Social Injustice in the novel Of Mice and Men Essay

Im going to talk about the social injustice which had taken place on most of the characters in the novel Of Mice and Men. In the plot of Of Mice and Men, all of the ranch workers got very little amount of money although they worked for long hours. They had only one free day and stayed in one room which was not large enough. Generally, they were all in a lower status than their boss, they didnt have a family or anyone to depend on. In addition to these, they had also suffered from the attitudes of Curley (who was the son of the boss) towards them, and they couldnt do anything about it. Steinbeck used a very simple language with a detailed description to express the social injustice in their lives, so that everyone could†¦show more content†¦Nearly all the characters thought that he was worthless. He has expressed his ideas and feelings about this incident by saying Cause Im black. They play cards in there, but I cant play. Because Im black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me (at Page 68). They had treated him as if he was an animal and didnt respect him at all. They had never listened to his ideas and always made fun of him. John Steinbeck tried to show his readers that using racism among people (like Crooks), human beings could be discriminated. He also used repetition of certain phrases and stereotyping terms like nigger to increase the tension on the subject. Thirdly, Candy, who was an old man, was also a victim of social injustice. He lost his arm while he was working and after that everybody started to treat him as if he had been useless. They didnt let him own a dog and they killed it without considering the negative effect of this incident on Candy. He explained his loneliness by using these words: When they can me here, I wisht somebodyd shoot me. But they wont do nothing like that. I wont have no place to go, an I cant get no more jobs. (Page 60). This time, Steinbeck preferred to use longer sentences to make the incident more emotional and to a ttract the attention of his readers on this part of the novel. IShow MoreRelatedOf Mice and Men2269 Words   |  10 PagesOf Mice and Men John Steinbeck World Literature Mrs. Finke December 7, 2012 Of Mice and Men: A Classic for the Ages Thesis: Despite some impurity Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck should be considered as a classic due to its honesty, truth, loveliness, justice and of good report. I. Introduction II. Impurity A. Swearing B. Violence C. Economic poverty D. Psychological corruption III. Honesty A. Steinbeck’sRead MoreOf Mice and Men1242 Words   |  5 PagesOf Mice and Men Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan states that, in the state of nature mans life is nasty, brutish and short. In depression era America, no greater truth could be said. There were millions unemployed, largely unskilled and living on the margins of society. 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Definition and Examples of Pronoun Agreement

Ethnicity, Culture And Identity - 1362 Words

Ethnicity, culture and identity are all anthropological topics that effect everyone in the world on a regular and constant basis. These matters are continually being discussed, analysed and debated within our society, issues arise from these matters and anthropologists are strive to understand the changes happening around us. The definitions of each of these words are controversial as everyone interprets them differently. Ethnicity refers to ‘The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition’, culture refers to the patterns of social organisations, economy, and beliefs that are learned and shared by members of a social group.’ and identity is a person s conception and expression of their own and others individuality or group affiliations. However, these definitions are often confused and even merged into one. Culture is something that doesn t not have a specific definition, however we see it around us in many different forms. Culture is traditional knowledge that that is passed down through generations, however ‘culture is flexible and fluid’ but is generally quite stable (Podolefsky, Brown and Lacy, 2012). From war and violence to fashion and appearance, culture shows us the many different and beautiful ways of life around the world. Angela Vandenbroek has said that; ‘Culture has come most often to be a heuristic term used to help anthropologists discuss the symbols, meanings, institutions, systems and behaviours ofShow MoreRelatedBecoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, And Identity1553 Words   |  7 PagesBecoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 The immigration story of the United States includes groups of individuals from many different countries, one such group was that of the U.S.’s southern neighbor Mexico. In the book, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945, George J. 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I believe that ethnic background plays a big role in determining a person’s identity in the United States, these assumptions create phenomenonRead MoreCultural Identity In Unashamed By Lecrae741 Words   |  3 PagesLit Review Essay Cultural identity is the foundation in which identification is used to express his or her role in society. The distinction of cultural identity among a society affects a person’s role by pertaining to art and literature, as well as social organization element of culture. These examples of culture, refer to people all around the world. In the Story, Left behind, a native American student attending school is judged based on his ethnicity. In Unashamed by Lecrae, Lecrae uses musicRead MoreEssay On Ethnicity And Multiculturalism1359 Words   |  6 Pagesrather than following another’s. Ethnicity on the other hand has a solid definition. 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Differences Between Phonetics and Phonology free essay sample

The difference between phonetics and phonology, by definition, is that phonetics is the field of language study concerned with the physical properties of sounds, and it has three subfields. Articulatory phonetics explores how the human vocal apparatus produces sounds. Acoustic phonetics studies the sound waves produced by the human vocal apparatus. Auditory phonetics examines how speech sounds are perceived by the human ear. Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned not with the physical properties of sounds, but rather with how they function in a particular language. Therefore, this paper discusses the main difference between phonetics and phonology. To begin with, the letter k is both aspirated and unaspirated in different languages as it has been noticed in the following example, it illustrates the difference between phonetics and phonology. In the English language, when the sound k, usually spelled c, occurs at the beginning of a word, as in the word cut, it is pronounced with aspiration, that is, a puff of breath (Durkim, 1995). However, when this sound occurs at the end of a word, as in tuck, there is no aspiration. Phonetically, the aspirated k and unaspirated k are different sounds, but in English these different sounds never distinguish one word from another, and English speakers are usually unaware of the phonetic distinction until it is pointed out to them. Thus English makes no phonological distinction between the aspirated and unaspirated k. The Hindi language, on the other hand, uses this sound difference to distinguish words such as kal (time), which has an unaspirated k, and khal (skin), in which kh represents the aspirated k. Therefore, in Hindi the distinction between the aspirated and unaspirated k is both phonetic and phonological. The other point is that phonetics is strictly about audible sounds and the things that happen in somebody’s mouth, throat, nasal and sinus cavities, and lungs to make those sounds. It has nothing to do with meaning. It is only a description. For example, in order to produce the word bed, you start out with your lips together. Then, air from one’s lungs is forced over the vocal chords, which begin to vibrate and make some kind of noise. The air then escapes through the lips as they part suddenly, which results in a /b/ sound. Therefore, keeping one’s lips open, the middle of the tongue comes up so that the sides meet at the back teeth while the tip of the tongue stays down. All the while, air from the lungs rushes out, and the vocal chords vibrate. Then comes the /e/ sound. Finally, the tip of the tongue comes up to the hard palate just behind the teeth. This stops the flow of air and results in a /d/ sound as long as those vocal chords are still going. As literate, adult speakers of the English language, do not need a physical description of everything required to make those three sounds. They simply understand what to do in order to make them. Similarly, according to Richards (1985:126), those who study phonetics simply understand that when they see /k? t/, it is a description of how most Americans pronounce the word cat. It has nothing to do with a furry house pet. In fact, if there were a word in any other language pronounced the same way, the phonetic spelling would be the same regardless of meaning. In addition, it is not about meaning. It is strictly physical. Phonology, on the other hand, is both physical and meaningful. It explores the differences between sounds that change the meaning of an utterance. For example, the word bet is very similar to the word bed in terms of the physical manifestation of sounds. The only difference is that at the end of bet, the vocal chords stop vibrating so that sound is a result only of the placement of the tongue behind the teeth and the flow of air. However, the meanings of the two words are not related in the least. What a vast difference a muscle makes! This is the biggest distinction between phonetics and phonology, although phonologists analyse a lot more than just the obvious differences. They also examine variations on single letter pronunciations, words in which multiple variations can exist versus those in which variations are considered incorrect, and the phonological grammar of languages. Phonology should be carefully distinguished from phonetics. As already alluded, phonetics concerns with the physical production, acoustic transmission and perception of the sounds of speech, phonology describes the way sounds function within a given language or across languages to encode meaning. In other words, phonetics is a type of descriptive linguistics whereas phonology is a type of theoretical linguistics. It should be noted, however, that this distinction was not always made in linguistics, particularly before the development of the modern concept of phoneme in the mid 20th century. Some subfields of modern phonology have a crossover with phonetics in the interface with descriptive disciplines such as psycholinguistics and speech perception, resulting in specific areas like Articulatory phonology or laboratory phonology. In conclusion, phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language, different patterns of sounds in different positions in words, just to mention a few. Phonetics is strictly physical while phonology also pays attention to the function or meaning of a sound. Phonetics makes a pretty general description of sounds and can be used to describe sounds in any language. On the contrary, phonology makes very detailed descriptions of sounds, so each language has its own unique set of symbols that is why two languages cannot use all of the exact same sounds. It should be noted, however, that these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. It does seem that they reflect alternative ways in which relationships between phonetics and phonology have been considered in the past. Ideally, phonetics and phonology can complement each other on different levels of analysis, but the demarcation lines between them are often somewhat arbitrary. Therefore, one should be very careful when it comes to their distinctions.