No Ego, No Personality.docVIP

No Ego, No Personality 　　Abstract：Of Mice and Men is a milestone in John Steinbecks writing career. There is only one black character, old Crooks, in this novel and Steinbeck doesnt give a lot description on him. With the analysis of the different ways that other characters treat him, the racial discrimination existed at that time can be easily seen. 　　Key Words: Crooks; Lennie; Racial Discrimination. 　　1 Introduction 　　Of Mice and Men, published in 1937 by the famous American writer John Steinbeck, portrays a class of ranch workers in California whose plight had been previously ignored in the early decades of the twentieth century. It was the first work to bring John Steinbeck national recognition as a writer and enjoyed immediate popular success, winning, in addition, the award of the Drama Critics’ circle. It is not a political novel, nor one which sets out to castigate American society. The ranch-hands get their dollars a month and keep, seem to eat well, and have a reasonable boss. Yet it is still possible to see Of Mice and Men as a protest novel, with its voice directed in particular against the racial discrimination. 　　2 Crooks，the only black character in the novel 　　Crooks is the only black character in the novel. He is a stable hand who takes care of the horses. As the sole black man on the ranch, he is isolated from the others and relegated to sleep in a room in the stables, a shed attached to the barn. Injured when a horse kicked him, Crooks has a body that is bent to the left because of his crooked spine. He is so named because of the crooked back. Crooks is a man with pride and self-respect who spends much of his time reading. He is not the descendent of slaves, he tells Lennie, but of landowners. Being a minor character, he does not get a lot depiction from the writer. However, he seizes every chance to exhibit his bitter life resulted from people’s discrimination based on his color. 　　2.1 The vent to the boss’s anger 　　The boss of the far