The book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is a prime example of black and white characterization, creating an unrealistic portrayal of human nature. This black and white characterization shows in the stereotypical hero description given to Slim. It shows also in the characterization of the character Curley, who the author depicts as a type of antagonistic evil, the opposite of Slim. Plus, the writing of these two characters in the book promotes that they are common, one-dimensional characters. All of these points create two sadly, unrelatable characters.
First and foremost, there is Slim, a character who Steinbeck only gives the role of the “good guy” or the “hero” throughout the novelette. In the book, it introduces Slim in a manner of…show more content… Similarly to Slim’s introduction, the book introduces Curley by looking for his wife and immediately making moves to antagonize George, and more specifically, Lennie. By introducing Curley this way, it makes Steinbeck seem like when writing the scene, he appears to impose the fact that, Curley represents the ultimate bad guy. Another great example shows in his short temper in the scene where he attacks Lennie with no factual reasoning and says, “No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me” (Steinbeck 61). Curley’s quick reaction due to his anger, verbal threat, and Curley letting the situation escalate so quickly reinforces the author's desire to confirm to the readers that Curley plays the antagonist. Finally, the most obvious piece of evidence of this shows in his impractical emotionless reaction, or more accurately, his livid reaction to his wife’s death. Some would argue that anger depicts an appropriate reaction to someone killing a person’s wife, but the way Curley reacts seems unrealistic to how a person would normally experience any death because the only emotion is anger, which of course is accurate to his antagonistic