Curley And Molson In John Fitzgerald's Character: Of Mice And Men

Register to read the introduction… They "display the basest elements of nature... and lack all sensitivity, all compassion for those more helpless and weaker in mind and body than they are" (Johnson 16). Curley is extremely competitive, a trait that is evident in his desire to prove himself in a fight with Lennie and in his constantly asking where his wife is, as if he is competing with the other workers for her or demonstrating his "ownership" of her. Jealousy consumes him, and he lives as if he is subject to Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest." He is a stereotypical bully.

Carlson embodies similar traits and is totally void of any compassion or sympathy for his fellow man. He is the one who fiercely pushes Candy to let him shoot Candy's dog, even though the dog is obviously the only thing that means anything in his life. At the end, after George has shot Lennie and is walking away with Slim, it is Carlson who asks Curley what he thought was "eatin' them two guys?" (Steinbeck 107). These two are bestial in their inability to empathize with anyone else, striving for nothing more than self-gratification and motivated by a sort of meanness and