Slim In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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The story Of Mice and Men was placed in United States of America, within the years of the Great Depression. When the Wall Street Crash 1929 took place it took a lot of people’s job and their “American Dreams” away with it. This led to people in poverty, which left them with no chance but turning themselves into human slaves who would need to go from one ranch to another, the process would continue till they earn enough money which they need to fulfil their “American dreams”. In the story Of Mice and Men there was one character called Slim who was treated like a boss from other ranch workers. Slim is the only character who is the only source who will listen to you patiently, try to resolve any sort of issues regarding discrimination and share…show more content…
When he enters the bunkhouse, he enters "with a majesty achieved only by royalty and master craftsmen. He was a jerk-line skinner, the prince of the ranch, capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders." Slim is a fully grown man, knows his surrounding really well and he also have some sort of experience in how to deal with different people and with sensitive issues such as Lennie’s disabilities by defending his silly mistakes and how would not make fun or take advantage of him. His voice is the voice of rationalism like when Carlson suggests killing Candy's dog, Candy makes a last appeals to Slim as the final authority (you will only make a final appeal to god when you are in trouble and in this circumstance Slim is the god for him), this means that if Slim had order to save the dog by not shooting him then he would have made the dog’s life harder as the dog was too old and his co-workers who are working with him as they couldn’t bare the bad smell coming from the dog. Thus, Slim had to think about everyone before making the decision to kill the dog or…show more content…
The reason for this is that he is portrayed as the god of the ranch therefore he was expected to always do justice on the ranch and even outside of the ranch he was expected to do the same. If you take into account that "She slang her pups last night," said Slim. "Nine of ‘em. I drowned four of ‘em right off. She couldn’t feed that many." For example Slim slaughtered the poor little puppies, a normal person like me will think that he has just committed a murder and he should get hanged till death sentence for taking an innocent life, but no, he has done a justice for the mother of the puppies because the mother would have paid the consequences by given her life which will also cause the other puppies to die as well because they will not be able to get milk from their mother and wouldn’t have been able to survive. So that’s why Slim did the justice by killing only some of the puppies and saving their mother. If we observe the situation meticulously that Slim also sends a message by this act to George that if other lives could be saved by taking away a single person (Lennie’s) life that is still a justice. When this novel comes to an end, George shoots Lennie in the back where other people or dogs wouldn’t have been able to notice that Lennie have been shot with
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