Of Mice and Men - Conflict Blog

In the book, Of Mice and Men, there are various conflicts that go on throughout the book. These conflicts deal with man vs man, man vs self, and man vs society. There has already been several conflicts that have affected the plot in various ways as a cause and effect of the situations. The conflict in this novella causes it to be more dramatic, which makes it more interesting and suspenseful as an effect. The conflict also causes us to meet various new characters. For example, Crooks, Candy, Slim, and etc. 

The First conflict is that Lennie and George have already been targeted in a way by Curley, who is the boss's son, due to Lennie being such a big guy compared to Curley, which Curley does not like. In the text, it informs us that Curley has gotten in many fights with various "big" guys due to jealously. It says, "He glanced coldly at George then at Lennie. His arms...bent at the elbows...hands closed into fists...," which is stated in page 25. This is a man vs man conflict because Curley immediately had a problem with George and Lennie even though that have both just meant. Later on in the novella, Curley does fight with Lennie. The text says on page 63, "Lennie took his hands away from his face...Curley slashed at his eye...Curley's fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it...his closed fist was lost in Lennie's big hand." The situation between Lennie and Curley has escalated to a bigger conflict, which now could have the possible effect as to getting Lennie and George fired if Curley were to tell on them. 

The second conflict that I have chosen to look more into as to find the cause and effect of it, is the conflict with Lennie. The type of conflict that this is, is man vs self. It is this type of conflict because Lennie is not very smart, so he tends to forget things a lot, so many people (mainly George) don't think that he is very bright. In the text, it says, "I forgot. I tried not to forget.  Honest to God I did, George." This is on page 4. This textual evidence shows that Lennie is a little forgetful about things. The text also states, "Made me seem God damn smart alongside him," which is said by George. This shows that George doesn't see Lennie as a smart person, but he does see Lennie as a hard worker. In the most recent chapter, Lennie was talking with Crooks and he was saying how George and all the guys went out, but George told Lennie to stay so that he doesn't get into trouble. Since, Lennie isn't so bright and has the mentality of a child, he gets into lots of trouble, so he is told not to talk sometimes or go places. This shows that Lennie is sort of having conflict with himself because he is not able to do things because of his mental illness.