Archetypes are a manifestation of how our minds envision the roles of characters, these characters come in the form of the hero, villain, temptress, damsel, monster, and mentor. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, we follow the story of two men who struggle to pull through to survive horrible times, on their journey they come across other characters that fulfill the roles of the archetypes. The archetype in discussion is the villain archetype which is the evildoer of a story usually a person who commits a crime against society or against a couple of people. One character in particular that fills the archetype of the villain is Curley, he has an aura of evil that resonates from his attitude and his actions, which triggers people …show more content…
After meeting Curley for the first time George has a horrible feeling about him and goes on to tell Lennie: “‘If he tangle with you, Lennie, we’re gonna get the can. Don’t make no mistake about that. He’s the boss’s son. Look Lennie. You try to keep away from him, will you?’” (Steinbeck 29). In case Lennie is in trouble with Curley, George is telling Lennie what to do in case he decides to do something evil, showing how people become protective when around Curley. Another instance when self protection is most prevalent is after Curley struck Lennie, George told Lennie to protect himself and Lennie did just that: “Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie’s big hand” (Steinbeck 63). Due to Curley’s spontaneous evil, Lennie was forced to defend himself, and in the end Curley walked away with the most injuries. In order for people to protect themselves from the villains and evildoers, they mostly take a stance to protect themselves for self-preservation. Curley’s attitude and actions towards other people force people to become protective when near
I didn’t think he’d do something like this.” George still stared at Curley’s Wife. “Lennie never done it in meanness,” he said. “All the time he done bad things, but he never done one of ‘em mean”. George always knew inside that Curley’s Wife was always no good.
“But Curley’s gonna want to shoot ‘im” (Steinbeck 97), said George to Candy. That there? Just an argument between Curley shooting Lennie. Ill explain later, but this is where George is thinking about what he's going to have to do to Lennie, you see Curley is going to want to slowly kill Lennie for killing his wife. But George kills Lennie quick and easy.
Archetypes, which are characters symbolic of universal ideas, are things that John Steinbeck make present in the novella Of Mice and Men. Each character provides symbolism to the story but the one that sticks out is Lennie Small. What is his archetype? Well, Lennie is symbolic of innocence and immaturity and serves as the scapegoat of the story. He is not a bad character, just misunderstood.
The humanity of the world has a wide variety of lessons and morals. The Book by John Steinbeck Of Mice And Men applies this with two characters Curly and George both demonstrating two very different things about society and humanity through George’s caregiver archetype and Curly’s archetype of the bully. Throughout the story, George the main protagonist cares for Lennie after he promised to look out and care for him through their uncertain adventure they end up at a ranch, and at the ranch, they meet Curly, a steel-headed individual who advocates rude and cruel behavior through yelling, stomping around, and fighting the characters of the book even if Curley is small and lacking compared to the others. In the book Of Mice and Men Steinbeck presents
Lennie is even warned to avoid Curley because of the amount of trouble that will cause; Lennie doesn’t “want no trouble… [and has] never done nothing to him.” (Steinbeck 60) he is scared without ever having met
The definition of a sympathetic character is one whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, though not necessarily admire. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife, a main character in the book is blatantly portrayed as an unsympathetic character. This is because they only see her through the men's eyes, who only see her as a tiresome object, owned by her husband. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair and misogynistic because he only displays her as unintelligent and promiscuous, never has a character have a turning point where they realize she’s more than an object, and he never reveals her true name. The first reason that Steinbeck's portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair is that he never gives Curley any redeeming personality traits, he only depicts her as unintelligent and promiscuous.
Antagonists in a story oppose and cause problems for the protagonists and other characters. One way an antagonist causes problems is based on their characterization. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck starts the story with Lennie and George who takes a job at a ranch in order to achieve their American dream. There, they meet Curley’s wife who they see as having a capacity for trouble. In the end, Curley’s wife tries to talk with Lennie, resulting in her accidental death.
I swear I will”, George said in sob mixed with anger as he covered the ground between himself and Curley until the gun was touching his face. “Ok Ok we can talk bout this”, Curley said realising George was serious “We have talked. And this, this is for Lennie”.
He did not mean to kill her and knew he did a horrible thing that would make George mad at him. George had to think about Lennie’s consequences of this, Curley wanted to lynch Lennie but George did not
George tries to defend Lennie after the rest of the ranch workers find out what he has done to Curley’s wife. He explains that Lennie cannot help getting himself into dreadful situations, but he has never done them on purpose. This quote ultimately proves that
Steinbeck uses Archetypes to represent various larger groups of people at that time in order to show how each group was discriminated. Lennie is symbolic of the “wise fool” archetype, being mentally inferior but being able to reveal the best and worst of others. Like when he was talking with crooks. Crooks scowled, but Lennie's disarming smile defeated
Curley used this as an excuse to kill Lennie. He really wanted to kill Lennie because he destroyed his hand though. Curley said he was going to blow Lennie's guts out and make him suffer and be in pain. George prevented this by shooting Lennie in the back of the head and ending him quickly. George killed lennie because if he didn’t, Curley would have made him suffer.
Character Analysis Of Mice and Men In the short story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the characters Slim, the wise skinner and the boss’ son Curley have different traits about them but one could be envious of the other despite the class’ they’re in. Slim is a has a genuine soul and is a natural leader who’s opinion is taken wholeheartedly, he is very confident with himself and doesn’t have to prove to other people who he is. Curley is a smaller man who is self conscious and picks fights with anyone, he has a specific problem with bigger people because he wants to be a bigger someone. Curley has a need to show his power over other people whether it’s by threatening them or beating them up.
(pg. 22). Since Lennie is mentally challenged and can’t think fast enough, he relies on George to tell him what to do. Curley had turned on Lennie by punching him; and protect himself, Lennie had grabbed Curley’s hand and crushed with his own hand. Lennie felt bad for what he did so George
Many books possess an evil character, a villain, however the villain normally helps to improve the story and create a depth to the plot. In the work Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck uses the character Curley to show that violence is never the answer. When introduced to anyone new, Curley has to threaten them, because he needs to showcase his role of leadership in the group. However if he showed them kindness instead, people wouldn’t see him as an angry person. For example, Candy warns George to distance himself from Curley, because he has a nasty temper and loves beating up big guys because he is not big.