Of Mice And Men- Curley Character Profile (GCSE)

Curley

Curley is described as being a ‘thin young man with a brown face, with brown eyes and a head of tightly curled hair.’ The fact that his hair is ‘tightly’ curled suggests that he is tightly wound, and will be easily irritated and angered by things. ‘Thin’ suggests that he has no real personality, as it gives the impression of a weedy man. ‘He wore a glove on his hand’ suggests that he keeps a lot to himself, and he hides his real personality behind a glove. This shows that he is not as strong as he makes out, but tries to make himself seem that way regardless. He is described as wearing ‘long, high-heeled boots,’ which show that he is a short man that tries to make up for it with heels. This also goes to show that he puts on a front of someone harder than he actually is. His personality is portrayed in the way that he is described. For example, all of the attributes added together create and image of a somewhat baby-faced man, short and with curly hair. This is reflected in the way that he is pathetic, and can start fights over the smallest things- he throws tantrums like those of a toddler. It is clear from the description of the way he stands that he is going to be trouble. For example, the passage says ‘his arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch.’ This shows that he is standoffish from the very beginning, and is always poised, ready for attack.

Curley’s relationships with the other characters stay pretty much the same. With George, he tries to stay out of his way because he knows that he is intelligent and will probably be able to fight back. George hates Curley, mainly because of the threat he sees he poses to himself and Lennie. Curley sees Lennie as an easy target, noticing straight away that he is slow and will be easy to hurt. He is more scared and wary of Lennie towards the end after Lennie crushes his fist. George told Lennie to stay out of Curley’s way after the first encounter, and so Lennie is always wary of Curley. The only time Lennie actually stands up for himself is when he crushes Curley’s fist. Curley stays out of Slim’s way because he sees the power and authority that he has over the other ranch workers. Slim is the only one that isn’t genuinely scared of Curley, as he knows that Curley can’t do anything to him because of the respects he has on the ranch. Curley’s wife and Curley are never in the same place at the same time. Curley tries to control his wife, by always asking where she is and stopping her from talking to anyone. Curley’s wife clearly despises Curley, and she doesn’t try to hide this in front of the other men towards the play. She knows that he wants to control her, but she won’t let him.

One of the main themes that is explored through Curley’s character is prejudice. Curley is one of the most prejudiced characters in the whole of OMAM, and he makes it his mission to discriminate against anyone where possible. For example, he tries to bully Lennie into speaking when they first meet by making out that he’s stupid. This shows that he tries to find anything to make people feels bad about as soon as he meets them. He also is constantly asking ‘where is my wife.’ This shows that he believes his wife to be his possession, and a man should always know where she is. This shows his discriminative views against women, which weren’t unheard of at the time when the novella is set.