The Conflicts

There are many conflicts within this book. Every character seems to have their own conflict to fight, if not with others, with themselves, which reflects back on real life. Every person has some kind of battle to fight.

The first conflict that reveals itself is that within George, whether he should stay with Lennie or leave him behind, walking along the roads alone.“”God, you’re a lot of trouble,” said George. “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail””(Of Mice and Men, 1937, Steinbeck, John, p.7)   

Yet George knows that it would be morally wrong to leave Lennie behind. He probably has all the right in the world to do so him, but he knows he would feel bad, since Lennie would most likely go get himself killed if he left him.    

George said, “I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your Aunt Clara wouldn’t like you running off by yourself, even if she is dead.”(Steinbeck, John, p. 12)

The biggest conflict in the book is still between Lennie and the ranch boss son, Curley, even though Lennie doesn’t appear to be fully aware of this conflict. Curley is quite a troublemaker, it seems. He has something against everyone on the ranch, and everyone has something against him, even his wife. She is always running around with the other guys, looking for a chance to run away from Curley and the stinking ranch. He keeps picking on Lennie, because he knows that if Lennie hits him, both George and Lennie would be caned in a blink of an eye, since Curley is the boss son, after all.

But one day Curley snapped on Lennie after Lennie laughed at a joke thrown at Curley.

Lennie looked helplessly at George, and then he got up and tried to retreat. (…)He slashed at Lennie with his left, and then smashed down his nose with a right. Lennie gave a cry of terror. Blood welled from his nose. (…) Then Curley attacked his stomach and cut off his wind. Slim jumped up. “The dirty little rat,” he cried, “I’ll get ‘um myself.” George put out his hand and grabbed Slim. “Wait a minute,” he shouted.(…) “Get ‘im, Lennie!” (…)Lennie took his hands away from his face and looked about for George, and Curley slashed at his eyes. The big face was covered with blood. George yelled again, “I said get him.” 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. George ran down the room. “Leggo of him, Lennie. Let go.” But Lennie watched in terror the flopping little man whom he held. Blood ran down Lennie’s face, one of his eyes was cut and closed. (Steinbeck, John, p. 51-52)

It turned out that Lennie actually broke pretty much every bone in Curley´s hand. If it hadn’t been for Slim and the other guys on the ranch, George and Lennie would certainly have lost their job. But Slim and the others managed to make sure that Curley kept his mouth shut.

This tells that whenever you get in to a conflict it’s good to always have friends with you.