There are also many other important issues and problems brought up in the book that were linked directly to the real life social problems in rural California which Steinbeck brings to life in a variety of techniques and language styles. The first and most obvious issue involved with inequality is racism, because crooks is black, he is looked upon in a typical and prejudice way, which was normal and socially acceptable in the 1930’s. His views and opinions are seen as worthless, “Why its just a nigger saying it.” Crooks is socially outcast in the ranch, he lives and sleeps alone, no-body had ever entered his room or decided to discuss things with him until the conversation he has with Lennie. I think it is ironic in the way that crooks dismisses Lennie as being the same as all the other white men, “You got no right to be in my room, Nobody got any right in here but me.” Considering Lennie to be racist is being racist himself. I also think it is very ironic that the most unintelligent person on the ranch is the only one who ignores the very unintelligent social hierarchy of racism, which the other supposedly better educated workers take part in.
The Great Depression was in full swing and money was hard to come by. In his book, ‘Of Mice and Men’, John Protested against the treatment of disabled and of racial minorities which was very present at that time. One of the characters, called Crooks, is black. In the 1930’s this was a very bad thing to be as black citizens were considered second class and were treated as such. If there was an argument between a black person and a white person, the white person was right.
Another event changing his future was when he broke his back. “Got a crooked back where a horse kicked him”(20). Crooks was working the stable and a horse kicked him and broke his back. This limits him not working to his full potential. He is not the only character having problems affect his future.
The injustice that King described was the discrimination and segregation of colored people. King fought to break the racial barriers that prevented colored people from living peaceful lives. The only people who benefitted from these conditions of segregation were the Caucasians, because they were treated superiorly compared to colored people, and their lives were easier. King’s use of rhetorical devices strengthened the true depth and damage that discrimination and segregation caused on society. “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination (1).” In this quote, King compares segregation and discrimination to the manacles and chains because they both held something down.
In the Cornel West article "Nihilism in Black America" he argues that the dilemma of African Americans is nihilism. This is somewhat parallel to W.E.B Dubois's Talented Tenth speech in 1903. Nihilism, according to West, is the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and lovelessness. African Americans are threatened by the lack of hope and the “absence of meaning” in their lives. Dubois's philosophy not only shows nihilism in the black race during this era but it also shows the same lack of progression in the black community in 2011.
Satire And Social Responsibility 1. Pap’s Racism rage “ but when they told me there was a state in this Country where they’d let that nigger vote, I drawed out” (27). Pap goes into a drunken fury where he scolds the government for allowing a mixed man voting rights. Twain shows the arrogance and true evilness in the racist white of the pre-Civil war times. The fact that Pap “draws out” before he even knows anything about the man displays the strong prejudices that existed in that time period.
Before the Civil war ended, African Americans were treated unequally even though slaves were literally emancipated. At the period where the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was set, niggers were known to be uneducated, liars, and any negative comments the white masters could ever think of. They were not considered to be human nor were they having any rights. Rather, they were thought to be goods by merchants, washing machines by masters, or even toys by children. Most Africans in America at that period had extremely low self-esteem, believing they were inferior to the white Americans, and suffered from work and the separation of their families.
Steinbeck introduces Crooks as a black man. We begin to learn about Crooks through gossip with Candy calling him derogatory terms like 'nigger' and 'stable buck'. The way he is openly referred to as 'nigger' exemplifies the casual racism directed towards him by the others- they don't insult him deliberately, but the use of the term shows he is constantly degraded both verbally and physically. This suggests to us that he is a social outcast. Readers at the time would have related to the situation as racism was still a common habit in the 1930s.
In addition, Agent Ward from “Mississippi Burning” stated: “Mr. Anderson, if you were a negro nobody would give a damn what you thought.” This shows that the black community is viewed so unequally by the racist white population, that even their most basic rights, free speech and expression, have been taken away from them. It also states the fact that inequality is a part of everyday black oppression and that the black community isn’t allowed to express their views without violence from the whites or racists. This allows us to see that it is evident that racism shadows people from the
The debate surrounding the essay is in judging Twain’s depiction of the “negro” Jim and its relation to past and present racial discourse. Smith is writing at a time where most respectable circles condemn the practice of slavery, yet many still blindly accuse Twain of being a racist out of a lack of understanding of the novel. These “respectable” circles and the schoolteachers, literary professors, modern critics, and libraries they influence are the target of Smith’s words. They are the educated, the part of society that is most likely to come across Huckleberry Finn, and Smith argues that their blind outrage