Power

Question 1

Slim

Answer 1

‘The prince of the ranch’ ‘majesty’ ‘royalty’ ‘master’ ‘god-like eyes’ refer to him using royal and god like language to show his authority

‘Slim’s opinions were law’

Slim refers to curleys wife as ‘good-lookin’ because unlike the other men, he is not scared or threatened by her/ Curley because he has so much authority and power over the other men

Question 2

Curley

Answer 2

He’s the boss’ son so everyone has to obey his command

He is also extremely pugnacious and violent which means people feel threatened by him ‘he’s alla time picking scraps with big guys’

‘He ain’t a nice fella’ people are scared of him

Also has power over his wife

Question 3

Crooks

Answer 3

Lacks power

• ‘nigger’ offensive derogatory term that was totallt acceptable back then shows the prejudice against him.

He is isolated from the others and forced to live with the horses because of his colour- this shows that he is dehumanised and discriminated against. Refer to the fact that this reflects the racial hatred in the 1930s

Not allowed to work or room with the men

• ‘I can’t play because I’m black’ discrimination

Is weaker than everyone just because of his colour, when curleys wife threatens him it becomes clear how fragile his confidence is as he tries to make himself invisible ‘he reduced himself to nothing’

Question 4

Curleys wife

Answer 4

• married to Curley, only woman on ranch
  ‘I can’ talk to nobody except Curley or else he gets mad’
• she doesn’t get a say in what she does , can’t Perdue her dream
• mention women’s roles in the 1930s for context
• she not given a name to show how little she is respected
• ‘think I don’t like to talk to nobody ever’ once in a while?’ Isn’t even allowed to talk to who she wants, Curley controls everything she does.
• the only time she is seen with power is when she says to crooks ‘I could get you strung up on a tree so easy’ and seems to find satisfaction through this because she is not used to being the one in charge

Question 5

George

Answer 5

Has a lot of power over Lennie

Lennie is reliant on George to live, he looks up to him ‘Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly’

Lennie would do whatever George told him to do, we learn this when George confesses to Slim how he once used to take advantage of him

‘Where we going George’ relies on George to do everything in his life