Steinbeck also uses foreshadowing devices to emphasise Lennie’s weakness. The death of Candy’s dog and his inability to stop it foreshadows Lennie’s downfall. Moreover, the structure of the novella and the events allow for Steinbeck to add a dreadful progression in Lennie’s victims from the dead mouse to the “dead girl” which foreshadow his death and emphasise his weakness through his inability to control his actions. Adding on, Steinbeck uses the theme of death to emphasise Lennie’s fate since as soon as we arrive on the ranch there is an undercurrent of death, misery and violence.
Another way that Lennie is given a weakness is through his dream. He is obsessed with “living of the fatta the lan’” which is the only thing that seems to go through his mind; alongside the “rabbits” of course. Other Characters that are weakened through having a dream are George, Crooks whose dream caused him to become cynical and Curely’s wife whose shattered dream caused her to marry Curely but on the other hand there is Slim who seems to have “understanding beyond thought “and wisdom which causes him to conclude that he should not chase a dream that he is not going to obtain and cause himself disappointment in the process. This moves me on to the next character Curely’s wife which opens up more ways of presenting power and weaknesses.
Curely’s wife is a rather complex character allowing Steinbeck to present the issues of power and weakness effectively through her. Curely’s wife is similar to Lennie as she has many weaknesses and flaws and almost no power!
First of all, as soon as we hear of her she is simply not given a name and she is called “Curely’s wife”. Her name is almost a weakness in itself as the apostrophe signifies how she is his possession which is signified further as when she dies he spends no time mourning he acts as if an inanimate object he owns was taken away she has no emotional value for him, He reacts violently and simply retaliates. Her relation to Curely itself is caused through a weakness: Her dream to be in the “pitchers” was shattered which caused her to desperately marry Curely who shows her no respect. However despite all these weaknesses she did, for a brief moment, have power over one of the “weak ones”: and that is Crooks. After all the faces were “closed” against her and Crooks attempts to get her to go out of his “room” she “whips” at him with a barrage of racist insults and threats. Her saying that she could “String him up a tree” causes Crooks to “grow smaller”. This oxymoron emphasises how he is crushed by her comments and dramatically he loses all his “ego” and “personality”: It is almost like Lennie who switches from a “delighted smile” to looking at the ground in “despair” except that Crooks can control himself and moreover in a way he is forced to lose all his “ego” to avoid giving her a chance to “whip” at him which in my opinion is a reference to the how slaves were treated and whipped.
Another ironic bit of power she gains is through her death! I believe it can be argued that the “pigeon” that “flew out” of the barn symbolises her freedom which ironically came only at her death! Another piece of evidence to back this argument would be how she is referred to as a “dead girl” instead of Curely’s wife: She seems to have broken free of his possessive influence which weakened her there is no apostrophe no more which was the main signifier of her being a possession. Moreover, she was given a “moment” of silence where “sound and movement stopped” : the sentence structure being complex and long reflects on the amount of silence she received in respect to her ; she received respect and power which she never gained during her life. Her death contrasts that of Lennie’s greatly and it makes him look inferior to her: Lennie dies and there is no suggestion that he is buried as slim takes George away for a “drink” and they just leave Lennie and more importantly no moment of silence is given to him as even when George is done with the deed there is never a moment of complete silence as the shot “rolls” over the hills and you can hear “voices” that “came close”. Lennie is truly one of the “weak ones” here as unlike Curely’s wife he is killed on purpose and he is not given any moments of mourning.
However nature is used to give her weaknesses as when she is first introduced she immediately cut off the “rectangle of sunshine” which is a massive foreshadowing device. It can be argued that the fact that it is a rectangle and so only a small amount of sunlight symbolises that whatever chances of the “dream” coming true has now been wrecked with her arrival; some will see this as her power to intervene with plans and destroy them but I see it as a weakness as her dangerous volatile nature is what causes the men to stay away from her and thus she becomes lonely and weak. Moreover, the fact that she cuts out sunlight, part of nature, makes her almost seem like a defiler to nature and the fact that she is the only one in the whole novella that cuts out the “beautiful sunshine” singles her out and isolates her from the rest as, almost, an unnatural being. She symbolises the average woman in American in the 1930s and thus she will naturally be weak as at the time women were oppressed.
Another point I would like to make about her death is through comparing it with candy’s dog: this is relevant as we are made by Steinbeck to use the dog as a reflection of candy and almost how much power he has. When the dog is killed a silence “invaded” the room and it caused an uncomfortable atmosphere when you would expect the others to be consoling Candy but no one does arguably due to his low status on the ranch. However when Curely’s wife died there was silence and the “cry of men” and the noise was not allowed invading the room. So , in both scenarios silence fell upon the room but it was different in each one in the “barn” it was a needed silence a wanted one in respect for Curely’s wife but in Candy’s case the silence was awkward as shown when a “gnawing sound” came and the men looked “gratefully” toward it.
Moving on, I will look at Crooks and whatever power and weakness he has. First of all, Crooks is mainly a character littered with weakness which is what I will explore first. First of all the obvious: He is massively weakened by the fact that he is crippled and that he is black. In the 1930s racism was acceptable and thus he is the one who is bullied on the ranch as the “boss” takes out his anger on him and even when he is invited to the barn during “Christmas” he is harassed and bullied. However, despite being isolated due to his skin colour this allows him to accumulate all his possessions in one area as he gets a room on his own. However, he is rather lonely and he mentions how he goes “nuts” if he has got “nobody” and he even associates it with physical illness such as being “sick”
However despite these weaknesses he does have some subtle moments of power in the novel. First of all, he is dedicated a whole chapter, chapter 4, just to introduce him and inform us about him: so despite being the last to be introduced he gets the lengthiest introduction that even slim who is “godlike” doesn’t get. The complex long sentence structure emphasises how there is a lot more to Crooks than what we are shown as they mirror the depth of his character. Steinbeck also seems to compromise his usual structure to make a subtle note about Crooks: He doesn’t start with the usual background description of nature; as in this novel nature is seen to be pure and calm I believe it can be argued that he is almost implying that Crooks is part of nature. Now this can be seen positively or negatively: Some will argue that is simply Steinbeck associating him to nature to make him seem animalistic and sub-human which is how black people were seen as in the 1930s; on the other hand I believe he is not giving him this introduction with nature as to portray him as part of nature and by associating him to nature he is showing him as a good person who is “beaten down” by others.
Moving on from the weak character I will look at perhaps the most unrealistic character and the power and weakness associated to him. Slim: He is described as the “prince of the ranch” who has “understanding beyond though”. This immediately shows him as the most powerful on the ranch but another look can reveal more subtle points: for example he is described as a “prince” when he could have used the word King; A prince is lower in power than the King which may imply that Steinbeck is hinting that there is a more powerful character in the novel. Slims power comes mainly from influencing others : He decides that candy’s dog should be killed, convinces Curely to say that his hand got “caught in a machine” and tells George that Lennie’s death is not inevitable. When he talks to George the adverbs, verbs and word choice in general convey a lot about him. He “invites” confidence and doesn’t “demand” it unlike Curely who always seems to demand everything. Moreover, when he talks to George he causes him to take on a “tone of confession” which juxtaposed with his “godlike” description makes George’s experience with Slim seems a Cathartic one and thus highlighting Slim’s influence upon others. His ability to draw information out of George is another way he influences others as we can see that George is generally aggressive towards others who get involved in his “business”
The verb and adverb choice used with Slim is also another way power is given to him. Slim at one point looks at George “approvingly” for complementing Lennie: Now, the obvious explanation is that he values positivity but there is more to it than that; As he looks “approvingly” it shows that Slim knows that he is in a position where others will seek his approval and he know he is in a position of power however he does not abuse his power or “demand” anything unlike Curely who does. The adverb choices highlight how he is kind to everyone as he speaks “gently” and “kindly” which gives him power through making others like him and thus he does not suffer from loneliness which drives men “nuts” and makes them “sick”. As you can see he has no flaws or weaknesses which is why he is such an unrealistic character which contrast with Curely who has no virtues and virtually no power as no one respects him.
In conclusion the are several issues involved with power and weakness here. The dynamics of power and weakness associated to the characters help drive the novel and then events onwards. They help arouse tension and suspense and engage the reader through arousing their feelings towards the characters: this is at times like when Curely is beating Lennie and the reader is involved emotionally as they feel sorry for Lennie and when Candy is powerless to stop his dog getting shot. The theme of power and weakness is conveyed by Steinbeck in a rather elaborate manner with many subtleties and is weaved skilfully into the novella.
