Of Mice and Men Comparison Between Slim and Curley

There are two kinds of men in this world. In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men he gives examples for what he thinks is the best and worst kind of man. John Steinbeck’ example for the best kind of man is Slim, the jerkline skinner and for the worst kind of man is Curley, the boss’s son. These two characters are what represent the ’good guy’ and ’bad guy’ in the story.

Slim, the jerkline skinner, is John Steinbeck’s example of what he thinks is the best kind of man or the ‘good guy’. Slim can make any bad situation a win-win situation for both persons. For example, when Curley starts a fight with Lennie and gets his hand busted, George thought that they would get put into Jail but Slim became involved and helped Lennie. He said to Curley, “I think your han’ got 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” (64). Scenes like this show that Slim is a good man who knows how to turn the tables in a bad situation. Slim is a smart man who knows how to use his head to get out of any bad situation. Slim is a smart man who tries to help everyone when the going gets rough. When the ranchers were going to go off and catch Lennie because he killed Curley‘s wife, Slim tried to make Curley stay in the ranch because Slim knew that if Curley goes with them, he was going to shoot Lennie. Slim tries to help Lennie by trying to make sure Curley doesn’t go with

Lujano 2

them because he knows that Curley would want to shoot him. Slim tries to at least tries to help Lennie live. Slim tries to make something good happen for Lennie in a bad situation but in this occasion Slim did all he could for poor Lennie. Slim is one of the best kind of man but unfortunately there are also men the complete opposite of Slim.

Curley, the boss’s son, is John Steinbeck’s example of what he thinks is