A novella about the alienated and
dispossessed, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men presents Curley as a foil
to other characters. For he is representative of the aggressiveness that arises from
weakness. Insecure about his height--he wears boots with heals--and insecure about his
masculinity--he searches always for his wife whereabouts, Curley seeks to assert his
manliness by fighting. However, his victims are always those who are more vulnerable in
some way than he, such as Lennie. As old Candy tells
George,
"...Curley's like a lot 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. You seen little guys like that, ain't you? Always
scrappy?"
This flat character
is in sharp contrast to Slim and George who yet retain fraternal feelings for other
men. Because they have a fellowship in the desperate times in which they live, they do
not feel the need to be aggressive out of any weakness. For, when Lennie dies, Slim
consoles George, telling him "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda," while Curley, on
the other hand, organizes the posse to find Lennie in the desire and hope of killing
him.
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