An Intersectional Analysis of Race, Gender, Age, and Disability Discrimination in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.10.1.P2.22Abstract
This study adopts a critical approach to scrutinizing John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men (1937), by integrating the conception of intersectionality to explore how the story examines the interdependence of discrimination based on race, sex, age, and disability. By pinpointing the marginalized characters of Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy, the analysis proves why Steinbeck stops to portray the oppression of these characters through a single identity factor, but rather through a combination of several social disadvantages. The study demonstrates that Steinbeck uses these characters to stress the injustices that are inflicted upon them within the social and economic context of 1930s America. This way, the novel becomes not only a depiction of human misery but also a critique of institutional inequality and marginalization. Using an intersectional lens, this study draws attention to how Steinbeck brings about a transparent understanding of deeply ingrained structures of oppression. Of Mice and Men can be used as a strong tool of literature that echoes the unchanging tendency of social ranks and reminds modern audiences about the ongoing topicality of such problems in contemporary conditions.
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