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Various Themes in "Of Mice and Men"


            
             In the novel "Of Mice and Men", there were many different themes that John Steinbeck chose to include. One of the themes was misfits, outcasts and defectives, represented by the characters Lennie, Crooks and Candy.
             Lennie represented a misfit because he did not fit in with all the other people because of his brain capacity. Because Lennie had the brain capacity of a small child, many people thought he was crazy. George was one of the only people that understood Lennie and that is because he knew about his disability and understood it. Lennie also did not understand the world around him because he had no understanding of things like greed, discrimination or authority. Even though Lennie did not understand, Crooks was the one in the novel who was being discriminated against.
             Crooks represented an outcast because he was black. At one point in the novel he was confronted by Curley's wife who aggressively reminded him of his color, she was white, and that she could do what ever she wanted to him. This showed that Crooks was an outcast because he did not fit in and he could not have fought for the treatment he deserved because he was not respected in the society he was in. Crooks also lived by himself in the barn instead of the bunkhouses which showed that he liked his privacy and felt insecure around others. Candy was also an outcast because of his defective hand.
             Candy represented a defective person because he only had one hand. It said in the novel that he was afraid of having to leave the plantation because he knew he would not be able to get a job elsewhere. The only job Candy had was to swamp the floors because that was all he was capable of. This also shows discrimination because Candy was being discriminated against just because there were some jobs he could not achieve. These three characters represented one of the themes included in the novel "Of Mice and Men".
             Lennie, Crooks and Candy all represented misfits, outcasts and defectives.


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