The Ranch Is Unsafe

Because of his mental disability he does things that further put him out of the “normal” group of ranch hands. Lennie has a good friend in George but he is portrayed as being lonley in the book anyway. He just wants to be like every one else on the ranch.

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.

Curley is mistreated because of his size which causes him to lash out at his wife and the ranch workers to feel like he is in control. Curley treats George and Lennie poorly when he first meets them. When George questions Candy for the reason he acts that way, Candy says, “Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys” (26).

Curley’s wife is treated with very little respect because of the small amount of power she has, which depicts Steinbeck’s lesson that people with less power are treated differently and then go on to treat others unequally, as well. Curley’s wife has a flirty reputation and often goes to talk to the men on the ranch even though she knows she shouldn't be. Shortly after Lennie and George are first introduced to Curley’s wife, George remarks, “Gosh, she was purty.” George is shocked and fiercely tells Lennie, “Don't you even take a look at that bitch. I don't care what she says and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her. You leave her be”(Steinbeck 32). Lennie’s initial reaction of Curley’s wife is not uncommon for the lack of intelligence he has. George’s fierce attitude toward Curley’s wife when he calls her

But Lennie, perfecting his craft one incident at a time, messes everything up. Lennie’s biggest fear was not being able to tend the rabbits when they get their own land, and he loved those rabbits. Lennie grieving over killing his puppy starts conversing with Curley’s wife, a decision he should have never made. Lennie got caught in an unbelievable predicament with Curley’s wife, he was holding her mouth shut while pulling her hair, getting angry at her tell her to shut up, because he does not want to get in trouble. Because, if he did he would not be able to tend the rabbits. As she continued to scream, louder and louder as seconds went by, Lennie with his harmless intentions did not know what to do, so he shook her to get her to shut up but unintentionally broke her neck (Steinbeck, 91). Lennie knowing what to do if he ever did something bad, escapes to the hideout that only him and George know about. Eventually, everybody finds out about Curley’s wife when Candy found her dead body in the barn. At this moment, George knew he had two decisions that would change his life forever. He would either side with his new friends and find Lennie, or escape with Lennie and find another place to work. George makes the right decision and sides with his friends, but he knew they wanted Lennie dead, so he decided to do it himself. George met up with Lennie at their hideout and told him to look the other way and envision everything good about the farm, not wanting to harm Lennie he made sure he was as happy as he could be at that very moment. As George started to describe the farm to him, he put the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the

The perceptions we make of Curley's wife are corrupted from the views of the ranch hands. Because sexuality is her only weapon she is referred to by George as 'jailbait' and ' a tart' 'Jesus what a tramp.' George has reason to be weary of her presence especially with Lenny around and the incident in Weed. 'Listen to me you crazy bastard...Don't you even look at that bitch. He is concerned about Lennie safety because he knows he won’t be able to resist her.

For the longest time they had both talked about their desire to become landowners and to grow their own crops. All Lennie wanted was to grow alfalfa to feel to his rabbits. Their shared dreams being out of reach is apparent to the reader until Candy comes into the picture. Candy, a hardworking ranch handyman comes in with a full-fledged proposal. He offers them all of the money he saved up to fund a bit of land George and Lennie had their eyes on. In return, he would like to live on the land with them. They all agree that this is what they will do and not to let anyone know. Lennie destroys this dream by accidentally crushing Curley’s wife’s spine. George, Lennie, and Candy’s dream fails to become reality because of Lennie’s ignorance and strength.

At the end of the same conversation about Curley, Candy told George not to tell anybody about the conversation. Candy said it was because Curley was the boss’s son so Curley could cause harm to him but never get in trouble for it. Candy told George about how much power Curley has; “The old man sat down on another box. ‘Don’t tell Curley I said none of this. He’d slough me. He just don’t give a damn. Won’t ever get canned ‘cause his old man’s that boss’” (27). This proves that Curley has more power over Lennie because he is the boss’s son. His father would never do anything to him so he can do whatever he wants. If Lennie did anything bad he would be greatly punished or even kicked off the ranch. Later in the bunkhouse, Lennie thought of the farm he wanted to buy with George. He had a smile on his face while Curley talked because he thought of the farm Curley thought Lennie laughed at him. Curley yelled at Lennie and started hitting him; “Curley was balanced and poised. He slashed at Lennie with his left and then smashed down his nose with a right. Lennie gave a cry of terror. Blood welled from his nose. ‘George,’ he cried. ‘Make ‘um let me alone, George.’ He backed until he was against the wall and Curley followed, slugging him in the face. Lennie’s hands remained at his sides; he was too frightened to defend himself” (63). This proves that Curley has

Because Lennie is confused he grabs her hair and tries to make her stop yelling. But because Lennie does not know how to control his own strength, he squeezes Curley’s wife’s neck too hard and crushes her spine. Lennie then flees the ranch because Curley wants to kill him for what he did to his wife. So Lennie is not brutally murdered by Curley, George finds Lennie and, because he cannot get him out of trouble, shoots Lennie. Lennie’s uncontrollable strength and ignorance destroyed his, George and Candy’s dream

From the beginning, George tells Lennie to avoid Curley and Curley’s wife. There are multiple uses of foreshadowing that the reader can understand that John steinbeck is leading this to a tremendous event in the end. “"If he tangles with you, Lennie, we're gonna get　the can. Don't make no mistake about that. He's the boss's son.　Look, Lennie. You try to keep away from him, will you? Don't never　speak to him. If he comes in here you move clear to the other side of the room. Will you do that, Lennie?" "I don't want no trouble," Lennie mourned. "I never done nothing　to him." "Well, that won't do you no good if Curley wants to plug himself　up for a fighter. Just don't have nothing to do with him. Will you　remember?"　 "Sure, George. I ain't gonna say a

After Curley's wife hearing the men's were back that made her leave and Candys says to Lennie that she was glad that he beat her husband. When George came back from town, he criticizes Candy for talking about

George demonstrates how the dreams he made created a false security for him to rely on. George describes their dream to Lennie when he says, “O.K. Someday-- we’re gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and-” (14). George uses the dream to distract himself from his life as a migrant worker. The life of migrant workers, isolated and repetitive, usually ends in no success. Migrant workers often spend their paychecks on alcohol during excursions into town. This lack of success leads to a vicious cycle of endless work with no destination, meaning they never leave the ranch to start their own life. Opposing, George and Lennie have a hope for success and want to buy a house like in their dream. Before they arrived at the current ranch, Lennie’s lack of self control resulted in their quick getaway from Weed. On page 7, George exclaims, “They run us outa Weed,’ he exploded triumphantly. ‘ Run us out, hell,’... ‘ We run. They was lookin’ for us, but they didn't catch us.’” George wants to focus on achieving his dream but he knows that Lennie could potentially mess it up for both of them. In the end, Lennie eventually holds his reputation true and causes trouble on the ranch. As a result, George kills Lennie which ruins

George reminds Lennie to stay away from Curley and his wife because their trouble. A fight broke out between Curley and Lennie. Curley accused Lennie of laughing at him. Curley throws the first punch and Lennie responds by grabbing Curley's fist in a tight hold. Curley's hand starts bleeding baldy. The co-workers threaten turkey to not say anything. Curley agrees and says his hand got caught in a machine. The next day, Curley's wife is suspicious on how Lennie got his bruises on his face. She figures out that Curley caused them. Later on, all the boys except lennie are playing horseshoes. Lennie goes into the barn to play with his puppy. As expected, Lennie killed the puppy because he wasn’t gentle. In this moment, Curley's wife decided to enter the

Meaning, Curley killing Lennie would result in no significance to him, but because if the bond George and Lennie have established, Lennie suffering in George's hands would mean the most to him. George said, "I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun". (Steinbeck 41) Meaning George and Lennie have virtually and unbreakable bond that was formed. They have been together for a long time now and have done everything together. George needs Lennie as much as Lennie needs George, they provide comfort and support for one another even if Lennie does takes it over board many times. They have an amazing bond therefore George knew that Lennie was going to get killed, and he knew he needed to be the one to do so. In addition, At the begging of Mice of Men candy's old dog was suffering and everyone at the ranch knew it had to go. Slim and candy had no connection therefore when slim had shot what meant mist to candy, he regretted not shooting the off himself. "Quote about candy regretting not killing his dog". Connecting back to the first quote. Candy knew it would mean more to him if he were to kill the dog himself, and let the animal he loved to suffer in his own hands, not in a strangers which would mean absolutely nothing to him. The author wants to describe how an Individual is obligated to

The parallels between Lennie and George’s relationship and the relationship that their workmate, Candy had with his dog reaffirm the power dynamic between George and Lennie. In the novella, Candy must kill his dog because it is old and weak. Candy felt such extreme regret when it came time to kill his dog, that instead of doing