Of mice And Men – Character Profiles
Of Mice And Men – Character Profiles
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George Milton
George is the story's main protagonist, a small, quick man with well-defined features. A migrant ranch worker, George dreams of one day saving enough money to buy his own place and be his own boss, living off of the land. The hindrance to his objective is his mentally handicapped companion, Lennie, with whom he has traveled and worked since Lennie's Aunt Clara, whom George knew, died. The majority of George's energy is devoted to looking after Lennie, whose blunders prevent George from working toward his dream, or even living the life of a normal rancher. Thus, George's conflict arises in Lennie, to whom he has the ties of long-time companionship that he so often yearns to break in order to live the life of which he dreams. This tension strains George into demonstrating various emotions, ranging from anger to patience to sadness to pride and to hope.
He is also friendly, and almost immediately makes friends with Candy, Carlson, Slim, and the other ranch hands.
He has matured a lot since the incident he relates to Slim where he made Lennie jump into a river just for fun. He realises that Lennie depends on him, and needs him to survive.
George often insults Lennie and 'gives him hell', but he doesn't really mean it. Although he often talks about how well off he could be without Lennie he secretly doesn't want Lennie to leave, and when Lennie offers to do so in the first chapter, George virtually pleads with him to stay. This is because George also depends on Lennie to a certain extent for his unconditional friendship.
George is intelligent, as Slim points out in chapter three, but also modest in denying being smart. He expresses his desire to be different from other ranch hands who merely work for a month and then spend all of their money, but also realistically realises that his dream of owning a house with Lennie (or anyone else) is unlikely to ever come true.
Overall, George is an intelligent and kind character. He is thoughtful enough to realise that the best thing for Lennie is to shoot him, for the alternatives are even worse, and compassionate enough to kill Lennie himself.
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Lennie Small
George's companion, the source of the novel's conflict. Lennie, enormous, ungainly, and mentally slow, is George's polar opposite both mentally and physically. Lennie's ignorance and innocence and helplessness, his childish actions, such as his desire to pet soft things, contrast his physical bulk, making him likeable to readers. Although devoid of cruel intentions, Lennie's stupidity and carelessness cause him to unwittingly harm animals and people, which creates trouble for both him and George. Lennie is tirelessly devoted to George and delights in hearing him tell of the dream of having a farm, but he does not desire the dream of the American worker in the same way that George does. His understanding of George's dream is more childish and he grows excited at the possibility of tending the future rabbits, most likely because it will afford him a chance to pet their soft hides as much as he wishes. Nevertheless, a dream is a dream, different for everyone, and George and Lennie share the similar attribute of desiring what they haven't got. Lennie, however, is helpless to attain his dream, and remains a static character throughout, relying on George to fuel his hope and save him from trouble.
Lennie's Aunt Clara had asked George to take care of Lennie if she ever died.
The most obvious feature of Lennieð's character is that he seems to be retarded somehow. He is a man who has the mind of a child. Slim is one of the first characters to notice this, remarking that Lennie is
'Jes' like a kid'
and Curley's wife also comments on how he is
'Jus' like a big baby'.
Lennie doesn't know his own strength, and this is one of the things which lead to his eventual downfall. He realises that he is strong as a bull, but he can't judge how much force to use for certain actions. That is why he kills his pets, when he only intends to pet them and play with them.
It is this inability to judge his strength, combined with his desire to pet things and Curley's wife's desire to be petted and admired which leads to Lennie's inevitable death. The ability to judge one's own strength is one of the first signs of maturity, and it is important that Lennie doesn't have this ability.
Despite the major flaws in his character he is amiable and friendly, and doesn't do any of the bad things he does on purpose.
He has a poor memory, and has to repeat things to himself many times to remember them. Even then, he still forgets them.
He has a sort of blind faith in George, trusting in George to protect him and look after his welfare. For example, remember the incident George describes to Slim when he told Lennie to jump in a river and Lennie obeyed, without a thought to his own well being. This illustrates Lennie's trust in George, and also his immaturity.
However, it must be noted that Lennie can still be quite crafty, as when he cunningly persuades George to tell him the story about the rabbits by threatening to leave him.
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Curley
Curley is the nastiest character in the book, and it is easy to point the finger at him and say he is 'the bad guy'.
The boxer, the son of the boss, the angry and hot-headed obstacle to George's attempt to keep Lennie out of trouble at Soledad. Insecure of his size and over-protective of his wife, Curley is eager to fight anyone he perceives as a threat to his self-image. From the outset, Lennie unwittingly incurs Curley's antagonism simply because of his size, and the reader immediately braces for future confrontation. Curley remains undeveloped, forever little and forever mean, poking his head in at various points in the novel, either to look for his wife or to stir up trouble on account of her.
He is resentful and angry towards everyone. Candy speculates that he dislikes big men because of his own diminutive size, and indeed it does seem that he has quite an inferiority complex, although he dislikes George almost as much as Lennie.
He is always looking for ways to assert what he sees as his masculinity, which explains his aggressive behaviour.
The most obvious feature of Curley's personality is that he is a coward, which Carlson quite rightly points out. He is willing to attack people he sees as weak, like meek-mannered Lennie, but when he meets resistance from somebody he thinks is dangerous like Slim, he backs down immediately and looks for someone else to vent his anger on.
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Curley's Wife
Nameless and flirtatious, Curley's wife is perceived by Candy to be the cause of all that goes wrong at Soledad: "Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up. You wasn't no good" (104-105), he says to her dead body in his grief. The workers, George included, see her as having "the eye" for every guy on the ranch, and they cite this as the reason for Curley's insecurity and hot-headed temperament. But Curley's wife adds complexity to her own characterization, confessing to Lennie that she dislikes Curley because he is angry all the time and saying that she comes around because she is lonely and just wants someone with whom to talk. Like George and Lennie, she once had a dream of becoming an actress and living in Hollywood, but it went unrealized, leaving her full of self-pity, married to an angry man, living on a ranch without friends, and viewed as a trouble-maker by everyone.
Most of the ranch hands except for Slim brand Curley's wife as a 'tart'. In fact, she is portrayed as such whenever she appears, obviously playing up to and teasing the men.
She is cruel to Crooks, Candy and Lennie in Crooks' room, and later on she tempts Lennie, letting him stroke her hair in the barn, and kneeling beside him in the hay in a provocative way?
We can definitely say that she is lonely. She says so several times, and that is to be expected since she is stuck on a ranch with men who dislike her and rarely talk to her.
However, she attempts to overcome her loneliness in the wrong way. George immediately realises that she means trouble when she first turns up in the bunkhouse, and it is hardly surprising that her actions lead her new husband to be fiercely jealous.
She walks around the ranch, dressed inappropriately and seductively. and remember that she has only been married a couple of weeks. She admits to Lennie that she doesn't like her husband and regrets marrying him. She seems to be of limited intelligence, as she was taken in by other men's promises of film parts.
It is partly her desire to be petted and admired which leads her to allow Lennie to stroke her hair, which in turn leads to her death at Lennie's hands.
Note that throughout the book, she is only ever known as 'Curley's wife' which seems to indicate that the author viewed her as a possession of Curley's rather than a human being.
Notice that she is frequently associated with the colour red, a colour symbolising an impure woman, as well as one calculated to enrage a 'bull' such as Lennie.
Slim
The tall, jerkline skinner whom Steinbeck describes as something of a living legend: "he moved with a majesty only achieved by royalty and master craftsmen. He was a jerkline skinner, the prince of the ranch, capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders. He was capable of killing a fly on the wheeler's butt with a bull whip without touching the mule. There was gravity in his manner and a quiet so profound that all talk stopped when he spoke. . . His hatchet face was ageless. He might have been thirty-fice or fifty. His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought" (37). Slim lingers in the shadow of his overwhelming description throughout the novel. He serves as the fearless, decision-maker when conflicts arise among the workers and wins the confidence of George, offering advice, comfort, and quiet words of wisdom.
The men like and respect Slim, deferring to him in all matters. Only Slim is able to persuade Candy to allow his old dog and long-time companion to be killed.
Candy considers Slim to be a match for Curley in a fight, although Curley was once a boxer, and Slim has never been in a fight before. This illustrates the depth of respect the men feel for him.
Unlike many powerful men, Slim is also kind and compassionate. He explains to Candy that it was cruel to keep his dog alive, suffering, and tries to console him by offering him a newborn puppy. He also kindly gives a puppy to Lennie, although he modestly makes light of it, saying he would have had to kill it otherwise.
More evidence of his caring, thoughtful nature comes at the end of the book. When he and the other men find Lennie dead, killed by George, Slim is perceptive enough to realise that it must have been George who took Carlson's gun, and he comforts George.
Not only is Slim kind and friendly to his fellow labourers, we also see him exchange friendly words with Curley's wife. He seems to be the only one who realises that Curley's wife may not simply be a 'tart', she may merely be lonely. If he does think she is a prostitute, he doesn't hold it against her as the other men do. He doesn't attempt to judge her, when he doesn't know her well enough. So, to conclude, Slim's character is very kind and friendly. He is also very intelligent and perceptive, and he has a good sense of justice and fairness.
Candy
Candy is an old man with only one hand. He lost his right hand in an accident while working on the ranch. He works as a swamper, which means he sweeps and mops the floor.
He is the first to befriend George and Lennie at Soledad. Humble and weary, Candy seems to be at the end of his line after Carlson shoots his last possession and companion, his old, blind dog. Candy is lonely, and feels isolated from the other men because of the large age difference between them. His best friend was his dog, and once that had been killed, he took up with George and Lennie so that he would have a sense of security and not be alone in his old age.
"When they can me here I wisht somebody'd shoot me" (66), Candy confesses to George and Lennie, hoping for a similar fate as his dog. But when he overhears the two talking of their little place, Candy offers all his money and his meager services to be in on the dream. His substantial sum of money and the fact that he knows of a place make it impossible for George to refuse him. Candy clings to this hope of a future as a drowning man would to a piece of driftwood. It rekindles life within him, but it also becomes an obsession, and in his excitement and indignation, he lets the secret slip to both Crooks and Curley's wife. And when Lennie kills Curley's wife and shatters the reality of the dream, Candy becomes hopeless and full of anguish, the broken shell of a man.
He is quite friendly, although we see evidence that he is quite a gossip, from how he eagerly tells George and Lennie how Curley keeps Vaseline in his glove, and by how he eavesdrops on the two.
However, it is not only his fears that he will be fired soon which prompt him to join George and Lennie. It is also because he shares their dream of settling down and living independently.
He is usually quite realistic. He recognises that if he is fired his chances will not be very good if he is alone, and he knows that Lennie has little or no chance of survival after killing Curley's wife. Because he is so old, he has probably learnt to be realistic from past experience.
Crooks
Called such because of a crooked spine, Steinbeck does not develop Crooks, the Negro stable buck, until the fourth chapter, describing him as a "proud, aloof man. Crooks is an even lonelier character than Candy, because not only is he old and a cripple, like Candy, but he is also black. Most of the men have a lot of prejudice against Crooks, referring to him with derogatory terms such as 'nigger'. And because he is a different colour, he has to stay in a room on his own.
Crooks is a victim. We are told by Candy that the Boss takes his anger out on Crooks, though Crooks does nothing wrong. And Candy also relates an incident in the past when one of the ranch hands picked a fight with Crooks. It is to Crooks' credit that he won the fight, although the other man did have his feet tied.
He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs" (74). As a result of the discrimination against him, Crooks has become quite bitter and cynical. This is why when Lennie and Candy tell him about their plan to buy a house he reacts with scorn and disbelief.
Crooks is bitter, indignant, angry, and ultimately frustrated by his helplessness as a black man in a racist culture. Wise and observant, Crooks listens to Lennie's talk of the dream of the farm with cynicism. Although tempted by Candy, Lennie, and George's plan to buy their own place, Crooks is constantly reminded (in this case by Curley's wife) that he is inferior to whites and, out of pride, he refuses to take part in their future farm.
Note that Crooks is quite intelligent; he knows how to read. Also, during his discussion with Lennie and Candy, we see more evidence that he is an intelligent, but tortured individual.
Carlson
Carlson appears to be friendly at first, but in fact the author uses him to portray the brutality and barbarity which was common on ranches such as the one where the story was set.
Carlson is strong and physically powerful. He has no qualms about killing, and even volunteers to kill Candy's dog. He seems excited and animated when the manhunt for Lennie is announced, eager to shed blood.
He takes pride in his gun, cleaning it and taking care of it. Perhaps he sees it as a symbol of his masculinity, much as Curley thinks his aggressive behaviour makes him look tough.
His callous comment at the very end of the book shows that he is not very intelligent, and can never understand the world of sensitive people like Slim and George.
The Boss
The Boss only appears once in the whole book, when he meets George and Lennie at the beginning.
The only sure thing that we can say about the Boss is that he, like his son Curley, has a very aggressive and intolerant attitude.
He is angry when George and Lennie are late, and Candy says he cruelly took his anger out on Crooks. However, the Boss is probably a little more mature than Curley, and can be generous at times, like when he gave the men whiskey at Christmas.
Whit
Whit's character is never developed in the book and little is known about him.
He plays cards with George, but unlike George he is not interested in what he is doing, and really prefers to gossip than to play.
He is also anxious to join in the hunt for Lennie, which tells us that he is not very caring or nice. He is really only a device Steinbeck uses to provide descriptive passages, and to show what the average ranch hand was like.
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