearly loves soft things, but as George said about Lennie’s aunt Clara. She would always give him mice but ‘“you always killed ‘em.”’ This again suggests that Lennie has unreal strength which could harm other things or even people.
In addition, George tells Slim an incident that happened in weed before they arrived at the ranch. ‘“So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk.”’ This again shows us that Lennie likes soft things which could cause damage to people later on in the book.

Later on, Curley wants to fight Lennie – at first he didn’t want to fight, but George shouted ‘“Get ‘im Lennie.”’ But suddenly Lennie grabbed Curley’s hand and crushed it. After this incident, Lennie said ‘“I can still tend the rabbits, George.”’ This elucidates the fact that Lennie doesn’t realise that he has done something wrong, which again could harm someone else in the book without him realising what he has done. All these things happening are leading up to something much worse, like a murder. He is not intentionally doing these things, LENNIE IS NOT MEAN!
Next we find out that Lennie accidently kills Curley’s wife, but he didn’t realise what he was doing. Curley’s wife started to scream so he put his hand over her mouth and nose. ‘“Oh please don’t do that. George’ll be mad.’” Again this tells us that Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, which turns out to be one of his main disadvantages.

At the end of the novel, Lennie gets shot in the back of the head – by George. This was the kindest way possible to end Lennie’s life because if Curley had caught up with him, he would’ve made Lennie’s death very slow and painful. ‘“Shoot for his guts.”’ Lennie being shot in the head seems a better option because he could either: be removed from society and be put into a mental institute which would be even worse as conditions were very poor in 1930s America, or again he could’ve had a painful, slow death.
In the novel, Crooks is another disadvantaged character. We first hear about him, when Lennie and George meet Candy. Candy tells them that the boss gave Crooks a lot of grief just because some other people (Lennie and George) didn’t get to work on time. ‘“An’ he gave the stable buck hell too.’” This immediately tells us that anyone can intimidate/hurt Crooks, but why? Well throughout the whole novel, he is described as a ‘nigger’ so everyone thinks that it’s okay to shout or hurt Crooks. This discriminates him from everybody else, just because of his skin colour. We also are told a story, that at Christmas they let Crooks into the bunk house, just to beat him up. Ironically they make allowances for his disability.

In section 3 we briefly meet Crooks in the bunkhouse. Slim and Crooks have a short conversation and then Crooks leaves, quick and sharp. Crooks calls Slim as ‘“Mr Slim”’ clearly showing he looks up to him, or as if he is the boss. He also tells Slim that he has done one of the jobs he has asked for, he then says ‘“I can do it you want.’” Again this shows us that he looks up to Slim. All these things justify the fact that Crooks knows where he isn’t wanted but he kind of has a friend or someone to look up to. Also no one else really takes notice of him, showing that there must be something wrong with him.

In section 4 we are drawn to Crook’s room, where there is a conversation with Lennie. It is much longer than before, because Lennie doesn’t realise that in that time, black people were not the same as white people. There might be some advantages of being Crooks, for example – he has privacy, he has many books and he has medicines. These seem real advantages but the dim light in his room suggests that his life is not at all good, but miserable and has no companions. He is also very touchy about letting other people in his room because they don’t let him into theirs.

Crook’s is very lonely and is very jealous of George and Lennie’s friendship so he teases Lennie about it. ‘“S’pose George don’t come back no more.’” This immediately shows jealousy and puts Lennie in a very uncomfortable situation. The only reason Crooks does this is because he is lonely and has never had a lasting friendship.

Crooks see’s a very, open opportunity to get out of his miserable life...by entering George, Lennie and Candy’s dream. ‘“...If you...guys would want a hand to work for nothing.”’ This clarifies that Crooks would do anything to get out of the hell he is at, and if the opportunity popped up, he would’ve gone for it. Being a black person in this era was very hard indeed.
At the end of the novel, Crooks is left exactly the same as he was in the beginning. This is because of Curley’s wife’s death. Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks’ dream is now shattered as Lennie had to be shot. This is so significant because we were all hoping that Crook’s would get a better life, but unfortunately it ended...badly.