Black Resistance in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Toni Morrison ’s God Help the Child

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate how black resistance is alive in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Morrison’s God Help the Child respectively. It equally emphasizes that Booker and Crooks, the characters through which the two Authors have typified the enormous misery of black-skinned people, attempt to resist racism through knowledge and self-pride. Foremost, racism is one of the most nefarious acts that both Crooks and Booker suffer from. Crooks dwells in the stable with all the animals of the ranch. Likewise, Booker witnesses’ racism in the indifference of cops to search his disappeared brother because he is a black kid. Plus, Booker is grown up in a warm familial ambiance surrounded by his father, mother, and siblings. The parents consider reading books as the most suitable means which can polish and refine their children’s minds. On the other side, Crooks, the sharp-witted black man who is in charge of the barn in the ranch, entertain himself by reading a lot of books. Moreover, self-pride is depicted clearly when Booker ends up with his girlfriend Bride when he figures out that she goes to help Sofia Huxley that was thrown in jail for fifteen years for a crime she perpetrates against children. Similarly, Crooks scowls and explodes in Lennie’s face to leave his room as a counter reaction to his exclusion from playing cards with whites in the bunkhouse.