Treatment Of African-Americans In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Treatment of African-Americans in Of Mice and Men Throughout the novella Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, prejudice and injustice are constantly being brought up by in the form of racism against African-Americans. They treat African-Americans very badly compared to other people who aren’t African-American. Throughout the book, African-Americans are treated significantly worse than the other races. Though many readers may miss the injustice going on, a closer look into the subtext will reveal a deeper meaning. African-Americans are treated very different than their white counterpart even though on the inside, they are the same. Although there is only one African-American character in the story, the prejudice is very abundant. Crooks …show more content…
In this book, the “N” word is over 16 times. They called Crooks this word to describe him. They use this word because they feel that every single African-American can be described by using this word. This word is not the correct term for an African-American. It is a derogatory term that is used to describe African-Americans. In the book, it shows “...They let the nigger come in that night. Little skinner name of Smitty took after the nigger…. Smitty says he would[have] killed the nigger.”(Steinbeck 33) As you can see, they decided to call Crooks a nigger because they feel that he is not worth much to them and they can say whatever they want. They also treated him very unfairly when Smitty said if he could, he would kill him. They feel like no one cares about African-Americans and if they killed him, no one would question them about it. Curley’s wife explains ‘“Listen, Nigger’, She said. ‘You know what I can do if you open up your trap?’” (Steinbeck 116) In this quote, Curley’s wife is telling Crooks that if he tells the boss what she is doing, she can easily get him arrested because he is African-American. She knows that if she tells the police that he did something, they will believe her because he is African-American. While Curley’s wife can tread all over Crooks, the other races have a relatively easy life. The police would immediately arrest Crooks when Curley’s …show more content…
In the book, African-Americans get the short straw out of the people. In the book it is described “‘...You ain’t wanted in my room’” (Steinbeck 26). In the book, Crooks has his own room, which might sound nice until you realise that it’s in the stables right next to where the horses are. Crooks gets this room while the others get another room because of his race. Crooks doesn’t let anyone in his room because he feels like since he can’t go in their room, they shouldn’t be allowed in his. Another example shows Crooks saying “‘ Guys don’t come in a colored man’s room very often”’ (Steinbeck 76) This quote shows that people often avoid Crook’s room and Crooks himself because he is African-American. Many people think that African-Americans are inferior and shouldn’t have everything that the other races
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