Conflict OMAM Blog

One of the two conflicts I have chosen in the book is Curley vs. Lennie (Man vs. Man). Although Curley doesn’t hate Lennie directly, he hates big guys. This is because of his size, which is small. So in order to put himself on the same level as them, he fights them. He doesn’t like them because they make him look weak. On pg. 26 Candy says “‘Well . . . . tell you what. Curley’s like alot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at ‘em because he ain’t a big guy.’” So he hates big guys enough that he is willing to pick a fight with anyone that’s big, like Lennie. Even if there is no provocation, he will just take the slightest sign of disrespect to himself, even if it’s not, as a sign of hostility. But Lennie doesn’t hate Curley at all.

The second conflict I have chosen is Lennie vs. Lennie (Man vs. Self). Lennie has Conflict with himself because of his mental disability. He doesn’t know what to do, or he makes the wrong choice, even if the answer is really simple in a tough situation. George himself says that Lennie is really dumb, but if you give him orders he will do anything. An example of this conflict inside Lennie is when he grabs the lady’s dress because he wants to feel it. But when she gets upset and tells him to let go, all he can think of is to hold on. “So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do.” (41). And mental disability or no mental disability that is a really obvious indication hpthst you should let go, but that’s just my opinion. But a lot of what Lennie does, is out of his self interests. All he wants are those stupid rabbits. When he murders Curley’s Wife, he first holds on to her hair, then, out of his own selfishness, covers her mouth so George won’t get mad at him. “‘George gonna say I done a bad thing. He ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits.”... Then Lennie grew angry. ‘Now don’t,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to yell. You gonna get me in trouble jus’ like George says you will. Now don’t you do that.’” (91). All he cares about is first, tending his rabbits, and second, not disappointing George. Instantly Lennie realizes he did something terrible, but he feels no remorse. He treats it like he killed another animal. He’s gonna get in a lot more trouble, but he treats it like he killed an animal. Lennie made a stupid choice by holding on, I know he fully understood that she was in pain. But he just didn’t want to get in trouble so he could satisfy his desires.