Ashlee+Connection+to+the+Novel

=Characters: = 

=
Steinbeck used particular characters to express the humanities of mankind. There is Lennie, who is retarded, George who is smart and looks after Lennie, Curly who is a small guy that likes to get into fights with bigger guys, Curly’s wife who is just a lonely gal always hanging out around the workers and Slim who is the team leader. ======

=
Through Lennie readers are able to see how a retarded man of such a large size handles different things in life. How his disadvantages affect what he can and cannot do. For example, since Lennie doesn’t understand very many things and gets frightened easily he is often misunderstood and because of this large size he hurts things that he doesn’t mean to harm. The story of Lennie’s life shows what it’s like to deal with a disability that can’t be controlled. ======

=
Then you have Curly who is the boss’s son and is very short. Curly constantly is trying to get into fights with men a lot larger then him. He does this to try and compensate for his small size, he doesn’t want to be looked down on or thought less of because he never grew taller. Steinbeck used Curly to show readers what it’s like to live with something you can’t change like your genetics. Many people try to compensate for features they do not like by being aggressive or an overachiever or even very quiet. It is just the way humans are, we do not like to be thought less of because of features we cannot control and Curly is a perfect example of how self-consciousness can make people act. ======

=Conflict: =



Life constantly has conflicts and almost all stories have conflicts as well. Conflict is how people learn and grow and move on with life. Steinbeck uses conflicts to tell the story of George and Lennie and the dream they have of owning a farm someday. He begins the story off with George and Lennie on their way to the ranch; they are sleeping by a creek off the side of the road which in the end turns out to be where Lennie is executed. If it hadn’t been for the conflict with the bus driver not wanting to drive them to the ranch they never would have known about that place and George may not have been the one to kill Lennie after he killed Curly’s wife. If it wasn’t for the conflict between Lennie and the girl in the red dress they never would have started working on the ranch either. Life is all about conflicts and where they lead you. Sometimes you can’t help the events in life that take place. For example George couldn’t help that Lennie accidently killed Curly’s wife and the puppy, but it happened and so he had to do something about it. He had to make the decision to give up on his dream and to out Lennie down.