Of Mice and Men Inquiry Activity

Busch, 1

Cassia Busch

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

14 March 2016

Of Mice and Men Inquiry Activity

Looking at the characters of the book, how do things out of our control like race or where we were born affect our lives, and shape us into the people we are?

During The Dust Bowl, African American were treated unfairly. In Of Mice and Men, we see how someone, Crooks, can be negatively shaped from the actions of other people. In chapter four, when Lennie talks to Crooks, Crooks says “S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black.” (Steinbeck, 72). Crooks has been living on the farm, facing oppression slowly shaped him into a solitary, pessimistic, lonely man. We see this when Crooks tells Lennie “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” (Steinbeck, 73)

My own grandmother was shaped by how she grew up.  At 13, she moved from Greece to the United States. She lived in a poor house where neither parent spoke English and she learned Greek traditions. As an adult, she enrolled in college, but dropped out when she got married because it was “proper” for her to stay home with the kids. My grandfather was the main provider for the family. My grandmother had grown up with someone taking care of her and the same was true when she got married. She had slowly been shaped into being dependent on others.