Essay/Term paper: Of mice and men

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

Of Mice & Men compared to My Brother Jack:  In society, the
identity/personality of people often affects their relationships and the power
they have within those relationships. The issue of power varies considerably in
law and moral values, and the amount of power obtained varies in accordance to
the position of whom in the relationship it is held by.

Sow how the personalities of the principle characters have affected their
relationships and the power they have been able to exert in those relationships.

In society, the identity/personality of people often affects their
relationships and the power they have within those relationships. The issue of
power varies considerably in law and moral values, and the amount of power
obtained varies in accordance to the position of whom in the relationship it is
held by. It is then dependent on the personality of the person as whether the
power is exerted or not, and if so how it is done. Through the novels "Of Mice
and Men" and "My Brother Jack" parallels can be drawn between principle
characters in reference to their personalities and how this affects their
relationships and the power they have been able to exert in those relationships.
There are many similarities between the characters of both novels such as George
and Lennie with Jack and Davy, Curly and his wife with Jack Senior and Min, also
the relationship that Curly and Davy had with those in the workforce and the
power they exerted through that. From these examples you will discover the
affect of power one has through their personalities and the relationships they
have.

In "Of Mice and Men" the two main characters, George and Lennie, have a
very close relationship. George and Lennie were best friends and went everywhere
together, always looking after each other.

George was a character with leadership skills, he was the one who provided
for the two, and this was mainly due to the fact he was the brains out of the
pair. He was responsible, alert and very smart, and it was because of these
factors that made him a very cunning sort of person. In their friendship George
was the parental figure to Lennie as it is demonstrated in the following quote:

" George undid his bundle and bought out three cans of beans. He stood them

about the fire, close in against the blaze, but not quite touching the flame"

(Page 11)

Here George cooks tea for Lennie, just like a parental figure. Through the
portrayal of a parental figure, George had power over Lennie. Lennie looked up
to George and as a result he would do what George told him. George used his
power over Lennie to control him, controlling what he said and did. This control
was used to George"s advantage as it was through his power over Lennie that
George was able to find work, with only a main concern for himself. Despite all
that George was, Lennie also had power in their relationship. Lennie can be
described as being dumb, irresponsible, of child innocence, hopeful, dependent
on George and physically very strong. His power in the relationship,
surprisingly, did not lie in his physical strength, it lay in his ability to
manipulate George through his characteristic of a child like innocence. Lennie"s
power was emotional power, and he used it to manipulate George into having pity
for him by way of guilt.

"Cause I can jus" as well go away, George, an" live

in a cave" (page 17)

As Lennie was dumb, his physical power was not used properly to his best
advantage. Lennie only used his physical power to protect George and himself,
and it was even at these times that he used it on command from George.

The relationship George and Lennie had was very similar to that of Jack and
Davy. Though George and Lennie were not brothers like Jack and Davy, they had a
brotherly relationship between them. In " My Brother Jack" Jack and Davy
shared a brotherly relationship. It wasn"t one that was not overly close but
it was one where the younger brother looked up to the older one, when they were
young. Though as time went on and they grew into adults with their own families
the position each of them held swapped, having the older brother looking up to
the younger one as situations changed. Jack was a very loud person, who was very
confident in himself for the first half of the book. He was straight forward-
never beating around the bush, humorous, bold/brave, strong willed, very loyal
and open. From these traits Jack became a very popular boy in his childhood,
something Davy was not, making him want to be even more like his older brother.
This strong influence was very powerful in the relationship between the two
brothers, so powerful that Davy wanted to prove he could be just as good- if not
better than his big brother. Such a feeling, as this, led Davy to beat up a
"special" child.

" I hit him and hit him and hit him until his face was covered with blood…I
saw Jack approaching. I looked across for his approbation, but hi face was hard
set."

(page 45-46)

Davy, in comparison to Jack, was quite the opposite. Davy was quiet, was
devious, had selfish motives, lacked in loyalty, and was a follower with no real
goals or opinions- similar to Lennie only much smarter and alert. Davy was
easily manipulated, which is particularly demonstrated through his relationship
with Helen. Helen told Davy what to do, how to run his life etc, and Davy chose
not to do anything about it. Again in this relationship Davy is the follower,
but he remains powerless in this relationship throughout the novel where it is
not the case in the relationship between Jack and Davy.

When the two brothers became adults Davy became the more popular one out of
the two. It was through Davy"s work that he was able to achieve public
recognition and hence popularity, whereas Jack hadn"t become more than a
husband with a family to support. Jack now looked up to Davy and all his
success, which led him to later live his life through Davy.

"… he had invested all his brave pride and passion and purpose in me.

I had become his vicarious adventure" (Page 365)

Davy, and what he had become now had power over Jack"s life. Davy hadn"t
obtained this power over Jack"s life intentionally, it wasn"t until toward
the end that Davy realised the impact he had on his brother, and the same can
also be said for Jack when he and Davy were young.

The relationships above are ones of friendship and kinsman, both of which are
common in both novels. Another type of relationship commonly found in both
novels is the relationship between husband and wife. In " Of Mice and Men"
Curly and wife had a very unstable marriage. It lacked communication, love and
respect. Curly was manipulative, intimidating, ignorant and very insensitive.
All of these characteristics were taken into the marriage, and affected his wife
who was a very lonely young women with dreams and the need to be loved. She was
also very devious and was not the least bit stupid. It is obvious to say that
Curly had power over his wife in their marriage as she never once attempted to
leave Curly this could be due to the fact that she was married to a man with a
house, a great job and money. Possessions like this added to the power Curly had
over her. The only type of power Curly"s wife had, which is recognised through
the text, is power over Curly"s mind. Curly"s wife often would wander off
and flirt with the male workers on the ranch, and being the beautiful woman that
she was, men would take notice. The thought of this scared Curly and would often
stress him out, resulting in him constantly looking for her.

" "You seen a girl around here?" he demanded angrily." (Page 39)

In the novel "My Brother Jack" the marriage relationship between Jack
Senior and Min has similarities to that of Curly and his wife. These
similarities only cover the fact that the husband is the most dominant and
powerful in the relationships and that the personalities of them are also very
much the same. Jack Senior had the same characteristics as Curly, he was a
chauvinist, authoritative, self centered, insensitive, and insocialable. He had
physical power over his children also which is seen when he beat Jack and Davy.
A lot of Jack Senior"s traits are responsible for his power and the difficult
marriage. Min, his wife, was a very loving, family orientated, self-sacrificing
person- the complete opposite to her husband. She loved Jack Senior very much
and that is why she stayed with him, she probably couldn"t bare the thought of
leaving him to fend for himself. Min didn"t have much power, and the power
that she did possess was used not for her own benefit but for the benefit of
others. Min was a very reserved person. Overtime she had found a way to
neutralise herself from the power Jack senior had over her so that she felt safe
and protected.

"… Dad was powerless to hurt or intimidate or frighten her" (Page 216)

In both novels there was at least one character that through their
personalities, and relationships with those in the work force, they were able to
exert power.

The characters I am referring to are Curly, "Of Mice and Men", and Davy,
"My Brother Jack". Both these characters, through their personalities, in
some way abused or took advantage of the power they had in the relationships
with fellow workers. The workers did not respect Curly, having his personality
already been described above. He only had power over weak people that could not
stand up for themself. Using the tool of manipulation he would get his own way.
Curly loved to control people and it was these factors which were the main
reason why Curly"s relationship with the other workers was not well
established, he never allowed himself to be brought to their standard. Davy had
similar characteristics but wasn"t as controlling. Davy kept to himself and
done his job, though when he went over seas Davy used his friends. Again here it
was in his personality to be lazy and use others. A lot of what Davy wrote about
wasn"t written at first hand, he gathered information from those who had been
in the incident or at it when it occurred. He took the information, wrote it up
and put his name on it. It was very deceiving as it led people to believe that
he was there in the action, when he wasn"t. Davy obtains power through the
recognition of his pieces of work, and from the fame that came with it. This
fame was not gained fairly; the same too for the power Curly had because he
gained his through his father being the head boss of the ranch.

Clearly from the personalities of the principle characters from the novels
"Of Mice and Men" and " My Brother Jack" their relationships and the
power they exerted from those relationships were affected in one way or another.
Through the relationships of brothers to husband and wife to work colleges, the
personality of a person will determine the types of relationships they will have
and the power they will exert within them, whether it be for beneficiary reasons
or not. What type of relationships do you have, based on your personality?