Banned Book Project
Tate Trueblood
The Book's Ban
The book was first banned in 2001 because of it's strong language, unsuitable content for the age group, and racism. The book was banned and challenged several times after that in several school districts for the same reasons. However, Newton High School added one more reason as that the book wrongly portrays Christianity.
Derogatory towards women
One of the themes that got the book banned was it's sexist references. Steinbeck portrayed women as useless and chaotic in the book. "Seems like Curley is cockier'n ever since he got married." (30) This shows that women have a negative affect on men and are solely useless.
Racism
Steinbeck did in fact include a ton of racism in the novella. Crook, the stable boy, is an African American man that lived in the stables and tended to the horses. He was treated with 0 respect and had less freedoms than the whites. He would even be punished if the boss got angry. "You don't let me in your house to play cards, so why should I let you into my house?" (64) The quote shows that Crook doesn't get invited to associate with the whites because hes black.
Other Opinions
I'm using a secondary reference from Teen Ink. According to the article, Of Mice and Men is highly supported. The reason being is even though there is a lot of profanity, racism, sexism, etc., they still teach huge life lessons. The sense of profanity shows how they actually spoke back then, The sexism showed how bad the women had it, and how they were treated. The same goes for the racism.