How Does Steinbeck Present Outsiders Within the Novel?

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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. This was mainly because many black people started to migrate from the south to the north in order to find employment. Furthermore, because of the Great Depression many people lost their jobs and had to find new jobs, and the blacks who had migrated up north, started to take available jobs. The white people living in the north became angry that the blacks were taking over their positions. The character Crooks from the novel, is an old black man with a crooked back and he is probably the most discriminated against since he is black and disabled, which means he can’t do as much work as the others. He works as a stable buck at the ranch, but although he has a job, we can assume that he gets the lowest wage on the ranch because he is black. This is shown in the novel since he doesn’t have a proper bed; instead he has ‘a long box filled with straw, on which blankets were flung.’ This is probably because of his low social status and therefore doesn’t get the same as the other workers on the farm, which includes a proper bed. Another thing could be he is secluded and cut off from the other men as he lives alone in a room in the stable. Crooks isn’t allowed to sleep in the bunk house with the other men and this means that he is often alone and is resentful of the other men who live

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