Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck

Limited Choices Essay

Crooks and Curley’s wife

Of Mice and Men is a novel that was written by John Steinbeck. This novel is

about migrant workers working on a ranch in Soledad,California during the Great

Depression. The characters in this novel all have limited choices due to their

circumstances. Their circumstances include the Great Depression, gender,

economic situation, race and age. The two characters that will be analyzed in this

essay are Crooks and Curley’s wife.

Crooks has limited choices because the people on the ranch are prejudiced

against his skin color. Because of this Crooks doesn’t receive much respect from

them. People on the ranch are usually racist towards him and oftenly say racial

slurs to him. “This is just a n**** talkin’ , an’ a busted-back n****. So it don’t

mean nothing see?” This shows that people go out of their way to make Crooks

feel bad and make racist comments about him without showing any sympathy.

Crooks isn’t allowed to sleep in the bunkhouse with the others because people

say that he stinks. One time when Lennie tried to go into his room he said "You
get outta my room. I ain't wanted in the bunk house, and you ain't wanted in

my room." This shows that Crooks built his guard up and even if Lennie tried to

make friends with him he tells Lennie to go away because he doesn’t want to let

his guard down.

Back then the skin color “black” was not given much respect. Crooks often feels

very lonely on the ranch and as it prolongs he gets kind of used to it. Even then he

still says that “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.” He expresses how he feels

and by that we can tell that Crooks is isolated from everyone else that is living on

the ranch and oftenly he doesn’t receive much companionship from anyone.

Crooks is the only black man on the ranch; he often experiences a significant

amount of racism and discrimation. He also isn’t close with Curley and since

Curley is the boss, Crooks isn’t given many choices to choose from. Besides

because of the Great Depression there aren't many jobs for people to do so

Crooks is at least lucky enough to have a job.

Curley’s wife is the wife of the boss. She is only known by her husband's name.

Her choices are also limited because of gender racism back then. She has a flirty

personality and usually seeks attention from men. Because of gender racism and

her flirty personality, men didn’t show her any signs of respect. First of all, her
dream didn’t come true. She said “ If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you

bet.” to Lennie. Her dream was to be an actress and one day someone offered her

a place to go be an actress. Her dreams were ruined because her old lady didn’t

allow her to go. Oftenly she daydreams about how good her life could have been.

She shows that daydreaming about how her life could be way better than it is

right now, is a type of fantasy escape for her.

She is the only woman living on the ranch. Because of that she doesn’t have any

friends. She says that “I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely”. This

shows that no one wants to talk to her. Her husband, Curley, is also very

protective of her because he gets jealous easily. He is mean and because of that

no one is brave enough to talk to her because they’re scared it’ll cause problems.

None of the men on the ranch ever tries to talk to her without Curley knowing

despite knowing that her husband treats her awfully and keeps her from

everybody else, like she’s a prized possession. Curley doesn’t give her any option

to get any attention and because of that she gets even more desperate to get

attention from men.

Since she has a flirty personality, men consider her as a trouble maker. George

even said “Don’t you even take a look at that bitch.I don’t care what she says

and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before,but I never seen no piece of jail
bait worse than her. You leaver her be.” This shows that men don’t see her as a

good person. George is saying this because she’s flirty towards them and Curley

might get jealous and cause problems.Being considered as a trouble maker

suggests that she is dangerous and untrustworthy.

Curley’s wife feels alone on the ranch because men don't speak to her and she

doesn’t have a great relationship with her husband. Due to the isolation and

misogyny, Curley’s wife is very lonely. Since she doesn’t have any respect shown

to her and because she’s a woman her choices are limited.

Both Curley’s wife and Crooks lack choices and freedom to do what they want.

Curley’s wife is mistreated because she’s a woman and Crooks is mistreated

because of his skin color. I would say that although both of them lack choices and

freedom, Curley’s wife is likely to have more choices because her husband is the

boss.

Word Count: 863 words