Many of Steinbecks characters are crippled mentally or physically Essay

Many of Steinbecks characters are crippled mentally or physically. How far do you agree with this and how far are they made victims of society of the time? Lennie is probably the most obvious character of the book that is mentally crippled. He has brooder slopping shoulders and walks along heavily dragging his feet. Underneath Lennie is a child, he may look like and man but isn’t. Like a child Lennie has a fascination of small cuddle, cute things, especially rabbits. ‘I like to pet things with my fingers, sof’ things’. Lennie is also clumsy like a child and on the ranch others see him as a slow worker. George is like a father to Lennie and he looks up to him, and also fully dependant on him. He wont do anything till George says he can, he automatically turns to George in when in any danger, like a child dependant on his mother. Candy is the oldest of the characters and he is physically crippled, as he has lost his right hand as a young boy. He was one of the best workers of the ranch and everyone respected him in his younger days. But he is slowly becoming useless, with only a job of sweeping and has become very lonely with only the companionship of a dog. But soon found friendship in George and Lennie. However this does not stop him from being a nosy character and finds interest in others gossip. Candy loves his dog to pieces, but like candy the dog is getting old and weak, ‘ That dog of Candy’s is so god damn old he can’t hardly walk’. Candy has had to dog for most of its life, and it’s the only thing that reminds him of the good days on the ranch. Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and he is crippled physically as he has a bent spine. Considering how hard it was for black men in those days, they were not given any respect at all and were bullied. The people at the ranch were racist towards him. ‘ But I can’t play cards cause I’m black and they say I stink.’ He is also lonely like Candy and is rejected from the people at the ranch, he has his own cabin and spends most of his time in there on his own. Crooks seems to be a bit sensitive underneath his brave face and takes it all to heart. He trusts no one but himself, because he isn’t respected. Though at some times he has a slightly vicious streak, ‘You got no right to come in my room, nobody got any right in here but me.’ A lot of the people on the ranch take advantage of him because they know they can get away with it. ‘Listen nigger you know what I can do if you don’t shut your trap’. I think that Crooks knows that people take advantage of him, but he can’t fight back. Curly’s is the bosses’ son and he thinks he is a powerfully man. He has a constant eagerness to prove himself. One of his weaknesses is that he doesn’t like taller people because they make him feel insecure, threatened and small. Deep down he is a lonely character and is insecure. Curly copies his Dad like Lennie copies George. By taking on the future job of the ranch and has a future not like most of the workers, and wants to become powerful like his Father. Curly’s wife plays a small part, though a crucial one. She is the only one of Steinbecks characters that is nameless. In those times it was hard to be a woman and were looked upon as staying at home all day and cooking for the husbands on return. She is a flirt of the ranch, what with being the only woman and the men on the ranch refer to her as a tart. No one really wants to talk to her as they are worried what curly might do if he found out, and this makes her lonely and isolated. ‘ Well I think Curley’s married a tart.’ Curly’s wife wanted to make something of her life, so she is very disappointed that she hasn’t, this can make her feel very viscous. Though still she has the power, like her husband to make people feel small and unimportant, that’s why people chose to exclude her on the ranch. She is young and niave and would believe anything she was told. ‘He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural.’ I think that Steinbeck wrote his characters to be either mentally or physically crippled. He wrote this book to expose all of the racial and sexist prejudice. He succeeded in this by using the right characters and their every day life.