Of Mice and Men Theme of Prejudice

Of Mice and Men deals with many of America’s age-old hot-button issues, including but not limited to sexism, racism, ageism, and discrimination against those with disabilities. Most importantly, this prejudice isn’t ever explicitly noted or fought against – those who are discriminated against accept the prejudice against them as a way of life. Of course there’s some grumbling about it, but there’s no sense that Curley’s wife, Crooks, Candy, or Lennie feel a grave and inexcusable injustice is being perpetrated against them. It seems simply that their lot in life is to endure prejudice, and they operate with all the meanness (if not the rebellion) that such a life necessitates. Still, the other men of the ranch still accept Crooks, Candy, and Lennie for their differences; and Curley’s wife, though she’s maligned, is never completely ignored. While prejudice is a force that defines some of the social interaction the ranch, the need to escape isolation and the fact of close proximity means the characters all socialize with each other to some degree, in spite of the prejudices they undoubtedly hold.

1. How can prejudice be maintained in an isolated environment where people interact so constantly?
2. How can we tell the line between being prejudiced and simply being discerning? If the boss had known what happened in Weed and refused to hire Lennie, would that have been discrimination, or sensible and life-saving?

Prejudice is a fact of life on the ranch because it was a fact of life everywhere in America at that time. If anything, there was less prejudice on the ranch than elsewhere during the Depression-era, because people were in such close proximity to each other. This novella argues that when you get different people who are discriminated against together in one boat, they’ll cut each other down rather than band together.