Wealth In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Claim: Throughout the novella John Steinbeck uses characters that are wealthy and poor (such as the boss and George) to show that being wealthy does not give you more power. John Steinbeck’s novella, “Of Mice and Men” tells the story of two best friends. One named George who is a small and smart man, and Lennie who is a big and burly guy but not smart and they are both migrant workers. The men live near a town called Soledad in California around the time of the Great Depression. The two men venture off to a new ranch because Lennie put himself in a situation where his only option was to run away from his last ranch back in Weed and George came with him knowing he cannot survive on his own. The two men always wanted to accomplish their American…show more content…
At first, Lennie was getting beat up by the boss's son, Curley. But Lennie came back and clenched on to Curley's hand. Curley shows the sign of defeat when Steinbeck said, “Curley was white and shrunken by now and his struggling had become weak. He stood crying his fist lost in Lennie's paw” (Steinbeck 63). Curley’s decision to beat up Lennie was most likely to prove how strong he is and it was not a good decision in the first place. But Lennie came back at Curley and broke his hand which shows he is not as much as the tough guy everyone makes him out to be. With Curley not wanting his reputation as the tough guy on the ranch to change, Carlson says to him, “I think you got your han’ caught in a machine” (Steinbeck 64). Curley knows that he has to listen to Carlson to insure no one else will find out about Lennie breaking his hand because the guys will not tell anyone about Lennie breaking Curleys hand if Curley does not get Lennie fired. Overall Curley being the boss's son does give him any more strength than Lennie and Carlson because both of them proved to have more power over

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