Selfishness of Mice and Men

By: Marisa Montgomery

In the book, 'Of Mice and Men', almost every character is selfish. It seems that every person is only worried about his or her own selfish needs.

The men, and woman, don't take into consideration what might be better for the people around them or what others want. They inflict loneliness and troubles upon each other to help themselves.

In the beginning of the book, Candy had a companion. "I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup. I herded sheep with him." Candy stated.  Instead of letting the aging man live in peace with his pet, Carlson, Slim, and a few of the other men insisted that it be killed. Their reasoning was that the dog smelled. 

However, it appears to me that the men were jealous of Candy for having a friend and wanted to take that luxury away from him. The men could have let him be, but they were selfish.

Curley's wife continuously flirts with the men on the ranch and practically forces them to converse with her. She doesn't take into consideration what might happen if her husband catches the men talking to her. She doesn't listen to them when they tell her to go away time after time.

Curley's wife was selfish because she didn't care if the men lost their jobs due to the fact that she made them talk to her. She only worried about having someone to talk to because of how lonely she was. In the end, the consequence of her selfishness was fatal.

On the other hand, the men also were being selfish because they were more concerned about making money then they were about being a friend to Curley's wife and helping her with her problems.

Throughout the book, Lennie was mainly only worried about one thing: tending the rabbits. In the end, Lennie ended up killing Curley's wife just because he was so scared the George wouldn't let him tend those rabbits. He was only worried about what he wanted. 

Many bad things, including death, happened on the ranch because of selfishness.