What causes people to act a specific way? Why is it that someone might act differently than another person even if they are in the same situation? If we can answer these questions, we will better understand human nature. There are many reasons why, but the main factors in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men are who's around them, what are other people doing, and what are their past experiences. People act differently depending on who's around them. They might act differently depending on if friends, strangers, or nobody is around them. In Of Mice and Men, on page 62 Curley says, "Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-b**** is gonna laugh at me." Curley says this because he wanted to show everyone in the room that he had the most power by beating up Lennie. When everyone almost surrounded him, Curley felt pressured and felt the need to regain his power, so he decided to do what he always does and picked a …show more content…
If a person saw someone do something, they might act differently than if that person didn't do anything. One example of this is on page 97 where it says, "When you see 'um, don't give 'im no chance. Shoot for his guts. That'll double 'im over." When George heard this, he decided that if Lennie was going to die, he wanted him to die peacefully and painlessly; therefore causing George to shoot Lennie. If Curly hadn't ran after Lennie looking to give him a painful death, George would have tried to save Lennie and keep him alive instead of deciding to shoot him. This shows how other people actions can affect someone too. People will respond differently to situations depending on who's around them, their past experiences, and what other people are doing. These are only some of the factors to why someone might act one way in a situation and another person might act differently in the same situation. This information is important because it helps us understand human nature