The racism in Of Mice and Men is used as a symbol in order to show what's wrong with the world; it is not meant to offend people. I feel that if the racism were handled in a positive fashion, it would have given the viewer an obscure view of the way people acted in those times. Masking it would have made the novel seem unnatural because racism was so engrained in the culture at that time that the people doing it thought nothing of it. The racism is handled in a positive way to some extent by showing us how racism should be handled when Lennie doesn't even acknowledge Crook's race. Although the racial issue is left unresolved, the reader does not become too tolerant of the racist behaviors because there are still few enough cases that the "n" word does not lose its saltiness. The usual...