Central Conflict
The central conflict in Of Mice And Men is character vs. society because Lennie is constantly conflicted by everyone he meets. I have many quotes that show this, so I will be proving it. Lennie is just a gentle giant and he doesn't want to hurt anybody. However it seems that it doesn't matter where he goes. First in weed they are constantly chased, and then at the farm.
My first quote that shows this conflict is from page 97, and it is between Curley and Carlson.
“You take it, Carlson. When you see 'um don't give 'im no chance. Shoot for his guts.That'll double 'im over.”
In this quote Curley is telling Carlson to shoot Lennie on first sight. This shows Curley's pure hatred for poor Lennie. The only reason he wants Lennie dead is because he is easy to pick on. I don't even think that Curley loved his wife. He just wanted an excuse to kill him. I can relate this to those recent suicides. It is sort of the same thing because people bully each other to the breaking point. Lennie's death was sort of a suicide because he kept telling George that he wanted to go to 'that place'. I think by that place he meant heaven, and so he got what he wanted. Another quotes involving Curlie talks about how bad he wants to kill him and how he is going to do it.
“I'm gonna shoot the guts outta that big bastard myself, even in I only got one hand. I'm gonna get 'im . Slim turned to Candy. You better stay with her than , Candy. The rest of us better get goin'.”
Curley is just a cold hearted bastard who is quick to snap on anybody. As you can see there is a very strong conflict between Lennie and Curley.
My second quote that proves my point is on page 106, said by the narrator.
“The hand shook violently, but his face set and his head steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and ran down again.”
This is the scene where George is saving Lennie from a world of hurt from Curley. George knew that if he hadn't killed Lennie then he would have had a painful death and would have be tortured. This is obviously another conflict for Lennie because George shoots him in the back of the head. The conflict would have been much greater if Curley had gotten to him first. So far this is two people who were in a conflict with Lennie.
My final quote is when Lennie and George are being chased by a whole town on page 11.
“She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin for us, and we gotta sneak out in the dark and get outta the country”
In this part of the story they had just escaped and gone to the new farm. This shows that so many people hated him just because he touched a girls dress. They all saw it as sexual harassment and took it the wrong way. What they didnt know was that he had a mental illness that made him kind of scared of most things. Why people don't take the time to look for this kind of thing I do not know, but I thought it would be pretty obvious.
When someone has a problem and they can't escape it they shouldn't be punished for it. As you can see the central conflict of the story is person vs. society. It seems like wherever he goes he just can't do anything Right. I think that in the end this was probably the best thing that could have happened. At least when he gets to heaven nobody will 'give him hell' and he will live in constant peace.
