Humanity In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Curley lives his life with bravado and aggression which may lead people to believe that he is confident when in fact he is unconfident. His bravado and aggression does not mean he’s confident. Curley acts aggressively because he is insecure. Curley is described by Steinbeck

At this point, George is tentative, but encouraged to open up to Slim about the trouble Lennie had in Weed and why they had to leave. “He wanted to talk. Slim neither encouraged nor discouraged him. He just sat back quiet and receptive.” (39) Not only did the men at the ranch look to Slim as their boss during working hours, but also as the ultimate authority for situations in their private time.

Slim insults Lennie in front of George. He replies, “‘He ain’t no cuckoo’, said George. ‘He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy. I ain’t so bright neither, or I would be buckin’ barley for my fifty and found’” (39). George feels the need to defend and protect Lennie, even when Lennie is not around. George wants to persuade people into thinking that Lennie is a normal farm worker. George finds a way to convince people Lennie is normal, by comparing his own work on the farm to Lennie’s work. In later chapters, Curley picks a fight with Lennie. George encourages Lennie to fight Curley. After the fight, Lennie is worried about if he will be fired and what George thinks. Lennie looks for comfort in George, he replies, “You don’t need to be scairt no more. You done jus’ what I tol’ you to” (65). George pressures Lennie to fight Curley. At the beginning of the fight, Lennie does not want to hurt Curly. Lennie looks up to George for guidance and protection. This trait of Lennie’s allows George to make all of Lennie's decisions. This event is the turning point in George’s feelings towards

Curley finds his power by being the son of the

Further on in the story we learn that some of the workers are scared of Curley’s wife because she threatens to get them in trouble with Curley, she has also at one point says that she wants to hurt Curley sometimes there was also an incident where Curley was looking for his wife and when he heard that Slim was in the Barn he immediately thought His wife was there cheating on him.

They all looked out for him. Curley loved picking fights with bigger guys. One night he attacks Lennie but Lennie didn’t defend himself until George told him to. Lennie ends up breaking Curley’s arm. Both George and Lennie are scared that they would have to leave because of the fight but Slim tells them “ ‘This punk sure had it comin’ to him’ ”(Steinbeck 64.) Slim comes up with a cover story that Curly got his arm stuck in a machine and that’s how it broke. Because everyone thought Edward broke into Jim’s house to rob him, and that he purposely hurt Kim and her brother, Kevin, the whole neighborhood went after him. After Curley’s wife’s body was discovered everyone went after Lennie. George ends up killing Lennie.

Curley is a powerful, egotistical, arrogant, and cocky character; he wants everybody to respect him, but he does not respect back other people around him. For example, when Curley sees George and Lennie for the first time, “he glanced coldly… his hands closed into fists…his glance was at once calculating and pugnacious” (25) Here, we know if Curley is an arrogant character, he acts haughty and conceited when he talks to George and Lennie. Also, at this point, Curley tries to gain respect from George and Lennie but he gains respect in a bad way; he makes George and Lennie scared and frightened to him. Moreover, he is an authority figure in the ranch, and a powerful person in the ranch because he is the boss’s son. As a result, he wants other

Curley shows how he uses his strength and position to achieve his desire to dominate the working men that he considers to be a threat due to their size; Lennie being a clear example. It is due to Curley’s lack of height that his desire for dominance and control derives from.

Curley is one of ‘Of Mice and Men’s’ major characters. Although he does not appear to hold a central role, he is very important in other respects. The first of these is the way in which he treats George and Lennie, and the ranch workers in general on the ranch. Curley is the boss’ son. Therefore he acts like he is the boss himself. He orders the others around, and, although it is true that he does hold some power on the ranch, he does not hold any respect from the workers. He is nasty towards them, treating as though they are them below him, and often trying to pick fights.

In the novella, ‘Of Mice and Men’, the characters of Slim and Curley are created to have a strong influence on the other workers’ lives. While both the characters make an impact with the way they are presented, Steinbeck portrays them both very differently. He does this by giving the reader different impressions when each of the characters are introduced, the idiosyncrasies the author has given them, the way they treat others, how the rest of the characters react to the characteristics of Curley and Slim and why they influence particular characters.

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the predatory nature of human existence is a prevalent thematic topic. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck uses various encounters between the characters Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to express the predatory nature of human existence. Crooks and Curley’s wife are both provided with the opportunity to exercise their power over an individual who is weaker and more vulnerable than they are. When Crooks and Curley’s wife take this opportunity, they are showing that when the opportunity to use power arises, people will take the opportunity. People taking advantage of their power over someone else occurs frequently in society. As a child, I first began to experience the predatory nature of human existence when I was in the fourth grade and my best friend saw an opportunity to use her power over me and took it.

Human nature is the general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits of humankind. Human nature is a major theme in the novel, Of Mice and Men. The author John Steinbeck portrays the wants and desires of the human nature through the thoughts, actions, and words of the characters. Steinbeck sees the truth about human nature hidden beneath the lies. The lies about a perfect American dream is an example of how human nature is cruel.

In life human nature can be known to be thought of as a high quality and/or low quality. Naturally, human nature is there without thought about what it actually is. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the author sprinkles clues and evidence of how human nature was and still is today. The themes that Steinbeck used throughout the novel were, for example friendship, loneliness, and weak vs. strong.

This shows how Curley is quick tempered enough to try and kill Lennie because his wife is dead. this shows how Curley wanted to blame someone for his wife's death. Because of this Curley can be considered a quick-tempered

Curley's wife on the other hand is rude without excuse. " `Listen, Nigger' , she said. `You know what I can do to you if you open you trap'" She abuses her position and has no respect for him at all, she doesn't even refer to him by his name, looking down on him with utter contempt and disdain. It is attitudes like hers that have turned him into the bitter man he has become – "Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego-nothing to arouse either like or dislike"