A main feature in of Mice and Men is the words and phrases used to describe and create atmosphere in relation to the conflict scene between Curley and Lennie. This includes many references and comparisons between the two men and animals. It starts near the beginning of the conflict when Curley tries to intimidate Lennie by walking over and staring at Lennie. In The book Steinbeck describes it by writing,
"Curley stepped over to Lennie like a terrier." This is a good simile as it really does emphasise Curleys' small but snappy character. Then later on when Curley has started hitting Lennie Steinbeck describes Lennie as Bleating. Later on in the fight, however, when Lennie fights back and grabs Curley's hand, this action is described in the book as Curleys' fist being lost in Lennie's' paw. Also as a consequence of this action Curley ends up,
"Flopping like a fish!" This may not be intentional by Steinbeck but bears are a natural predator of fish, which would agree with the comparisons. Yet we already know that Curleys, natural targets have been bigger men, so it is a contrast of this when Curley himself becomes the prey.
In the conflict scene in this book there are a lot of verbs to suggest Curleys boxing career, for example on page 66 when Curley first starts to hit Lennie it says,
"Curley was balanced and poised. He slashed at Lennie with his left, and then smashed down his nose with a right!" All these words show that Curley really was just beating Lennie up at this point. Lennie was not retaliating at all; he was just taking the huge blows from Curley. Its seems as if he does not realise that he can fight back,
"Lennie gave a cry of terror. "George" He cried "Make him let me alone George" as he backed up against the wall" Lennie, even when in the most dangerous and threatening situations where you would have though natural instinct would set in, still calls for George's guidance or help. It is Lennie's lack of ability to do things for himself, which eventually leads to his downfall. The language also plays a big part in the story,
In Great Expectations the words and phrases also play a big part in displaying the action happening during the conflict although generally they are used to show the actions and feelings of the characters rather than the physical conflict because the conflict in this story is less dramatic. For example phrases such as,
"I pleaded in terror!" "I was dreadfully frightened." and "He muttered then considering." all show emotional or mental states which do help you imagine the situation however the actual physical action is not portrayed as if it was extremely violent which is because although it is a conflict, the two combatants are not really engaging in any kind of physical fight. The most dramatic thing that happens in this meeting is when Magwitch grabs Pip and shakes him upside down by his ankles, which probably hurt Pip somewhat. All that is said about this in the story however, is,
"He turned me upside down and emptied my pockets." this does not make it sound particularly dramatic. This is because it is not done as an intentionally hurtful thing to try and cause harm to Pip it is just Magwitch trying to get food from Pip. Even when Pip is defending himself, it is never physically. There are only two times when he really tries to stop Magwitch from hurting him and the first of these is at the top of page 2when he says,
"Don't cut my throat sir," and then on page 3 when he says,
"If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn't be sick, and perhaps I could attend more."
In both of these instances Pip regards his attacker with the utmost of respect and tries to reason with him despite the fact that this man he has never met has threatened to kill him. In this way the language shows the reader how Pip feels and how they are behaving, whereas in of Mice and Men we get mainly a physical side to the fight because that conflict is a lot more actual fighting than in the conflict between Pip and Magwitch.
In Great Expectations there are no other characters watching when the actual conflict occurs and so the meeting is a lot less about show than it is in of Mice and Men where Curley is really just trying to show the other men that he is still a good fighter and is in charge physically as well as being the bosses son. This fails though, when Lennie successfully retaliates. There are a lot more people who have a role in the conflict in of Mice and Men than there are in Great Expectations. In Great Expectations Pips has done nothing to provoke the attack and he does not have any real family who could have done so and Magwitch is a convict. The only person we could say, that had a role in this conflict would be the person who Magwitch escaped with because he was the one who helped him escaped and who Magwitch said the food was for. Although this escaped partner turns out to be the person who lets him down by giving him in to the police. In of Mice and Men George is another main character that plays a big role in this conflict. Because Lennie is so dependant on George, he has to stay around him all the time or he may do something which will end up with them leaving their jobs or having to leave town. He gives Lennie all the right advice about Curley, yet Curley still finds an excuse to hit him. So George is entirely just in telling Lennie to hit back in this situation. Even though he doesn't do it at first, in the end Lennie fights back and with incredible force. Seeing as Lennie takes every instruction from George, you could say it was George who was fighting back against Curley because if it weren't for him then Lennie would have just sat back and taken the beating until he was knocked out or until someone stepped in. Another character who had a role in this conflict was Curley's wife. Curley does not know how to control her flirting and so he just tries to make everyone to scared to even talk to his wife. This works with the workers and they won't go near her but this makes her try harder to get their attention. This is what puts Curley in a bad mood before the conflict because they all gang up on him about his wife. Ironically the only person who doesn't say anything is Lennie and he is the one who Curley picks to beat up.
This conflict in of Mice and Men makes us think that Curley has got his comeuppance and that Lennie is some kind of hero because we naturally feel sorry for the underdog who triumphs over a cocky adversary. We feel a justice has been done and this makes us want to know what Curley is going to do to get back at him. All through the story I think we know that Lennie is going to eventually kill someone so we are always looking for who we think it will be. This conflict makes us proud of Lennie for beating Curley although we still feel sorry for him despite the fact that he has just physically assaulted and seriously injured another human being. It is strange how Steinbeck gets us to feel this range of emotions through a relatively simple fight. We want to know what will happen next and it brings action to the book which makes us think that the end will be even more dramatic. In great expectations we are given an opening to the story. We know almost nothing about the plot yet we want to read on to find out what relevance this conflict has to the main story line, almost like the chase at the beginning of a James Bond movie. We are enjoying the action and we are introduced to the main character but we still want to find out what the main plot is going to be afterwards. This is not the main action in the story but it is still important. This is the same in of Mice and Men where we know this conflict between Curley and Lennie is not the main action but it is still important and makes us want to know what is going to happen to the characters at the end of the story.
The conflict in of Mice and Men is more about catharsis than resolution; Steinbeck is not trying to solve a problem by showing you this fight, which is a climax of the story so far. He is also not showing you a happy ending to the fight; he is posing a problem, which to some extent is never solved throughout the book. By showing the reader Lennie's' attempt at doing something bad we actually see what a good person he is by the way he reacts afterwards and even during the conflict. He cries and shouts; as if he has no control over what he is doing to Curley. This is the main theme of the book and once you can see this, you can start to empathise and eventually feel sorry for Lennie, which I think is Steinbecks overall aim in the story. By bringing out Lennie's' "bad" side, the author is showing a side of the character that happiness cannot. However when it comes to Lennie, this shows us that he does not have a really bad part to his personality. It is almost through being innocent, that Lennie appears not to be to blame, as he is not clever enough to have unjust just anger towards someone. Although at the same time it is because of his innocents and naivety that he doesn't realise all he has to do is let go, and the madness will stop. However no matter how you look at this Innocent/Harmful side of Lennie, it is still is what causes all the deaths in this book. Yet not one of these deaths or injuries is caused by Lennie intentionally trying to hurt another human being apart from when he hurts Curleys hand in this conflict. It is the only time we really see Lennie intentionally doing some harm, and this is only after being beaten up by an ex-professional boxer and then told to do it by George! So in this way the conflict is not really solving anything. This is exactly the same as in Great Expectations where we see Magwitch stealing food from Pip. Dickens is showing us the bad side of this character right from the start and at first glance we assume he is an evil criminal and a bad person. However if we look closer we see that the "bad" side of this person is actually not trying to be bad and scary, its just how it looks. For example the first thing Magwitch says is,
"Hold Your Noise!" Cried A Terrible Voice.
The word terrible makes us assume that this person is bad but really he is just trying to make Pip be quiet so he does not cause any attention to himself. He is only robbing Pip for food; he is stealing for survival. So he is not actually trying to do a bad thing. Like how Lennie never does bad things intentionally in of Mice and Men. The conflict scenes in both these books are not about intentional harm or causing pain to another person (with exception of what Curley is doing to Lennie); they are about people doing these things because they have to, not out of choice. The stories make you empathise with the main combatants despite the fact they are doing something wrong.
