Of Mice and Men-power

Power: the ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something. Everyone has power. This power however, comes in many different forms and appears under many varieties of conditions. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, all of the characters have entirely different powers. From Curley to his wife, Lennie to George, and even Crooks to Candy, all of them have their own special power, or lack thereof. Their power shapes who they are and their outlooks on life. Some characters power helps them, while others power hurts them. It all comes down to who uses their power correctly and who abuses it. “He's the boss's son” (Steinbeck 14) Curley is one of the worst offenders in someone who abuses the power he has. Because he is the boss’s son, he can pretty much get away with whatever he wants to. “Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys.” (Steinbeck 13) This hatred puts Curley into some tricky situations. Curley likes to pick fights, and is pretty handy. When he decides to pick a fight with Lennie, his power ends up hurting him. Lennie crushes Curley’s hand with just his fist, and Slim forces him to lie about how it got broken. ““I think you got your han' caught in a machine. If you don't tell nobody what happened, we ain't going to. But you jus' tell an' try to get this guy canned and we'll tell ever'body, an' then will you get the laugh.”” (Steinbeck 31) If Curley hadn’t been so hard-headed, and hadn’t abused his power over everyone so much, he wouldn’t have ended up so hurt by it. Along with Curley, his wife also misused her power. Curley’s wife’s power was quite a bit different than Curley’s power. Her power was in more of the seducing variety. She was always one to try and flirt with all the stable buck. This type of consistent behavior earned her names like “tart” with the men. They all ignored her because of her husband’s power and they all believed she was trouble as it was. ““Why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to