the mice under the "Men"
Throughout the story, characters such as Lennie, Crooks, and the other men are treated unequally and degraded. In the beginning of the story, Lennie is run out of the town of Weed out of a misunderstanding. When George and Lennie finally get out of weed and get on the bus, the bus driver is annoyed having to drive these common workers, and so drops them off in the middle of nowhere and tells them to keep on walking, despite them having a ticket like any other passenger.
Another example in this story is Curley. Curley always barges into the barn and tries to be intimidating to the men, simply because he can get away with it, as his father is the owner of the ranch. Curley's wife also does this, in the point in the story when all the men but Candy, Lennie, and Crooks are there. She degrades them in saying that she could do anything she wants, and have Crooks lynched with no opposition, because no one would take their word over hers.
Another example in this story is Curley. Curley always barges into the barn and tries to be intimidating to the men, simply because he can get away with it, as his father is the owner of the ranch. Curley's wife also does this, in the point in the story when all the men but Candy, Lennie, and Crooks are there. She degrades them in saying that she could do anything she wants, and have Crooks lynched with no opposition, because no one would take their word over hers.
Even in the slightly more modern time that they live in, a person of higher class can get away with anything, including murder. This happens at the end of the story, when Curley is enraged at Lennie for killing his wife. Although if things were to happen lawfully he would be put in jail, Curley wants to see to it that Lennie is killed, which forces George to have to send him off in a slightly happier way.