Steinbeck's Novel, Of Mice and Men: Encouragement of Violence
In what ways is the subject of violence explored in ‘Of Mice and Men’?
Steinbeck explores the subject of violence through intentional and unintentional violence and the encouragement of it in each of the different characters.
Lennie commits the most acts of violence out of all the characters but they are all unintentional. The first violent thing that we discover about Lennie is that he often unintentionally kills mice as he likes petting them ‘and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead’. Most of Lennie’s actions of violence are committed because he does not know his own strength. Later on he accidentally crushes Curley’s hand because of his unknown strength, when Curley is picking on him. However he does not do this until George tells him to. In Chapter five Lennie kills the puppy when he is petting it just like he kills the mice. Curley’s wife then comes in and he also accidentally kills her, by breaking her neck, as he does not realise his strength.
George only commits one serious act of violence, when he shoots Lennie. His shooting of Lennie is an intentional act of violence but as it is the lesser of two evils it could be argued that it is an unintentional act. George is the one that tells Lennie to ‘get’ Curley and as Lennie does whatever he tells him to; George is the one who is responsible. This is an example of the encouragement of violence. George frequently gets annoyed by Lennie and shouts at him but he always apologises after.
Slim is a deceptive character as he is popular with the other ranch hands but he does commit four acts of violence. Firstly he drowns some of the puppies ‘right off’. He is a responsible character so many of the ranch hands look to him for advice but when Candy does about the shooting of his dog Slim says that the dog should be shot, encouraging violence. Later in the novel Slim threatens Curley and although it is to prevent Lennie from getting in trouble he is still committing
Steinbeck explores the subject of violence through intentional and unintentional violence and the encouragement of it in each of the different characters.
Lennie commits the most acts of violence out of all the characters but they are all unintentional. The first violent thing that we discover about Lennie is that he often unintentionally kills mice as he likes petting them ‘and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead’. Most of Lennie’s actions of violence are committed because he does not know his own strength. Later on he accidentally crushes Curley’s hand because of his unknown strength, when Curley is picking on him. However he does not do this until George tells him to. In Chapter five Lennie kills the puppy when he is petting it just like he kills the mice. Curley’s wife then comes in and he also accidentally kills her, by breaking her neck, as he does not realise his strength.
George only commits one serious act of violence, when he shoots Lennie. His shooting of Lennie is an intentional act of violence but as it is the lesser of two evils it could be argued that it is an unintentional act. George is the one that tells Lennie to ‘get’ Curley and as Lennie does whatever he tells him to; George is the one who is responsible. This is an example of the encouragement of violence. George frequently gets annoyed by Lennie and shouts at him but he always apologises after.
Slim is a deceptive character as he is popular with the other ranch hands but he does commit four acts of violence. Firstly he drowns some of the puppies ‘right off’. He is a responsible character so many of the ranch hands look to him for advice but when Candy does about the shooting of his dog Slim says that the dog should be shot, encouraging violence. Later in the novel Slim threatens Curley and although it is to prevent Lennie from getting in trouble he is still committing