Of Mice And Men
...best-laid schemes o' mice an men gang aftagley," which translates to, the best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. John Steinbeck was inspired by this poem and his title originated from this line. During the Great Depression, it was tough for people to make a living. When a migrant worker first comes to a new farm, he can pay for his food and his room on credit. Therefore the second day he is there he has to work to pay of the first day. And the next day he has to pay for the previous day. A migrant worker is always in debt. "The average migrant worker earns $2.50 to $3.00 a day, hardly enough for a sizable nest egg of savings" (Moss 270). John Steinbeck's main theme of the inescapability of alienation and loneliness is represented by his major characters.
Crooks, the Negro stable buck, represents how all black people were treated during the Great Depression. "Black Americans harbored a legitimate fear of being lynched. Of the 4,312 people lynched in the United States from 1882 to 1920, the vast majority was black" (Moss 273). Crooks lives in constant fear of doing something wrong and getting lynched because of it. Crooks was not allowed to talk to anyone else on the farm and he had to live in his own separate bunkhouse. Crooks is surprised when Lennie comes into his stable room and tells him, "You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right in here but me" (Steinbeck 68). Crooks gets used to living alone and he would rather be alone than have someone come into his room and start talking to him. Lennie does not understand the way people would separate themselves just because they were from a different social class than someone else. Crooks is proud, but he was extremely lonely. "Crooks is the only black man on the ranch and lives alone, ostracized by the ranch hands because of his race" (Telgen 247). Crooks tries to explain...
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