Power In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The first display of Slim portraying his power occurs inside the barn when Lennie crushes Curley’s hand and cautions Curley by saying, “You jus’ tell an’ try to get this guy canned an’ then you get the laugh”(Steinbeck 64). Curly responds to Slim's authority and replies, “I won’t tell”(64). As soon as Curly backs down to Slim, it is prevalent that Slim has the most power on the ranch based on the fact that he has shut down the boss's son. The importance of Slim positively affecting George and Lennie, shows that he doesn’t abuse his power. These selfless qualities that Slim holds, is what allows him to gain and maintain his powerful position within the ranch. Moreover, Slim is able to gain power and trust by establishing positive relationships

The others ask George what has just occurred, oblivious to the plain truth. Slim sees that George is still fraught so he chimes in, “Come on George. Me an’ you’ll go in an’ get a drink”(107). Slims ability to further develop his friendship with George further implies he uses his power to help others. He is able to make high stake calls and is able to get away with it because he is supported. Slim’s benevolence and wit is also what allows him to maintain a more powerful status than Curley. Because Curley uses his power in a selfish and mean mannerism, his fellow ranch hands have a lack of respect towards him. Therefore, nobody is there to support Curley when he tries to make a call, and instead backs up Slim. Slim’s power comes from his ability to stay philanthropic to others while maintaining a sharp, insightful

A great showing of this occurs when George and Lennie are arguing at the fire when Lennie states, “If you don’t want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away at any time”(12). At first glance, this quote may seem as Lennie has power in the situation against George. The truth is, he is at one of his most powerless positions in the book. He deliberately lies to George by saying he’ll “go off in the hills”, when there is not a chance he would consider this outcome. This is why he says it; an attempt to scare George and gain some power from the situation. If George were to have said, “Go off and do it then!”, Lennie would not only fall into his own trap, but would not go off into the hills on account of how much he relies on George. This fathomable error would make Lennie bewildered, flabbergasted and in the end, even more powerless. Additionally, Lennie is shown to sit at the underbelly of power distributed upon the ranchers. Despite being the biggest guy on the ranch, Lennie is looked over during a discussion between the ranchers. When George enters Crook’s stable he asks Lennie, “What are you doin’ in Crooks’ room?”(82). Without time to respond, Crooks and Candy break in and Lennie never even gets the opportunity to speak. In this situation, Lennie's voice is never heard even after the fact that George directed this question to Lennie. It’s extremely important how