5 November 2011
Of Mice and Men Essay Imagine being isolated from a group or left alone while others have fun. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Crooks a worker on the farm who is harassed by other men due to his skin color, and Curley’s wife a beautiful young women have both been isolated and left alone while others go to hang out and socialize. In this time period of The Great Depression, racism was a very common thing and people couldn’t trust anyone due to all the people coming and going from wherever they work or travel too. This lead to mass isolation to people all among the country because no one trusted each other. Isolation is a serious thing that can lead to damage of a person’s behaviors and actions. Racism is a form of isolation that can seriously affect one’s life. For example, Lennie was wandering the farm when he entered Crooks room. Crooks got mad and told him that he had no rights entering his room (Steinbeck 67). In this quote the reader can notice that Crooks reaction was very aggressive due to a white man walking into his room. That is because most of the time Crooks is left out of activities and the rest of the men on the farm are very prejudice and racist to Crooks. Also at the near end of the book, Curley’s wife came into Crooks room with Lennie and Candy already inside. Curley’s wife stood there flirting with Lennie trying to mesmerize him when Crooks got very angry and told the son of the boss’s wife to get out and yelled at her (Steinbeck 80). One can see from this that because all the men isolate him from the group, he gets very defensive. This is because they call him names and anger him by telling him he stinks on a daily basis and he has become isolated and is mad of all the racism, its changing his behavior as you an see. If people are racist to a different colored man, one may hurt them forever and be shunned by the person. Loneliness can cause one to act irrationally. Towards the end of the book, when Lennie is in Crooks room with Candy, and Curley’s wife she asks Lennie where are the bruises on his face from? They responded he got his hand caught in a machine and she persisted on still flirting and talking (Steinbeck 80). In this example one can notice that Curley’s wife is flirting with Lennie because she is the only women on the farm and is feeling lonely and left out. The reason she flirts is because she really doesn’t like Curley anymore since he leaves her out of all the activities with the other men and