It shows Slim as a sort of true king with power of knowledge and understanding but being trapped in the society all the same. When George and Lennie arrive together at the bunkhouse people think it is strange for men to travel together. This shows that society is use to people travelling alone. So through Slim, Steinbeck uses him as a way of criticising society. With all of Slim's God-like features it is hard for us to understand why he is there at the ranch.
Curley is first mentioned in chapter two as he interrupts a conversation between George, Lennie and the swamper. Steinbeck physically describes him as a ‘thin young man with a brown face, brown eyes’ and also a ‘head of tightly curled hair’. His description includes him wearing a ‘work glove on his left hand’ and he ‘wore high heeled boots like the boss’, therefore, straight away the reader can refer to Curley having authority. With the reaction of George being ‘tense and motionless’ we can already understand the fact that him being the boss’ son means that he automatically thinks and knows he has power over the workers in the ranch. His intimidating behaviour as he’ lashed his body around’ in the bunk house shocks George and Lennie leading to the swamper describing him as being ‘handy.
His opinions stayed strong threw the whole story until the end when he revealed is true feelings about his teenaged son who causes him to be hateful and opinionated about everything. He used every bit of evidence to prove he was guilty but a lot of the other jurors did not change their minds about the defendant being guilty or not guilty. Juror #3 is very rude and everyone knows it, he expresses himself as a loud mouth who has no manners. He loud mouths all the jurors and causes them to think negatively towards him. He also picks fights with all the other jurors, he even threatened to kill juror #8 after he called him a sadist.
This is why he is easily led because George told him to fight back against Curley and he did and when George tells him to stop he does. He isn't very powerful because he needs George to look after him and tell him what is right and what is wrong. He has a lot of power over Lennie, for instance, ‘for god sakes don’t drink so much’. He can make Lennie do anything he wants him to do. Furthermore, Slim’s power on the ranch makes him a voice of justice throughout the novel.
Of Mice and Men Quotes The Boss * Isolated by being the boss ‘not a labouring man’ this shows how he was above the ranch hands in authority and power but by being so is isolated from the others * The boss is symbolic of the racial discrimination present at that time ‘he give the stable buck hell…ya see the stable bucks a nigger’ this tells us how because of the ‘stable bucks’ colour the boss is more harsh towards him than the others. * The boss is a straight-to-business type of person. ‘You got your work slips?’ this shows that the boss is self-centred as he only cares for his business rather than the well-being of his workers. * The boss is suspicious and conscious of George and Lennie ‘Say-what you selling?’ this shows
Candy explains this by saying that Curly is “like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys…he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy,” (Steinbeck, Page 26). He is unable to seek reassurance from the other men on the ranch because they are, in a way, afraid of him because of the power he holds over them by being the boss’s son. Curly is lonely as he cannot socialize with the men in a carefree way, nor can he be entirely comfortable with his wife, who was never truly in love with him. However, the reader is never asked to sympathize with Curly, nor does the author ever portray his disappointment in a straightforward way, opting instead to make him angry and confrontational to show that
Then George warned Lennie to keep away from her; “Listen to me you crazy bastard, don’t you even look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does, I seen ‘em poison before but never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her.” Curley’s wife causes tension on the ranch because she annoys and embarrasses Curley by wandering around the ranch flirting. This makes Curley angry and feel humiliated because his wife is always seeking the attention of other men. Curley got angry with the other worker because his wife is often disappearing and he felt as if the other man laughed at him because he could not keep control of his wife. “If you can’t keep control of your god-damn wife what do you want me to do about it?” Curley’s wife’s behaviour on the ranch angered Curley so much that he often vented his anger on the other men because Lennie was laughing to himself.
His lack of morality and faith, his rejection in the belief of the same moral equanimity that Delia fosters in, frees him from the constraints of personal or communal responsibility. When the men around Joe Clarke's store porch gossip about Delia and Sykes, they all agree that men like Sykes operate on a law of morality that is all their own. As Clarke expostulates: "Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im" (886). Syke's flouting of these "laws" locates him as a character of supreme evil, for, like the devil who also flouted God's law, Sykes pursues sex and women with equal fearlessness. His mistreatment of Delia also reveals his contempt for his wife and what she represents.
MMain Characters and Themes CURLEY Who is he and what his role is * The ranch boss’s son * Privileged, in a position of relative power and wealth * Small, hostile man – has an inferiority complex * Has recently married * Least likeable character – aggressive to everyone, possibly bordering on the evil – maybe even too one dimensional to be believable * Helps reinforce key themes of novel: shattered dreams, prejudice and injustice, anger * Gives insight into relation of the sexes at the time * Drives plot – major source of conflict and the tragic outcome of the story Drives plot * Curley is major source of conflict in the novel * Introduction of Curley immediately foreshadows that he will bring problems – George‘s warnings to Lennie build tension * Fight with Lennie creates excitement and tension: we wonder how it will be resolved – G has already told Candy that L ‘don‘t know no rules‘ and reminds L to hide in brush if they get in trouble: hints that L might seriously hurt Curley * Tension once fight is over: Curley could get L and G sacked at time when work is hard to find * Even after men keep there jobs, it is clear from what we know about Curley‘s personality that this ‘humiliation’ will not remain unrevenged * Fight is also a major point of foreshadowing – shows Lennie‘s innocent intentions yet his potential to be physically extremely harmful * Curley‘s treatment of his wife could be seen to push her towards L in barn scene when he kills her * Catyslyst for final tragedy is Curley‘s desire for brutal revenge on L: G is forced to kill his friend to protect him from a worse fate * Without Curly, there is less pressure for G to act – he needs to kill L or watch Curley shoot L in the stomach. Major theme: shattered dreams * Curley is essential to the destruction of the dreams of others
His physical change as far as he can see will not change his enjoyment of life, there will be no difference as he was a bug before, towing the line for the boss. He was always too busy to form lasting relationships, never being seen as a person, the personification of a deadening soul. According to Karl Marx “work is external to the worker i.e. it does not form part of his essential being so that instead of feeling well in his work, he feels unhappy, instead of developing his free physical and mental energy, he abuses his body and ruins his mind.”(Bloom. Page 107) Gregor basically is beginning self-alienation, he believes he is something hideous physically but mentally still holds onto his human conformist mindset.