I remembered Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men as misogynistic and racist. Yet returning to the book eliminated those notions. Steinbeck's central theme illustrates how our prejudices, our social class, the color of our skin, and our sex – erect barriers, creating lonely creatures who are desperate to reach out to others.
Take Curley’s wife, who isn’t even given the dignity of a name. In my memory, she is a plot device, the floozy who “had it coming” because of her loose morals. But it is very clear that she is a tragic figure: trapped in a loveless marriage, isolated from other people, she yearns for human connection above all else - and even says so in one informative moment of dialogue. It is the ranch hands who paint her, wrongly, in misogynistic colors.
Then there is Crooks, the African-American. He is made to suffer alone for his skin color, just as Curly’s wife is because she is a woman. Forced to live in an empty bunk house, he is constantly reminded of his second class citizenship – one which prevents him from forming lasting human bonds.
Then there is Lennie and George. At first glance they seem ill paired. But they are bound by one powerful impulse: hope. The need to form an attachment, to watch out for each other, and, most importantly, to dream of a time and a place where they will no longer be the pain of separation and loneliness.
But in this world, people are fundamentally estranged and there is no remedy. And their attempts to form loving bonds are so strong, they lead to destruction. Lennie is yearning set loose upon an indifferent world - and that yearning to love is so strong he must be killed before he destroys everything he loves.
Take Curley’s wife, who isn’t even given the dignity of a name. In my memory, she is a plot device, the floozy who “had it coming” because of her loose morals. But it is very clear that she is a tragic figure: trapped in a loveless marriage, isolated from other people, she yearns for human connection above all else - and even says so in one informative moment of dialogue. It is the ranch hands who paint her, wrongly, in misogynistic colors.
Then there is Crooks, the African-American. He is made to suffer alone for his skin color, just as Curly’s wife is because she is a woman. Forced to live in an empty bunk house, he is constantly reminded of his second class citizenship – one which prevents him from forming lasting human bonds.
Then there is Lennie and George. At first glance they seem ill paired. But they are bound by one powerful impulse: hope. The need to form an attachment, to watch out for each other, and, most importantly, to dream of a time and a place where they will no longer be the pain of separation and loneliness.
But in this world, people are fundamentally estranged and there is no remedy. And their attempts to form loving bonds are so strong, they lead to destruction. Lennie is yearning set loose upon an indifferent world - and that yearning to love is so strong he must be killed before he destroys everything he loves.
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