Discrimination:
-Disrespect of women-treated as sexual objects, and didn’t have the same rights as men, for example we are not given a name for Curly’s wife, she is just called ‘Curly’s Wife’, showing that at the time women were thought ‘unworthy’ of having names. It also isolates her from all of the other characters, showing her as different.
-the black stable buck treated as a nobody, and made to live in another building due to his skin colour.
George speaks to Lenny as if he is a baby, in a patronising way, which degrades him. He is named ‘dum-dum’ by Curly’s wife. The author, Steinbeck, also describes Lenny as an animal, ‘big paws’ (his hands’), bleats (Lenny whimpering). This ‘depersonify’s’ Lenny, a method called anthropomorphism, and separates him from the rest of the characters, exaggerating his disability (?). Lenny is also shown as immensely powerful, and comes across as a baby in the body of Hulk.
Lenny is show to be violent, or have violent outbursts, for example when he crushes Curly’s hand, when he mutters to himself about not letting cats hurting the rabbits, and when Crooks says that George may not come back he nearly hurts him.
Curly’s wife acts in a flirty and sexual manor, eg her body language (‘she put her hands behind her back, and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward’) , dress code (‘…wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red.’ She is also wearing a red house dress – not suitable for farm working [NB red is the colour of passion, possible subliminal message?]) and speech (‘bye boys’ and ‘can’t blame a person for looking’). There is also evidence that this was going on before the arrival of George and Lennie, evidence of this is is found when she passes Slim, and he says ‘Hi, Good-lookin’. This shows that she is not true to Curly, for she has only been married to him for two weeks, and she is already flirting with the farm workers. This could mean that she had only married him for the money and land.
During the duration of the book, the way that Curly’s wife is shown alters, going from a flirty and frowned apon, to almost sympathetic, and showing a lot of emotion. This change isolates her from the other characters and, along with the fact that she is the only female, magnifies the theme of loneliness.
Slim ‘maybe everybody in the whole damn world is scared of each other’.He is portrayed as the ‘King of the Ranch’, is also shown as a general wise man, and trustworthy. He is treated with respect by all of the other farm workers, for example he is respectfully let through the door first.
Objects such as Candy’s old dog, are thought worthless if they do not serve a purpose. The other farm workers do not think of companionship as a quality-again, the feeling of companionship is overlooked, showing the theme of loneliness.
Themes
A recurring theme is loneliness, and the lack of communication, sharing each others problems and the reluctancy to do so. However, it is always the characters that are thought of as ‘inferior’ or ‘lower’ that realise this and comment upon it, for example Candy, who has no hand, Curly’s wife, who is female, and Crooks, because of his skin colour.
In the first chapter, Steinbeck begins by introducing the setting as ‘a few miles south of Soledad’. In addition to being a town in California, it directly translates as ‘loneliness’ and ‘solitude’, which symbolises one of the main themes for the text, and also acts as a forewarning.
The area of Soledad is an isolated area, which is suitable and fitting for the theme.
On page 95, Curly’s wife says ‘the whole county is fulla mutts.’ This can be interpreted as her saying that everybody in the country is a dog, saying that they are all stupid.
What goes around comes around(?)
Writing techniques
Steinbeck always introduces and describes the setting and then brings the characters into it, for example he describes the pool by the river and then introduces Lenny and George when they come across the pool. He also describes the characters in detail before they speak. It is similar when he introduces new characters, normally when Lenny and George are in conversation, a new character is introduced.
Steinbeck can be completely blunt in putting his point across, for example Curly’s wife ‘”I get lonely” she said. “You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curly. Else he gets mad. How’d you like to not talk to nobody?”‘
Steinbeck has the same events repeating, eg, when George is talking to Candy after Lenny kills Curly’s wife, he says ‘I’ll work my month an’ I’ll take my fifty bucks an’ I’ll stay all night in some lousy cathouse…’ This is repeated near the begginning of the text.
He also makes the events in the book seem insignificant by describing things outside the situation, for example when Curly’s wife is killed, Steinbeck focuses on the horses rattling their halter chains, both before and after Curly’s wife was killed. Another example is when George meets Lenny after he has run away, he focuses on the shadow rising on the mounntains. These take something away from the scene, howeve the final example somewhat adds to the scene, giving a sence of finality and linking back to the theme of solitude.
React!