Anyone got igcse edexcel literature on Tuesday?
Found some notes on injustice on my pc.
Crooks- Injustice is due to his skin colour, people don’t look past the skin.
• He’s intelligent- Sad that he lives in a barn, and doesn’t deserve to be so lowly ranked among the men. The fact that he lives in a barn, connotes animal imagery, emphasising how low this rank is (medicine some his some animals). He has academic potential but this is wasted.
• Admirable because he tries to rise up by reading, admirable as he has self respect/ integrity.
• He felt the injustice as a child when his father did not want him to play with white kids so that he wouldn’t be hurt by the realisation of racism. This makes him bitter: ‘Nobody goes to heaven’. Also this reminds us that racism is learned rather than right, it’s due to people’s love for power over anything. Shown through Lennie as he comes to talk to him.
• Crooks is stereotyped because people don’t look beneath the surface (superficial society). Only we see his potential and passion. Steinbeck does not agree with this, shown through Slim (the moral conscience of the book), Slim talks to him, and He calls him ‘Mr Slim’.
• Beaten by the boss, called ‘crooks’ and ‘nigga’.
• Bitter due to injustice, torture’s Lennie about George and wants to gain power.
• The fact that he allows no-one in his room is ironic, it gives him the power which he wants, however simultaneously it drives people away and hurts him. Pride rules Crooks.
• Apparently an A* point- Steinbeck gives no solution, like it is in real life, emphasising that it is too great a problem in society. Tries to rise up against Curley’s wife however is put straight back down.
Curley’s wife- Victim of discrimination
• Men stay away from her, and is called a ‘tart’. She dresses provocatively- Red for danger. This danger due to Curley, and could get them in trouble. ‘Jailbait’.
• She wants attention, because she is lonely, she dresses up to get this attention but in doing so, drives people away. Tells people she is lonely, and talks to Lennie even though he’s a ‘dum dum’, although this desire for attention is her downfall.
• Men don’t like her because they can’t have her and don’t want to be sexually frustrated, which is selfish as they view her as a sex object.
• She is sometimes hard to relate to such as when she says she could get crooks ‘strung up’.
• Steinbeck doesn’t promote the discrimination, shown through Slim, who calls her ‘good lookin’. And discrimination is learned, shown by Lennie’s not minding her.
• ‘All the pain from her face was gone’- life was always a struggle, trying to impress people and be seen, showing she is happy in death.
• Injustice due to her marriage could have been a star but ended up marrying a unloving husband. Shown by the only time we see them together is when she is dead, and Curley is mad possibly because Lennie has taken something which is his. Ownership of women in such times.