Tension in Of Mice and Men

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view all our essays on John Steinbeck that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

Tension in Of Mice and Men

The episode I am going to use to show how tension is created in "OF Mice and Men" is when Curley has a fight with Lennie. This section starts near the end of chapter three.

It is obvious that somewhere within "Of Mice and Men" Lennie is going to have a confrontation with Curley because of the clues earlier in the book. For example when Lennie and George first meet Curley he is some what unwelcoming and confrontational, "He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists." This seems like Curley is preparing himself for a fight and certainly isn´t the way I would act when I first met someone unless I was highly intimidated by the person, which I think Curley is. After this we find out, from Candy, that Curley does not like big men, "Curley´s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys." Candy later says this is probably because he isn´t a "big guy" himself. He also says that Curley spends most of his time picking scraps with big guys.

Yet again