The deep green pigment in the Salinas Valley River stained the future of Lennie Small and the image of the events that happened there left memories of the colorful scenery in black and white. The breaking of Curley’s bones prompted Lennie’s dreams to reside among the river. Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck encompassing the characters Lennie and Curley. Steinbeck was a Nobel Prize winning American writer. He is known for his realistic and elaborate writing style. Growing up in Salinas California with a family farm still standing, Steinbeck took aspects of his early life and it was portrayed as a setting for his novel in 1937. The storyline seems to have an underlying message that is hardly noticed without evaluation. The conflict in the novel begins with George Milton, Lennie’s traveling partner, helping Lennie get work on a ranch. His previously reckless behavior was being contained until Curley, the boss’s son, felt threatened by Lennie and defensively pushed him around. Feeling intimidated, Lennie acted irrationally and broke Curley’s hand. With Lennie’s clear urge for the American dream, he acknowledged his actions. Although, his boundary between right and wrong was once again blurred from that point forward. George then took matters into his own hands. He used euthanasia to conclude Lennie’s frequent and worsening mistakes. Due to this, readers can observe that the breaking of Curley’s hand essentially led to the breaking of Lennie’s dreams.
Curley aspired to be a figure of authority at the ranch. He used violence as a defense mechanism to combat his insecurities. In “Insecure Men May Be More Prone to Violence”, it shows that men who are more consumed by feeling masculine tend to be more violent. It seemed like Curley did not feel like he met the requirements that he saw other men on the ranch embody. In Candy’s words, “He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy” (Steinbeck 26). This shows that Curley has a history of this behavior. He tends to pick fights with people bigger than him. This gave George an uneasy feeling that a problem may come of it. Slim later explains “Looks to me like ever’ bone in his han’ is bust” (Steinbeck 64). This quote is referring to the fight between Curley and Lennie. Candy had made a disgusted remark about Curley’s glove full of vaseline and Curley mistakenly thought Lennie had laughed at it. This threw Curley into a fit of rage. Lennie ended up breaking Curley’s hand. Lennie felt remorse in saying that he did not mean to hurt him. This all alludes to the fact that Curley encouraged Lennie’s bad behavior while picking a fight with him.
Consequently, these factors contributed to Lennie’s altered behavior. This behavior was displayed in many situations. For example, “I was jus’ playin with him . . . . an’ he made like he’s gonna bite me . . . . an’ I made like I was gonna smack him . . . . an’. . . . an’ I done it” (Steinbeck 87). This shows the next chronological mistake that occured. Lennie had accidentally killed his puppy by hitting it. Lennie had not meant any harm to the puppy, but he had developed the tendency to unintentionally kill the animals that were in his care. His tendencies only worsened in sequence. To further validate this, Lennie remarks “I don’t want to hurt you, but George’ll be mad if you yell” (Steinbeck 91). This is a quote from Lennie right after he had broken Curley’s wife’s neck, which led to her death. Lennie wanted to keep his job of tending the rabbits in the future, so he clearly did not intend to do something that could possibly threaten his dream. This pattern supports the idea that Lennie was not in complete control of his actions which resulted in an undesirable series of events.
Subsequently, George recognized this pattern. He had taken inspiration from Candy’s comment “Ain’t nothing left for him. Can’t eat, can’t see, can’t even walk without hurtin’” (Steinbeck 47). This citation is found within the discussion of euthanasia. Candy’s dog was old and had been suffering for a long time. The men at the ranch agreed that euthanasia was just. George used this to justify the repetition of this strategy. In “Human and Animal Euthanasia: Dare to Compare?” the article explains the difference between human and animal euthanasia. It expresses the ethical compassion used for animals and essentially suggests that people should have the same compassion for loved ones. George later stated “Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble” (Steinbeck 106). This occurred before one single bullet euthanized Lennie. George previously asked Lennie to look at the Salinas Valley River and picture their dream coming true. George was standing behind him, Carlson’s luger in his shaky hand. He wanted to give Lennie a good memory as his last, which is why he disclosed where Lennie had been hiding. This, in turn, was the breaking of Lennie’s dreams by euthanasia.
To conclude, Curley’s incentive to trigger Lennie’s bad behavior influenced said behavior to prevail. This, overall, was the reason why Lennie’s innocent mistakes became increasingly more severe. When the severity became too dangerous, George explored the idea of euthanizing Lennie. Having seen it done, he decided that much like Candy’s suffering dog, he would put Lennie out of his misery. Societally, this situation can be represented by dreams of an unattainable life standard. After planning to live the American dream with George by his side, Lennie’s dreams became unfulfilled whispers that lay near the edge of the unfathomable green pool. Collectively, it is shown that the breaking of Curley’s hand essentially led to the breaking of Lennie’s dreams.
Works Cited
- Goldbaum, Elizabeth. “Insecure Men May Be More Prone to Violence.” LiveScience, Purch, 26 Aug. 2015, www.livescience.com/51979-masculinity-gender-norms-violence.html.
- Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Penguin, 1986.
- Pierce, Jessica. “Human and Animal Euthanasia: Dare to Compare?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 29 Nov. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-dogs-go-heaven/201111/human-and-animal-euthanasia-dare-compare.
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