Examples Of Archetypes In Of Mice And Men

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

After meeting Curley for the first time George has a horrible feeling about him and goes on to tell Lennie: “‘If he tangle 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?’” (Steinbeck 29). In case Lennie is in trouble with Curley, George is telling Lennie what to do in case he decides to do something evil, showing how people become protective when around Curley. Another instance when self protection is most prevalent is after Curley struck Lennie, George told Lennie to protect himself and Lennie did just that: “Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand” (Steinbeck 63). Due to Curley’s spontaneous evil, Lennie was forced to defend himself, and in the end Curley walked away with the most injuries. In order for people to protect themselves from the villains and evildoers, they mostly take a stance to protect themselves for self-preservation. Curley’s attitude and actions towards other people force people to become protective when near