Within the novel of ‘Of Mice and Men’ there are three main outsiders that are mentioned, an outsider by definition is someone who is not accepted or is isolated from society. The novel is set in the 1930’s in America where copious amounts of people were construed as outcasts in the eyes of society. During this period many people were racist, sexist and prejudice towards disabled people. Lennie, Crooks and Curley’s wife are all considered outsiders as they each had something that the society at the time was prejudiced towards. In the 1930’s black people were highly discriminated against.
Many of these facilities were, education, healthcare, transport, cinemas, restaurants and churches and even housing and estates were segregated. This shows the extent white went to separate them from the ‘inferior’ race. Jim Crow laws limited black Americans from having a better way of life as they were made poorer, didn’t have the opportunity to managerial roles as they were only allowed the low paying jobs and weren’t equal to white people increasing poor conditions, also, led to unequal or no voting rights in coloured communities. Under the Fifteenth Amendment black people had legal rights to vote across America. However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations.
His aggressive nature and unhindered anger towards the world makes it difficult for readers to like him or connect with him. However, it is difficult to define Bigger as a purely evil character due to the circumstances surrounding him and the situations he was forced into. Through Bigger’s moral ambiguity, Richard Wright is able not only to make readers aware of a problem in this country, but also to prompt them to put effort into fixing it. Life was very difficult for Bigger, being a poor black boy without a father growing up in the 1930s. Racial prejudice was running rampant throughout the country, and there was an especially deep distrust of black men and their rumored desire for white women.
In the South however, the blacks were disfranchised, since the state governments introduced literacy tests, tests on the knowledge of constitution and Poll taxes, which African Americans had trouble with, because of poor education and financial problems. Both created through discrimination and racism. Racial hatred groups such as the Ku Klux Klan still existed. They advertised violent treatment of African Americans, and often engaged in violent activities themselves. Blacks were often beaten or killed by members of such hate groups.
His family tried their best to mold him into a better man in order to survive the later years to come. Wright had to realize the harsh realities of the consequences of being a black man in the early 1900s. In that time, many blacks were tortured for the simple fact that they were not white. Black people experienced much violence. Jim Crow Laws promoted the idea that blacks were naturally mediocre to blacks in all important ways, including intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior.
To conclude, black people all over the world, wherever they live were for a long time victim of racism for their skin color. People treated them badly only because they had a darker skin color, forgetting that that we are all humans and the color of our skins an where we come from doesn’t indicate our personalities and beliefs. Black in America suffered a lot for reason of racism and went through the hard ships and difficulties
In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, there are many examples of prejudice. The main type of prejudice shown in this novel is the racial prejudice against Crooks. Crooks, the black crippled stable buck, are more permanent then the other ranch hands. He has his own room off in the stables and has more possessions then most. The room is made out to be a privilege because it keeps him closer to the horses, but in fact it is really because the other hands do not want him sharing a bunk house with them.
Crooks is representative of racism and isolation, as he is disrespected and treated as sub human because he is black, so you could start by saying that racism is a big part of Crooks being powerless and 'mean' because of the way society has treated him. Slim is portrayed as quite a powerful character because religious imagery is used ("ageless face", like God, perhaps) as well as light imagery whenever he comes into a room it is sometimes described as lighting up. He wears a Stetson hat, showing authority and power. There's loads of quotes from various characters showing how Slim has authority, for example a character says "Noone knows what Slim can do", or something along those lines. Lennie is powerless in a sense that he can't control how he reacts (his fight with Curley) and has to turn to George to know what to do.
Crooks isn’t ashamed about his inheritance but has pride and tells Lennie he doesn’t descend from slaves but from landowners. In several points, in the book Steinbeck shows Crooks’s dignity and pride when he ‘draws himself up’ and will not accept charity from anyone. Crooks, jealous of Lennie having a friend to spend his life with, scares him and
African Americans were segregated from the whites and also Women had no rights because Men were seen as the alpha male. The obstacles of the two would probably fit into the race and gender of how America was back in the twentieth century. African Americans were always hard to be put in society in the 1900’s because of slavery. Even though slavery had ended in the 1950’s, they were still not accepted into society. The northern parts of the United States accepted African Americans, and many try to escape to the north to try to get employed and leave the racial segregation in the south.