Of Mice and Men Summary

In the book, "Of mice and men", there are key characters in the book that receive discrimination of race, or sex, or just being who they are. The key characters I'm talking about are Crooks, Curley's wife, and Lennie. Crooks receives discrimination because he is African American, Curley's wife receive discrimination because she is a woman and how she behaves in the story, and Lennie receives discrimination because he is mentally challenged and of how he acts on the story. All of these characters are affected deeply by this discrimination, and it gets in the way of their dreams. The discrimination that these characters receive affects the way they behave which effects the story line. When characters receive discrimination they will be depressed,can't how they react changes the story. Discrimination ruins dreams, and affects people badly, the way a person responds to discrimination can lead to major changes and that happens in this story with these three characters.

Crooks is an African American stable hand of the farm, he is discriminated on very hard and he is isolated from having a regular life on the farm. All crooks does is spend his day in the stable as a stable hand, and again he is completely isolated from the regular farm life. Crooks has plenty of dreams like owning his own land, and being free. He dreams a lot when he is in the stable and when he hears Lennie talking about the land, he gets very fond of Lennie. He can keep on dreaming but the discrimination that he faces will keep holding him back because he never gets out of the stable and he's basically all alone. "Yes sir. Jesus, we had fun. "They let the nigger come in that night. Little skinner name of Smitty took after the nigger. Done pretty good, too. The guys wouldn't let him use his feet, so the nigger got him. If he coulda used his feet, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigger. The guys said on account of the nigger's got a crooked back, Smitty can't use his feet." This quote shows how Candy is racist toward Crooks. This quote is very hard to read because of how gruesome it is toward African Americans. Crooks can't make anything of himself because of this behavior, the way Crooks reacts to this doesn't majorly affect the story because he can't make a change. He only dreams of being free to his own land.

Curley's wife is also another victim of discrimination because she is a woman and how she acts in the story. Just look at her name and you can tell she is sexually discriminated. In the story she has dreams, as a child she wanted to be a Hollywood star and make tons of money. "I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself." She said darkly, "Maybe I will yet." And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away. "I lived right in Salinas," she said. "Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an' 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 on'y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I'd went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you bet. When she never got the chance and kept waiting to go, she never even made it to Hollywood. When she realized her dream was dead she had to make a life for herself. She married Curley, a man she wasn't even in love with, and she wasn't happy. She was very disloyal to Curley because she couldn't find comfort in him, she was depressed and unhappy with her life. So she was also discriminated for being disloyal, the men called her a " loolo" because of this. All f the men lost respect for her, and she became more depressed. When she saw Lennie upset after the puppy died she came to comfort him, she was also looking for comfort from him. The discrimination and the hate drive her to Lennie which led her to her death because she let him touch her hair. She didn't realize that Lennie hurt things easily and she got her neck broken. You could