of mice and men

Of Mice and Men Conflict essay

John Steinbeck’s 1937 realistic fiction novella, Of Mice and Men tells the story of two men, George and Lennie struggling to find work during  the great depression. These two men struggle to hold a job because of Lennie’s simplistic personality. Lennie is mentally challenged so he cannot tell right from wrong in many situations. When they get a job, George and Lennie are thrust into many conflicts. There are two major layers of conflict that each relate to the characters. It has one major conflict and one sub conflict.The main type of conflict is character vs self because Lennie and George have to deal with their own problems many times throughout the story. Lennie has to deal with not being able to react correctly in awkward situations. George also has to deal with his own feelings and his stress with Lennie. The sub-conflict in this story is character vs. society because Lennie has to deal with society’s discrimination.

George begins to confide in his overseer, Slim, and says that Lennie does anything he tells him to do. For Lennie, this can be dangerous because he does not know how to react the way a non mentally challenged person would.

“I turns to Lennie, and says jump in, and he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could go in and get him. An’ he was so damn nice for pulling him out. Clean forgot I told him to jump in." (40)

This is character vs. self for Lennie because he has a hard time controlling what he does and if it should be done. Also, he has a hard time doing what is correct. Lennie deals with internal problems like this all throughout the story. This quote is trying to emphasize Lennie’s innocence. He does not know what to do in some situations such as the incident in Weed when he pulled the woman’s dress. Or when he killed Curley’s wife in the same situation. The quote shows that Lennie does not mean what he does and he has some issues that are hard to control.

Early in the story, George is discussing the future with Lennie, as he has many times before.

Geogre went on, “They ain’t got nothing to look forward to.” “With us it ain’t like that, we got a future. Were gonna have a little house and a couple acres and  cow and some pigs. An’ live off the fatta the land!”, Lennie shouted. (14)

This quote shows character vs. society because George is saying they have a future. They have to work very hard and they are very poor so it will probably not happen. They basically have to fight against society to make this dream come true. Also, they have to face society’s discrimination against Lennie while trying to make money in the great depression.

Also, many people aren’t aware of the mental diseases people are born with. Lennie is born with one of these and society does not accept him for it. Society is not very accepting in this time period to many people including disabled and people of color such as minorities. The boss pointed a playful finger at Lennie. “He ain’t much of a talker is he?” (20)

In this quote, George and Lennie are meeting the boss. The boss keeps asking Lennie to talk. George knows that Lennie has mental problems but even though the signs are obvious, society is ignorant.

While George takes a break to go into town, Lennie is talking to Crooks. For them, they both go through character vs. self conflicts. Crooks is African American  and already goes through discrimination. He is just putting himself down and he keeps telling himself he is not as good as everybody else.

“The white kids come to play at our place. Sometimes I went to play with them. My ol’ man didn’t like that. I know now why he didn’t like that.” (71)

In this quote, he is putting himself down. He is saying that just because he is black, he cannot succeed in life. This is important because he is going through character vs. self. He does not think he can go places and he is letting himself bring himself down.

In this novella, the main conflict of character vs. self is widely displayed throughout the story. They show that Lennie has many problems in his mind and throughout himself. He mostly has to deal with internal conflicts. Also, George has to deal with conflicts with himself, such as his dream to move to a house and own rabbits and other animals. It is also character vs. society because Lennie is discriminated against in the unnaccepting society of the 1930’s.