The Napoleon Complex, also known as “Little Man Syndrome” is defined as, “A popular term for the inferiority complex that short men (under 5 '9') in society are commonly assumed to possess, which causes them—at least per theory—to overcompensate by trying harder than men of average height (5 '10') in life’s activities” or, “Men who feel the least masculine are nearly three times more likely to commit violent acts compared with those who are comfortable in their skin.” In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, this syndrome can be seen in one of the characters, Curley. Curley is a short, feisty, man that’s always picking fights. When his complete opposite, Lennie, a big, burly, guy shows up at the ranch this syndrome becomes most evident.
In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Lennie, and Curley are much more similar than you think. Lennie and Curley both get very violent when angry. Evidence of this supporting Lennie can be found on page 72. On this page, Lennie and Crooks are sitting in Crooks’ room and talking, while George and everyone else are in town. Crooks starts talking about what would happen to Lennie if George got hurt or died and Lennie gets very aggressive and stands up and “walked dangerously towards crooks” and demands to know “who hurt George?” (Steinbeck 72). This shows that Lennie has a very short temper and when this temper is provoked, he becomes very violent and aggressive. Curley is not that different. Curley gets angry when he finds his wife lying dead in the barn after Lennie accidentally breaks her neck, and immediately knows it was Lennie who did it. Curley threatens “I’m gonna get him” and that he’ll “kill the big son-of-a-bitch” himself. (Steinbeck ). Another way that Lennie and Curley are different is how they are both very misunderstood and therefore, isolated from the rest of the group. Curley is isolated because no one gets along with him and he’s always trying to start fights. This is first evident when Lennie and George meet Curley for the first time “He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch.” Since Curley is so aggressive from the beginning, he gets on George’s bad side and is isolated from everyone else.
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Although they may be very similar, they are also very different. While Lennie is big and harmless, Curley is small and always threatening/causing fights with people. One situation that clearly shows their differences is. Because of these differences, another difference is also evident. Lennie gets in trouble by accident while Curley goes around looking for/ asking for trouble. Evidence of this is shown when Curley first walks into the barn looking for his wife, and Lennie is
In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, although physically, Lennie and Curley are very different, their actions and behavior are very similar, and while similar, they are also very different. Both Lennie and Curley have very violent personalities, and because of this are misunderstood and isolated. But, on the contrary, Lennie is physically intimidating, but in all reality very harmless, while Curley is the exact opposite, Curley is a very small man and not very intimidating physically, but he has a very violent attitude.
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