Of Mice and Men How Has Segregation Affected Crooks?

‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck was written during the Great Depression in America in the 1930’s. During the Great Depression there was a great job loss which resulted in men becoming migrant works. This was particularly hard for black Americans because back then discrimination against black people wasn’t abolished yet; they were segregated from the white people which meant they couldn’t find work. They were treated very poorly and were considered one level up from animals. Steinbeck had a good knowledge of the life people were living back then because he had the experience of living and working at a ranch in Salinas where his story is based. The story begins by describing the scenery in a lot of detail; he describes it in such a way that some people have compared it to the Garden of Eden in the bible. It then goes on to introduce the two main characters, George and Lennie by a river. At the end of the story it ends with George and Lennie back where they started, by the river. The structure of this is a cycle; it goes back to the beginning. Steinbeck may have chosen to have a circular plot to show that no circle has an ending, in a way the plot is like a representation to show the dead end existence of the Great Depression.
One of the main themes of Mice and Men is loneliness. Steinbeck shows that you don’t necessarily have to be on your own to feel lonely; there are many reasons why most people felt lonely during the depression. The main reasons were because of discrimination which Steinbeck shows through Crooks, another reason was prejudice which he shows through Curley’s wife. Also, most migrant workers worked alone, but the fact that George and Lennie worked together confused the other characters on the ranch.
Candy and Curley’s wife experience loneliness through prejudice. Because of Candy’s physical disability of only having one hand, also because of his old which has made him an outcast and hardly any use to the ranch. Candy knows that one day he