The narrator knows this and mocks himself, stating it does not matter how he thinks of himself, because anyone—even the anonymous blond man on the street—can force him to conform to these stereotypes, simply by uttering a racial insult. Confined by this, the narrator flees the outside world in search of the freedom to define himself without the constraints that racism imposes. The episode with the blond man serves to illustrate the extent of the narrator’s metaphorical slavery. The man’s insult dehumanizes the narrator. He attacks the man in order to force him to recognize the narrator’s individuality.
Unfortunately this was not really possible in the 1930s, as people were prejudiced against the mentally handicapped, such as Lennie, and the Wall Street Crash, followed by the Great Depression, meant that the characters could suddenly end up unemployed and starving. George had two dreams, one was the stereotypical American Dream: to have his own farm with Lennie (and Candy) and ‘live off the fatta the lan’,’ without a boss to answer to. His other fantasy is of life without Lennie, who often caused him trouble and constantly needed looking after, ’I never get no peace.’ Without Lennie, George could be like any other worker, only looking out for himself and not caring as much about the way he leads his life. However, George needed Lennie for companionship to help make their joint dream vivid and keep them going. This also links to the theme of loneliness and companionship, and shows how two men travelling together was a rare situation.
He also writes "an ash-pile made by many fires". This shows that many men must have walked through this road to enter a lonely and miserable life, moving from ranch to ranch finding useless work. I think all the people living in the ranch are lonely. There are particular people in the ranch who have lonelier lives than others. The loneliest person on the ranch has to be Crooks, who suffers from extreme loneliness because he is black and he is living in a ranch and the surrounding area which is very racist.
Crooks is a man, supposedly young but disabled, that likes books and keeps his small room neat, but has been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatment of that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives. Racial discrimination is part of the microcosm Steinbeck describes in his story. It reaches its height in the novel when Curley's wife puts Crooks "in his place" by telling him that a word from her will have him lynched. Interestingly, only Lennie, the child-like character, does not see the color of Crooks' skin. Crooks isn’t ashamed about his inheritance but has pride and tells Lennie he doesn’t descend from slaves but from landowners.
Crooks, named for his crooked back, is one of the most vulnerable characters on the ranch, mostly due to his race combined with general racist attitudes at the time. He lives by himself because he is the only black man on the ranch, and he has been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatment of that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives. Crooks is painfully aware that his skin color is all that keeps him separate in this culture. This outsider status causes him to lament his loneliness, but he also delights in seeing the loneliness of others, perhaps because misery loves company. When Lennie arrives at his room, he turns him away, hoping to prove a point that if he, as a black man, is not allowed in white men’s houses, then whites are not allowed in his, but his desire for company ultimately wins out and he invites Lennie to sit with him.
The lawyer’s problem stems from the fact that he doesn’t know how to deal with and eventually get rid of Bartleby. The issue is not ignorance but confrontation between the lawyer and Bartleby. Delano on the other hand, succumbed to his well-natured obliviousness and overlooks clues of a mutiny right under his nose. However, because of his social conditioning leading him to believe that these events could not possibly occur, even though they crossed his mind, he nearly leads himself and his entire crew to their demise. Captain Delano can be shortly described as “a person of a singularly undistrustful good nature” (2695).
The author John Steinbeck presents the relationship between the two characters, George and Lennie in different ways as they are both different characters and have different personalities. This means that George is a man like person and Lennie is a childlike. However, John Steinbeck is one of the greatest storytellers of the twentieth century. This novel was written in 1937 and was set in California (USA) in the 1930s, when America had a great depression. Depression affected everyone this is because many people were unemployed and had to travel and migrate to look for work.
what right had infirmity like his to burden itself with crime? Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their choice either to endure it, or, if it press too hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good purpose, and fling it off at once!” Pg.172 Do not be a hypocrite. Do not put a false point to the world to make it seem like you have no faults. It is ok to let others see you are not perfect. Dimmesdale is just too weak and good-natured to shoulder the kind of blame he is foisting upon himself.He tried to hide his sin and guilt but, his heart literally weakened, and he died.
I felt Kane’s argument was a bit ineffective since he kept focusing more on Jim Getty (his competition) thus making him look like a bad person. It seemed as if Boss Jim Getty had committed some crime, however Kane did not explain what he had done wrong. I do feel that he made those who were classified in the lower-class happy that someone wanted to do something to help them. However, Kane forgot to mention what his promise to help this class of people would entitle. I believe that without mentioning what you would like to do in order to help people out you leave the audience doubting if your promise will live up to it.
With these three elements, Richard Wright illustrates the life, hardship and influences of Bigger Thomas, and the down fall of his life in Native Son. Thomas Bigger is a dislikeable and cold character throughout the novel. We recognize that it is not his doing. The fact the Bigger is poor and uneducated; we recognize the circumstances have created his journey towards crime and his controlling bully personality. Bigger is mean to his little sister, cruel to his friends, and uncaring to his girlfriend.