Power And Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men “listen, nigger,” she said. “you know what I can do to you if you open your trap?” (pg.80). This shows how the word “nigger” is used to control a black person. In the book of Mice and Men the word “nigger” is used quite often but towards crooks, since he is the only black person in the book.

Within the novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, characters have trouble forming meaningful relationships, which cause them to live lonely lives because of their own insecurities, society, or because of someone else and events in one's past.

Since the other men on the ranch did not have a love, Curley uses his wife to his advantage by using her as bragging rights. It is unfortunate and disturbing what Curley’s wife had

Finally, Steinbeck dehumanizes Curley by the negative criticism that always pursues her and her loss of identity when accompanying someone or something. This is why she is always commonly known as “Curley’s Wife”, proving that she is an unimportant and insignificant character in this book. Plus, everybody in the book says that Curley’s wife causes trouble for everyone; as George says, “She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger,” (Steinbeck, 49) and is constantly getting blame for all that goes wrong in Soledad; as Candy says, You God damn tramp. You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad.

“Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” This quotation, by author Edward Abbey, defines power as an incredibly controlling tool, which is a major theme in the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This story takes place on a small ranch in California in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Lennie and George, the two protagonists, are migrant workers who have left their old job and are now working at a ranch. Lennie is a huge, strong man but has the brain of a toddler. George is small, wiry man, and is almost Lennie’s opposite. As George and Lennie begin the strenuous work at the ranch in hopes of achieving the American Dream, they interact with various characters who also have hopes and dreams. As the plot unfolds, the strengths and weaknesses of each character come to the forefront. Each character uses his or her power differently throughout this novella, but everyone uses it negatively to control or injure others.

He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy” (Steinbeck 26). Curley is prejudice towards all tall men only because he is insecure about his own height. By abusing his power to be cruel towards Lennie, who is innocent, he believes he is affirming his masculinity. Therefore, the characterization of Carlson and Curley illustrate that selfishness and lack of confidence lead to the cruelty of

so he was able to break her neck. Curley’s wife had intellectual power over Lennie but then when Lennie starts assaulting her she loses all of her power because he now has physical power over her. He has physical power over Curley’s

When Curley tried to talk to Lennie and George answered for him, Curley seemed almost angry about this. He started talking to George in a harsh way and while George could’ve easily just backed off and let Lennie talk to this tough person, he stood up for Lennie and talked back to Curley. This will be significant to the story because now Curley knows that Lennie and George will stand up for each other and he will not challenge either one of them. This quote shows how strong their friendship

While Crooks, a victim of racial prejudice, expresses his isolation openly, he also socializes with other workers on the job and while playing horseshoes with them. Curley’s wife, on the other hand, cannot talk to anyone without suffering the consequences of a jealous husband: “ I get so lonely,’ she said. “you can talk to people , but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?”

There are two reasons Curley wants to kill Lennie. The first reason is because he is a big guy, and Curley hates big guys. The second reason is because Lennie killed his wife. It states in “Of Mice and Men” that “Curley gon’ta wanta get ‘im lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed.”

Someone once said, “A villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told.” The character known as Curley’s Wife in Of Mice and Men is portrayed in John Steinbeck’s writing as an antagonist. Multiple time throughout the book she is insulted by the men, who call her things such as a tramp, or a tart. As the story continues, there are many hidden indications that she could be seen as a much simpler, innocent presence, rather than an evil. When looked at more in depth, Curley’s Wife can be seen as a victimized character.

Archetypes are a manifestation of how our minds envision the roles of characters, these characters come in the form of the hero, villain, temptress, damsel, monster, and mentor. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, we follow the story of two men who struggle to pull through to survive horrible times, on their journey they come across other characters that fulfill the roles of the archetypes. The archetype in discussion is the villain archetype which is the evildoer of a story usually a person who commits a crime against society or against a couple of people. One character in particular that fills the archetype of the villain is Curley, he has an aura of evil that resonates from his attitude and his actions, which triggers people

The character, Curley’s Wife, is an archetype. The initial description of her on page 31 is that she talks “playfully,” her voice has a “nasal, brittle quality,” she “smiled archly and twisted her body,” and she is often associated with the color red. “Her fingernails were red,” and she wore “red mules,” which had “red ostrich

Curley really has it out for him and Lennie has no idea why. Lennie doesn’t realize that the things he does are wrong. He does not mean to hurt or harm anyone but Curley does not see that as a factor in his desire to

He is not even viewed as a human being, and therefore sleeps with the horses in the barn, on page eighty one, Curley’s wife says to Crooks, “I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”. This enhances how alienated Crooks is, as they threaten to kill him like some common