The other people working in the ranch also have respect for him even including Curley. Before Slim even enters the story the boss and Candy both show their respect by talking about Slim and calling him a “jerkline skinner” which is a compliment. Slim seems to have an aura of power around him and is a mystery to the other ranch hands because Whit says, “Nobody knows what Slim can do” when everyone thinks that Curley is going to fight Slim. Even Lennie respects Slim because he listens to him and obeys him because he says “He tol’ me I better not pet that pup no more.” Even Crooks who is separated from all the other ranch hands because he is black is also respectful to Slim by saying “Slim’s a real skinner. He looks out for his team.” This shows that Slim is not racist and does not judge people by their colour like most other people in the ranch. Slim is also kind enough to visit Crooks because he realises that he must be lonely on his own and so this shows that he thinks about other people.
One unusual thing about Slim is the first thing he says straight after his long description by Steinbeck. His first line “It’s brighter’n a bitch outside,” rather contradicts the description of him in which he seems to be almost god like and above humans but when he speaks he seems normal and his colloquial language is no different to everyone else on the ranch.
We find that Slim is also generous in his gifts and praise because he freely gives Lennie a pup from his dog’s litter. He realises that Lennie loves to pet things and because he is such a nice guy he gives him a pup and not even asking to be paid for it.
The way he speaks also gets people to open up to him as George does when he tells Slim about what happened in Weed and his history with Lennie. He is a good listener and does not interrupt while George is speaking. It seems that Slim is acting like a priest and George is confessing his sins to him because of the phrase “George’s voice was taking on the tone of confession”. Steinbeck has done this to demonstrate Slim’s ability to communicate with other people and become respected for doing that. Slim also takes his time to make judgements of people, for example he takes his time to make the judgement about Lennie that “he’s a nice fella”, and that “he ain’t mean”. This shows Slim out to be a caring person who only looks at the best in a person. The benefit of having Slim as a confessor for the ranch hands is that they have a leader who they feel comfortable with and who can help them with any problems.
Most of the time during the novella Curley obeys Slim and even seems a little frightened of him when Curley thinks that Slim is with his wife in the barn. The only time in the novella when one of Slim’s ‘plans’ do not work is when Slim says “Curley – maybe you better stay with your wife” to him to try and persuade him to stay with his wife after she has just died.
At the end of the novella, after George has shot Lennie, Slim immediately realises the situation George was in and why he did what he did because he immediately knows it was George who shot the gun when he hears it, “George. Where you at, George?” He understands how much it must have hurt George to do that. This shows that he is sensitive to other people’s feelings and thinks about other people unlike other people on the ranch such as Carlson who does not understand why George is upset after shooting Lennie because he does not understand how two people can stick together like George and Lennie did.
You can see that Curley respects Slim and is even maybe a little scared of him when he suspects that Slim is with his wife. Slim seems to get quite angry with Curley when he says, “You lay offa me”. This leaves Curley humiliated so he picks on Lennie because he seems to be the weakest person there. When Curley’s wife has died then Curley does not seem to be scared by Slim and is not humiliated but this time he does not listen to him and is strong because he wants to kill Lennie.
Slim is seen as a leader in the bunkhouse almost like a dictator because his word is final. Slim has the last word in the situation of whether to shoot Candy’s dog. He acts like a judge in court where he listens to both sides of the story before making his judgement, which is of course final in the bunkhouse. This is probably the only way that they would be able to decide things in the bunkhouse because if they did it democratically with people voting it would not work because most of the time fights would break out because of the unstable nature of the ranch hands.
Another time in the book when we see Slim acting as the leader of the bunkhouse is after Lennie has crushed Curley’s hand. He is the first one to check if Curley is not hurt too much and he immediately takes command and shrewdly sorts out Curley with a doctor and also makes sure that Curley will not get Lennie canned by the boss by telling Curley that “I think you got your han’ caught in a machine. If you don’t tell nobody what happened, we ain’t going to.” This shows again that he thinks about other people even Curley who is the enemy in the bunk house.
Another role that Slim plays in the bunkhouse is the confessor role that he plays with George when he is confessing about the time in Weed. Slim is now acting like a father figure to George because he has never told anyone else about this before. Slim is an excellent listener and has this aura of power around him so George feels comfortable opening up to him.
As the story continues, Slim does not play a huge role, in the sense that there is not a specific accordance, which concerns him directly, but he is always involved in some way with what is going on to add his judgement on the matter as in Candy’s dog and arranges the situation with Curley’s hand. Slim seems to influence George’s decision a lot because at first George thought that the best thing would be if Lennie got locked up, but then Slim tells George “That ain’t no good, George” and influences him to go and kill Lennie himself before Curley shoots him in the stomach causing him to die very slowly.
Slim’s character is very unusual in this novel. He seems to be a bit too nice to be working on the ranch and it is unusual that he has kept his compassion and sensitivity, which makes him much better than the average ranch worker personified in this novella by Carlson. In all Slim would be a believable character because in the world there are genuinely nice people but the one thing that does make him slightly unbelievable is the initial description of him by Steinbeck. In this introduction of him it is said that “his ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought but of understanding beyond thought.” This seems impossible to us that anyone can do this so seems unbelievable that if it is true he would be working in a ranch in California along with people like Candy, Carlson and Whit.
In the Gary Sinise production of the film of “Of Mice and Men” Slim seems more believable because the advantage of the film version is that it does not need to stop the film and give the description and so it is easier to show his personality through the things that he does and says. This makes the character Slim more realistic and believable.
The point of Slim in this novella is probably to show that there are still some dignified people who are out working on the ranches as itinerant workers and they have not turned to be people who only care about themselves and like the people who George tells Lennie that they are not i.e. the people who work for a month and then blow all their money at the end of the month in a cat house. Of Mice and Men would be a very bleak story without the presence of the humanitarian, Slim.
