Conflict In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The conflict in the novel “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck is all created by the relationships of the people in it. If Lennie or George or Curley’s wife was any different, there would be no story. Steinbeck tries to show the sacrifices we make for each other in friendship, even if it’s in the extreme case of killing someone for their happiness and well-being. In other cases characters give up their American dream (in Curley’s wife’s case, her performing dream) for someone else. In the novel “Of Mice And Men” George and Lennie’s friendship is very much like a brotherly relationship. It shows the middle class hard worker of that time period very well and gives us insight to their daily struggles and issues. Lennie leans dependently on George, so much so as to cause their boss to get suspicious of their situation. “I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin’ his pay away from him?” (pg. 22)

The couple is rare in that they own land and can provide for themselves without doing much work, because of their many hired workers. Curley’s wife bosses Curley around and flirts with just about everyone even though she doesn't do any work and owns nothing, having married into wealth. Curley’s wife is too naive to have tricked him into marriage so they must have loved each other at one point, but she seems almost bored with him when our protagonist’s arrive in the narrative. “I seen her give Slim the eye. Curley never seen it. An I seen her giving Carlson the eye.” (pg. 28) It seemed exciting to her when she fell in love with her rich prince at a dance hall, with dreams of acting and starring in Hollywood films. In the back of her mind, I believe that maybe she knows that that dream will never happen and that she made a sacrifice for something she didn’t want and she resents Curley for that, but she holds out hope to still make