Of Mice and Men- Themes (unfinished)

Nature-Natural. Lion-Predator. Human- has the natural predator instincts of a lion. Human-the most dangerous creature on Earth.

A theme of this book is that people have a nature that is predatory. Examples of human predators are Crooks treatment of Lennie, Curly’s treatment of everyone, and Curly’s wife’s treatment of Curly, Lennie, and George.

First, Crooks’ treatment Lennie is very sad. At first Lennie goes in and is nice to Crooks, but Crooks saw it as a way to pick on him. So, as a way to get back at the world for treating him badly for being black he starts to picking at Lennie’s insecurities, of George not coming back or something happening to George, so that he leaves Lennie.

Second, Curly’s treatment of everyone on the ranch and his wife is nothing but down right cruel. Curly is short and is ashamed of it so he goes around and picks fights with men who are bigger then him. So, when Lennie and George come to the ranch and Curly sees Lennie and how big his is, Curly sees this as a chance to so how much of a man he is. Also, Curly always suspects his wife of cheating, so every time he can’t find her he starts thinking she is with someone other then him. He is always sending her back to the house and yelling at her.