Of Mice And Men Final Essay

The book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is about two migrant workers, George and Lennie, who travel together and dream of buying their own land and having better lives. However, they aren’t successful in pursuing their goals because Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife which leads to other violent situations. In today’s societies, such actions are considered illegal, but because the book takes place during the Great Depression, the violence in the novel was socially acceptable. Despite the different personalities of each character, Curley, Carlson, and George, all prove that violence was a characteristic of men in the 1930s.

Curley is one of the violent characters in the novel. From the beginning of the story he is introduced as, “‘pretty handy’” (26) which means that he likes to fight. Candy, the swamper, then further describes Curley to George and Lennie as someone who “‘ain’t givin’ nobody a chance’” (27). By “‘givin’ nobody a chance,’” Steinbeck presents Curley as a person who fights against everything he does not like regardless of the conditions. These two quotes in the story clearly show that Curley is a very violent person who loves fighting and is willing to fight anyone. As a small structured man, Curley hates those who are bigger than him. When he first meets Lennie, a man who is compared to big animals such as horses and bears, Curley instantly displays hatred towards the big, simple minded, “‘nice fella’” (40). Continuing this negative treatment, Curley antagonizes Lennie by hitting him for “‘laughin’ at’” (62) him, when in reality, Lennie was just daydreaming about bunnies. The event results in Curley having to go to the doctor in the middle of the night after Lennie crushes his hand. A little later after the fight, Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife. After all the men in the ranch find out that Curley’s wife is dead, Curley immediately has an excuse to get back at Lennie. Slim, the jerkline skinner, advises Curley to stay with his dead wife, but Curley would rather go shoot Lennie himself to have a taste of revenge, as he says, “‘’Course we’ll shoot ’im… I’m gonna get ’im’” (98). In his statement, Curley speaks in a very excited tone because he can finally take his revenge, though it’s not for his wife, but for Lennie breaking his hand. From that incident, it’s clear that Curley is a very brutal man for picking fights and in the end still needs to hurt others for satisfaction.

The next character that proves that men were violent in the 1930s is George Milton, the main character who wants to stay out of trouble so that he won’t have to worry about losing his job and not getting any money. George and Lennie are partners; they go everywhere together as migrant workers. As mentioned earlier, Curley does not like Lennie and gives Lennie and George a very unwelcoming impression when they first meet. This leads to George warning Lennie by saying,“‘You try to keep away from him, will you? Don't never speak to him. If he comes in here you move clear to the other side of the room’” (29) when he senses that Curley will create problems with Lennie. To stay away from trouble George tries to avoid every situation that he thinks may have bad consequences. When Curley thinks that Slim is with his wife and plans to catch them, Whit, another worker at the ranch, invites George to go and watch. George rejects him, saying, “‘I'm stayin' right here. I don't want to get mixed up in nothing’” (54). However, later when Curley picks on Lennie and starts hitting him, George screams, “‘Get ’im Lennie!’” (63). George wants Lennie to defend himself from Curley and gives him a little taste of his own medicine. Lennie ends up crushing Curley’s hand completely. Therefore, even when a man wants to stay out of trouble, he can not resist the temptation of violence when he thinks it can solve the current situation.

The last character who shows that men were violent during that time period is Carlson. His character supports this idea because his violence is exemplified in many different situations. There is evidence in the scene where Carlson tells Candy that his dog should rest in peace. Candy hates the idea of having his own dog die and as Carlson tells him, “‘ If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head’ - ‘right there, why he’d never knew what hit him’” (45), Candy’s eyes wander to meet others’, searching for someone who can see his lack of power in the conversation. Carlson only wants the dog gone because it smells bad. The quote shows that without considering Candy’s feelings, Carlson is insensitive toward his peers, and is willing to kill something that means a lot to someone else based on selfish reasons. Another example of Carlson’s approval of violence in the novel is at the very end of the book when Lennie has been killed by George. At the end of the book, Steinbeck writes to Carlson saying, “‘Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?’” (107). The quote demonstrates how Carlson does not understand why George would be upset, because to him, what has been done is very normal. In Carlson’s mind, Lennie did a bad thing, therefore, Lennie’s death was the proper outcome of the situation. However, Carlson doesn’t have any sympathy for Lennie being mentally ill. Hence, Carlson is a very cruel person for not caring about his peers’ feelings and he shows it in his personality through violent thoughts and actions.

In conclusion, Steinbeck developed these characters’ traits to illustrate how men were like during the 1930s. Nowadays people cannot kill for revenge or shoot animals for any reason, and have everyone be okay with the violence. Even so, fighting for the purpose of self defence is still acceptable because it’s part of human instinct.