ipl-logo

Power And Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

568 Words3 Pages

In the novel of “Of Mice and Men” power and friendship is the very bases of the story. There are many people with power in the book but I specifically was interested in Curley’s power. Curley is the son of the Ranch’s boss and he is very spoiled. He does not listen to rules and usually gets away with any trouble he makes or gets into. Therefore, he is powerful for the very reason that he is “untouchable.” He does not use the power for kindness but uses it to show who is best and in a bullying matter. Curley is not a kind fellow and not a lot of people are his friend in the book. He is described as a “thin young man with a brown face and a head of tightly curled hair.” Candy, in the beginning of the book, indicates that Curly is a boxer and likes to make trouble and fights especially with bigger men. He is not very nice towards his newly wedded wife either. The book does not give her a name and refers to her as “Curley’s wife”. In the book, we notice Curley isolates her and she is not allowed to talk to anyone especially the workers. He runs around looking for her making a big show of caring about her but still goes to the local tramp house with the workers. He also fights with any worker who tries to talk to her except for Slim, because either he is scared of him or respects him. He does tries to pick a fight with Lennie and fails …show more content…

For one it is because he is the one and only son of the Boss in the ranch. Already this makes him of higher power and more arrogant. Not only that, but he is a boxer and thinks very highly of his boxing skills. He is also married and in control of his wife, yet another reason he thinks he is powerful. Combining his arrogance, higher status, over self-confidence, and controlling behavior, he is not only more powerful but a bully towards others. He uses his power as an “evil” advantage to make everyone’s life harder and more horrible. He picks fights, extremely rude, and does as he

Show More
Related
639 Words | 3 Pages

He is not even viewed as a human being, and therefore sleeps with the horses in the barn, on page eighty one, Curley’s wife says to Crooks, “I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”. This enhances how alienated Crooks is, as they threaten to kill him like some common

Read More
900 Words | 4 Pages

Curley really has it out for him and Lennie has no idea why. Lennie doesn’t realize that the things he does are wrong. He does not mean to hurt or harm anyone but Curley does not see that as a factor in his desire to

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

Tom Niedermaier Ms Gibbons English 10 ccr 6/4/2018 Of Mice and Men In the story of the book called Of Mice and Men, there are lots of characters. But the important ones are George, Lennie, Candy, Curley's, and Curley's wife. They didn't share Curley's wife name because they didn't want to.

Read More
768 Words | 4 Pages

This showed that even though she doesn’t have any power she still has power over African Americans. She can even threaten to have Crooks killed because he talked to her. After she said that “crooks seemed to grow smaller, and he pressed himself against the wall. ‘yes, ma’am’” (80). This shows that the words Curley’s wife has a terrible effect on Crooks.

Read More
441 Words | 2 Pages

It seems he was raised by competent parents. So what influenced his evil? He also stated that he is not sure what made him get thrown into prison, but he knows he did something bad. Perhaps he fell in with the wrong crowd of people and they influenced his misfit ways. Maybe The Misfit did not have any friends and that drove him into a wrong path he headed down.

Read More
1349 Words | 6 Pages

Many books possess an evil character, a villain, however the villain normally helps to improve the story and create a depth to the plot. In the work Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck uses the character Curley to show that violence is never the answer. When introduced to anyone new, Curley has to threaten them, because he needs to showcase his role of leadership in the group. However if he showed them kindness instead, people wouldn’t see him as an angry person. For example, Candy warns George to distance himself from Curley, because he has a nasty temper and loves beating up big guys because he is not big.

Read More
846 Words | 4 Pages

Curley uses his power for his agenda, he hates other people who are bigger than him. “Well… tell you what. Curley’s likes a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

Since the other men on the ranch did not have a love, Curley uses his wife to his advantage by using her as bragging rights. It is unfortunate and disturbing what Curley’s wife had

Read More
1020 Words | 5 Pages

He seemed terribly jealous that Lennie was bigger and stronger than him. In general Curley was verbally aggressive. Lennie was able to carry the heavy bags filled with wheat by himself, while the other worker needed to have 2 men doing it. The actor playing Curley did a phenomenal job. He supremely made Curley come to life.

Read More
1044 Words | 5 Pages

Notwithstanding, he has had controversy with almost everyone on the ranch. He abused Lennie, a mentally disabled man, he publicly exposes his and his wife’s sexual lives, and he treats his wife as if she is his slave. Moreover, the actions Curley has done are corrupt, but they are not solely because he is an abominable person. An infrequent amount of readers will look at Curley’s actions and have sympathy for him, but Curley has reasons for his mistakes. Nevertheless, Curley is a disastrous man due to the way he grew up being an only child, he is astoundingly short, his father is a wealthy ranch owner, and he grew up in a racist and sexist community.

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

Which could also be said for Candy's wife. She, just like Lennie, is left behind which is understandbale because she does not belong in a brothel, but rather because she is distant from Candy. She never really loved him because she settled for less, she wished to be in Hollywood, to be famous, and now she is stuck on a dusty ranch full of men that catcall her and a husband that pays little attention. Resultingly, her lonliness is showcased when she approaches Lennie and begins to flirt with him in the barn,

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

Crooks was required to be reclusive because he was not wanted around. Racism was an extreme issue in the world in the 1930s and in America alone. All in all, power has important roles in the relationships in Of Mice and Men. Power is shown through the relationships of Lennie and George, Curley and his wife, and crooks and society. This bias power is determined by competence, gender and race.

Read More
581 Words | 3 Pages

The theme of Man's inhumanity to man is represented by Curley, Curley's wife and Crooks, not limited by race or gender. Curley has never had a solid relationship with any of the other characters, especially with Slim and Lennie. On Lennie's behalf, he can be mistaken as a very large child. Curley has a problem of being too jealous, which can lead him to

Read More
384 Words | 2 Pages

Finally, Steinbeck dehumanizes Curley by the negative criticism that always pursues her and her loss of identity when accompanying someone or something. This is why she is always commonly known as “Curley’s Wife”, proving that she is an unimportant and insignificant character in this book. Plus, everybody in the book says that Curley’s wife causes trouble for everyone; as George says, “She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger,” (Steinbeck, 49) and is constantly getting blame for all that goes wrong in Soledad; as Candy says, You God damn tramp. You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad.

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

While Crooks, a victim of racial prejudice, expresses his isolation openly, he also socializes with other workers on the job and while playing horseshoes with them. Curley’s wife, on the other hand, cannot talk to anyone without suffering the consequences of a jealous husband: “ I get so lonely,’ she said. “you can talk to people , but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?”

Read More

More about Power And Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Related Topics

Open Document