Examples Of Power In Of Mice And Men

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”~ Lord Action. Power is effective and corruptive if a person has too much; it could corrupt you and make people fear you. In Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, various characters showed power over the other workers such as Curley’s wife, Curley, and George. Curley’s wife is an example of a powerful character in many ways throughout the story. During various parts of the story, Curley’s wife has complete dominant power over the workers because she knew if they would have done anything wrong to her, she would have told Curley and would have gotten them fired. George even stated she’s trouble and told Lennie to stay away from her. “Don’t you even take a look at that crazy bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she

On numerous occasions throughout the story, he had abused his power because he was the boss’s son. When George and Lennie first got there and met Candy, Curley came in and instantly picked on Lennie telling him to talk even though Lennie did not want to speak. “Let the big guy talk” (25) and even after George defended him saying, “S’pose he don’t want to talk?” (25). Curley just responded with, “By Christ, he’s gotta talk when he’s spoke to” (25). Lennie was forced to talk saying, “We jus’ come in”. This is showing the power Curley had over him and George. Curley also abused his power after thinking he would find his wife with Slim and he came back furious. Curley knows he can’t beat Slim so he messes with Lennie again and says, “ What the hell you laughin’ at?”(62) and forced Lennie to fight. He said, “Come on ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show yo who’s yella” (62). But Curley got what he deserved at the end by getting his hand smashed by Lennie at the end. This is proof Curley is a powerful character throughout the