Of Mice and Men
Character Revision
GEORGE
• Friend to Lennie, kind hearted – ‘I got you to look after me and you got
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me…’
Feels a sense of duty to Lennie; looking after him gives him a purpose
Can be impatient with him – ‘I could live so easy if it wasn’t for you…’
He is a thinker – all around him he sees loneliness
Good judge of character – knew Curley’s wife would be trouble
Confides in Slim about his troubled past
Hardworking but dreams of owning own ranch
Often tells Lennie about their ‘dream’
Prepares for Lennie getting them into trouble - ‘hide in the brush’
Quick-witted and intelligent – knew Slim could be trusted / Curley’s wife
would be trouble
His sense of morality tells him Lennie must die for killing Curley’s wife
He is a realist and understands the world
At the end of the novel when he loses Lennie, he also lost his dream
LENNIE
• He is slow-witted but ‘a nice fella’
• He is a child trapped in a man’s body – ‘ huge man, shapeless of
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face’
He has never learned to control his strength / power
After his strength his innocence is his most striking feature
Often described as animal like - he is described as like a terrier, a
bear etc
Can be cunning – plays on George’s feelings of guilt
Instinctive – knows the ranch isn’t a nice place
Relies heavily on George but is fiercely protective of him
‘Maybe he ain’t bright but I never seen such a worker’
His fault they left Weed and he loses George ‘every job I ever get’
SLIM
• Understands the bond between George and Lennie
• Shows natural dignity and leadership
• Has a natural authority – the men look up to him ‘his
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words was accepted on any subject, be it politics or love’
He is a good listener and ‘his ear heard more than was
said to him’
He stands up to Curley when accused of having an affair
with his wife
‘There was a gravity in his manner and all talk stopped
when he spoke’
Steinbeck could use a character like him to show that in
all aspects of society there is goodness.
CANDY
• Lost his arm in a ranch accident and is now reduced to ‘swamper’
• Pathetic figure who passes his time taking orders from other people
• Stands up to people twice – Curley (when the others do) and
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Curley’s wife (in Crooks’ room) but this confidence is short-lived
Only a little is needed to revitalise him – a ranch of his own, a
dream to follow ‘ when they can me I wisht they’d shoot me’
Clings to George and Lennie’s dream as it’s his only hope of escape
Death of his dog shows he is a human being
Steinbeck shows sympathy for him – weak, old, down-trodden
Characterised through his dog
Unwillingly lets Carlson shoot his dog then realise his should have
done it himself ‘ I oughtn’t to have let no stranger shoot my dog’
Calls Curley’s dead wife a ‘goddamn tramp’ because she has killed
their dream ‘everybody knowed you’d mess things up’
CROOKS
• An example of Steinbeck’s compassion
• An illustration of the way in which loneliness can corrupt and
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destroy a man ‘I guy gets too lonely and he gets sick’
Double burden in their society – a cripple and a negro
Curley’s wife crushes him when he stands up to her – he can’t win
against a white person ‘you just know your place nigger’
His function is to prepare the reader for the destruction of George
and Lennie’s dream – he knows it won’t come true ‘seems like every
guy got land in his head’
His character looks for dignity and self respect in a world which
gives him none ‘they say I stink, all you stink to me’
Intelligent – has books in his room – nobody gets to really know
him because of his colour / disability
CURLEY
• Spoilt, restless and arrogant boss’s son
• Sees everyone as a potential opponent for a fight ‘no big son-of-a•
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bitch is gonna laugh at me’
Keeps a ‘glove fulla vaseline’ for his wife but still visits the brothel
with the men
Obsessive over controlling his wife – spends most of his time looking
for her
Can be cunning and bordering on sadistic ‘shoot for his guts’
Picks a fight with Lennie because he thinks he’ll be a pushover
Forced into lying about his damaged hand to save his reputation
‘He hates bug guys… kind of like he’s mad at them ‘cos he ain’t a
big guy’
‘His glance was calculating and pugnacious’
His hands automatically curl into fists when he’s talking to people
CURLEY’S WIFE
• Overdressed, flirtatious and attractive ‘she had full rouged lips and wide•
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spaced eyes heavily made up’
Attention-seeking – prefers negative attention to none at all
Vain – asks Lennie to stroke her hair thus unwittingly causes her own death
Catalyst for the violent scenes in the text
‘her voice had a nasal brittle quality’
Nobody to talk to, no social life, only woman on the ranch = lonely
Trapped in a loveless marriage – husband visits prostitutes
Married Curley to spite her mum – ‘He ain’t a nice person.’
Treated like an object - ‘Curley’s wife’- we never know her name
Turns nasty when put in her place by Crooks and Candy ‘stuck with a
nigger, a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep an’ likin’ it cos there ain’t nobody
else’
Dreams of being a movie star ‘I tell ya, I coulda made somethin of myself’
Had she met the right man, she might have been different
When she dies Steinbeck shows she wasn’t a totally evil person – ‘ She was
very pretty and simple and her face was sweet and young’
Her tragedy lies in the fact we only find out about her just before she dies
Aware of her sexuality – ‘she breathed strongly as though she had been
running’
REMEMBER…
When writing about a character you need to
consider the themes of the text
Does Steinbeck explore any of the themes
through the characters ?
Remember key quotes to support your ideas