Conflict Blog

In every story there has to be some kind of conflict, in Mice and Men the conflicts all vary in degrees. One example of conflict in the story is the fights between Curley and himself. This type of conflict is man vs self. Curley keeps starting trouble for himself due to his temper. He thinks that everyone is sleeping with his wife and that big guys automatically are his enemies. In the book it says, "He hates big guys...Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy." Page 26. Later on in the book he confronts Slim about his thoughts that his wife is cheating with him. He started the fight for no reason and then continued it even when Lennie was saying, "Make 'um leave me alone, George." Page 63. He caused the fight and broke his hands for no reason. His boxing is now in jeopardy.

Another man vs self conflict is Lennie having problems controlling himself due to his mental problems. In the beginning we can see how he harms himself by not having the restraints of common sense. The book says, "he wants to touch ever'thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress..." it also says, "... that girl rabbits in an' tells the law she been raped." This shows that he has a problem controlling himself. Another problem is how he is forgetful. In Of Mice and Men George says, "Don't tell nobody about it. Jus' us three an' nobody else." However Lennie forgets and tells Crooks all about it. He says, "Gonna get a little place an' live on the fatta the lan'." and he even goes as far to say, "an' you can ast George." He might ruin things for them if Crooks tells anyone. He trusts everything and everyone, which might turn out to be a problem in their situation.

In the beginning these conflicts were different. Curley used to be nicer or less of a brute before he started to, "impress his wife". He started conflicts before however they weren't as big and didn't lead to so many injuries. In Lennie's case his disabilities were not as big as a problem when his body was actually of a child. To add to this he was also being taken care of by his aunt. Once he got older and his aunt died he gained responsibilities which he couldn't deal with and started getting in trouble. These problems changed over time in this way.