Anger and Violence
By Shannon and Matt : )
Curley
Curley is the most violent character in the book, whenever
he shows up there is a feeling of tension.
Candy tells Lennie and George that Curley always picks on
big guys. This is because he has a Napoleon complex in
which he feels the need to prove himself to make up for his
lack of height. This is why he is always ready for a fight.
For example, Curley picks on Lennie in chapter three of ‘Of
Mice and Men’ and “Lennie covered his face with huge
paws and bleated with terror”.
His violent nature is also evident at the end of the book
when he wants to “… shoot (Lennie) him in the guts!”.
Killing Lennie is the only way he sees to prove himself after
losing the fight, it’s not about avenging his wife’s death.
Carlson
• Carlson is associated with violence as he is not phased
by killing Candy's dog, he even cleans the gun in front of
Candy which shows how insensitive he is.
• ”I ought to of shot that dog myself George. I shouldn’t of
let no stranger shoot my dog”. This shows that Carlson
doesn’t think anything of taking a life, even when it does
wrong by others.
• Carlson is also quick to join Curley’s gang at the end of
the novel and go after Lennie to kill him.
• Perhaps for Carlson, violence and getting rid of weak
animals is his way of getting kicks and feeling powerful which of course he isn’t really, he’s just a migrant
worker.
Lennie
• Compared to the other characters Lennie reveals an
unintentional violence; he never intends to hurt people.
• He doesn’t even think to fight back when Curley attacks him.
“Lennie covered his face with huge paws and bleated with
terror.“
• But when he does fight back he does so with immense force
and someone always gets hurt, e.g. Curley, the puppy and
Curley’s Wife.
• Lennie has little control over his strength. We can see this
when he accidentally kills the pup by slapping it, then
minutes later he snaps Curley’s wife's neck.
• He does tend to be his most violent though when he’s angry
– he kills the puppy when he gets angry with it and Curley’s
Wife when he gets angry at her screaming.
George
• Even though George kills Lennie he does it with love and
the best intentions because he wants to end Lennie’s soonto-come pain and suffering if Curley gets hold of him.
George tells Lennie that he's not mad and tells him about
the dream, to reassure him. He also kills Lennie in a way so
that Lennie doesn’t realise what he's doing.
George
• “you an me… .everybody gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna
be no more trouble. Nobody's gonna hurt nobody or steal
from nobody… No Lennie, I ain’t mad, I’ve never been mad
and I aint now. That’s a thing I want you to know.” And
George raised the gun and steadied it and he brought the
muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. His hand
shock violently but his face set and his hand steadied. He
pulled the trigger and the crash of the shot rolled up the hills
and rolled down again. Lennie jarred and then settled
slowly forward to the sand and lay without quivering.
George shivered and looked at the gun and then he threw it
from him, back up on the bank near the pile of old ash.”
Crooks
Crooks is very lonely as he lives in the barn by himself
because of his skin colour. This makes him very angry as he
can’t take part in any of the group activities and is used for
entertainment. “s’pose you didn’t have nobody, s’pose you
couldn’t go into the bunk house and play rummy ‘cause you
was black how’d you like that? S'pose you had to sit out here
an' read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got
dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain't no good. A
guy needs somebody - to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he
ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is,
long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely
an' he gets sick.”
Crooks
Crooks gets angry in chapter 4 with Curley’s Wife and
Lennie because they are two people he can get angry with
as he sees them as equals (outcasts). His anger is
displayed verbally unlike the other men who display it
physically in their actions.
Candy
• Candy is one of the least violent
characters on the farm. In chapter 5 we
see Candy lose his temper with Curley’s
Wife when he finds her dead in the barn
as he realises that the dream is over.
• This shows he isn't courageous in any way
as the only person he takes his anger out
on is a dead one.
Curley’s wife
• Curley’s Wife is angry because she is the only woman
on the ranch and she isn’t given any attention. She has
no friends, she’s in a loveless marriage and she’s lonely.
• Curley’s wife doesn’t show her anger in front of George,
Slim, Carlson and Curley. However, when we are in
Crooks’ room in the barn with Lennie, Candy and Crooks
she shows her anger. This is because of her power due
to her status on the ranch, so she can easily over power
him." I could string you up in a tree it ain’t even funny".
• She also overpowers Candy because he hasn’t got both
hands so he isn’t really needed round the ranch. All it
takes is for her to say something.
• She therefore uses them to vent her anger because she
knows there will be no consequences.
Why might there be a lot of
violence in ‘Of Mice & Men’?
• We think that there might be a lot of violence ‘Of Mice &
Men’ as the book is full of all men trying to make a living in
the middle of a depression and the wall street crash: ‘every
man for himself.’
• Also, because times were tough, people were treated
badly and nobody had friends so they would become very
frustrated and this would be displayed with anger.
How do they display their anger ?
People on the ranch take their anger out on
each other but the only take it out on
people that they feel are lesser than them.
They do so in different ways though:
Candy, Crooks, George – verbally
Curley, Lennie, Carlson – physically
What does the anger & violence help to represent?
• It helps to represent the hard lifestyle of a migrant worker
living though the depression. This books makes people
see the truth of a normal day as a worker on a ranch.
What point do you think Steinbeck was trying to make
by including this theme?
We think Steinbeck was trying to put the point across that
in the 1930s life was hard and people quite often got
frustrated as their life didn’t always go smoothly.