History Characters / OfMiceAndMen

* HatedByAll: Because of his detestable personality, very few characters like him. Even his own wife is rumored to be cheating on him, which shouldn't be a surprise if it were true.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The exact nature and name of Lennie's disability are unspecified. The important parts are that he's got the mental state of a child, likes to hold soft things, and he has strength beyond a regular man. Due to his child-like state, Lennie is unaware of what he's actually capable of and what damage he can do. Lennie has to rely on a carer to protect him from the outside world, as well as, reign him in when he gets agitated or scared. Since the story is set in the 1930s, there wasn't an official diagnosis for his condition and asylums treated mental illnesses with physical methods.

* ChildhoodBrainDamage: Invoked by George when meeting the ranch boss for the first time, stating that Lennie was kicked in the head by a horse as a child and he hadn't been the same ever since.

* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: He's a deconstruction of this. He means well but he doesn't know how to control his strength and is prone to holding on tight to things when he gets scared.

* BullyingADragon: He tried this three times. He tried to pick on Slim and get intimidated into submission. He does this to Carlson and gets laughed at. Then he turns on Lennie...and, well, we see how that went.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He takes a great deal of joy in picking on Lennie. And then he's put on the receiving end of it by Curley's Wife who threatens to have him lynched. However, he seems to like for the most part a normal, well-meaning, reasonable person.

* TheBully: To the workers on the farm, who can't really do anything because he's the Boss' son. He especially pounces on Lennie because Lennie being too nice to fight back.

* BullyTurnedBuddy: He revealed to Slim that he worked for Lennie's aunt and when she died, Lennie followed him around. One day, George told him to jump into a late as a joke but Lennie nearly drowned because he didn't know how to swim. After rescuing Lennie, George decided to become Lennie's carer and the two travelled from state to state looking for work.

* AttractivenessIsolation: With the central theme of loneliness to the story, Curley's Wife's loneliness is a result of her beauty. She admits she married Curley for the wrong reasons and that she only did it to spite her mother for denying her chance at fame. She only wants someone to talk to but everyone else is just so afraid of Curley's reaction that they consider her "jailbait" because they see her as more trouble than she's worth. Her name is also a reflection of this, she was objectified for her beauty and men are too scared of Curley to even talk to her.

* MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency: Defied, Lennie is generally harmless and lacks the ability to be fully aware of the consequences of his actions. He accidentally kills animals, he unwittingly committed assault by grabbing a woman's dress (he did this to only feel how soft it is and wouldn't let go due to panicking about her reaction), and he only broke Curley's hand in self-defense and at George's command. [[spoiler: After accidentally killing Curley's wife; Curley took advantage of the situation to rally a lynch mob against Lennie for breaking his hand, not because Lennie murdered his wife. George only kills him, in the end, to save him from Curley's lynch mob and to save from being abused by the asylum.]]

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Because of his detestable personality, very few characters like him. Even his own wife is rumored to be cheating on him, which shouldn't be a surprise if it were true.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's Wife, George decides to kill Lennie after realising there were no positive outcomes for him. Other than killing Lennie himself, George only has 3 options.]]

* HiddenDepths: While he's implied to intellectually disabled, he does have some understanding of some of the trouble he causes.

A rather short man with an equally short-temper, who is also the ranch owner's son.

* AssholeVictim: Curley gets his hand broken by Lennie after he tries to assert dominance over him in the bunkhouse. Everyone was clearly on Lennie's side as he had no interest or desire in fighting Curley, they were also more astounded by the act than sympathetic to Curley. Slim quickly blackmails Curley to lie about the source of his injury by threatening to tell everyone about how he broke his hand in a fight he started against a kind-hearted simpleton with herculean strength. Curley's wife had no sympathy for him either and revelled in finding out about the fight.

* TheBully: To the workers on the farm, who can't really do anything because he's the Boss' son. He especially pounces on Lennie because of Lennie being too nice to fight back.

* DirtyCoward: Curley only gets into fights that guarantee his victory as his skills as a boxer will fulfil his every threat and he will always have his underdog reputation to fall back on if he loses. After being belittled by Slim and Carlson, he assaults Lennie because he believes he's an easy target due to his childlike intelligence. After Lennie catches his fist and begins to crush it, Curley is left blubbering on the floor and screaming for help from the workers.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When he's first introduced to the protagonists, he specifically wants to hear Lennie respond to his question of asking them if they're the new workers, and then gets ''right up in his face'' while stating he should respond better next time in a low threatening tone. This moment should already give the reader a tell-tale sign that Curley is bad news.

* HateSink: If you have already read all the other tropes describing this guy, it should be pretty obvious that he is ''not'' meant to be a likeable character in the slightest.

* NotWorthKilling: The only reason Curley hasn't been punished for his behaviour by the farmworkers is that it's not worth the amount of trouble. Curley is a trained boxer with an underdog reputation and he's the son of the boss; if they assault Curley, the boss will fire them (and could have them arrested) for attacking his son. If they fight him in the ring, they'll either look like idiots for fighting a trained boxer or they'll be assaulted by Curley's sympathizers for attacking someone weaker than themselves.

* PlotIrrelevantVillain: He's definitely a bad guy in the perspective of the main characters, but the ordeals with George and Lennie's inability to achieve their dream due to the latter's stupidity is unrelated to him. If anything, Curley is just one of the many people that causes the duo to escape the area due to every problem caused by Lennie's curiosity, [[spoiler:which forces George to pull the trigger on the former after realizing the futility of it all]].

* StayInTheKitchen: He expects his wife to always be inside their house. She doesn't listen, and supposedly spends as much time and distance out of the house or hides somewhere in the ranch that both the reader and Curley doesn't know about.
* ThinSkinnedBully: Curley spends his time bullying the ranch workers and picking fights with them to assert dominance. According to Slim, one of two things will happen if someone actually takes him up on his challenge. If they lose, Curley will be lionised for defeating someone stronger than him while his opponent will be looked down on for picking a fight with a trained boxer; if the challenger wins, he'll be portrayed as the bully who knocked out someone weaker than himself and all the glory will be erased. When Curley fails to intimidate Slim and Carlson, he chooses Lennie for being the biggest guy on the ranch and for, seemingly, being the dumbest. When Curley starts assaulting Lennie, everyone jumps to his defense and tries to get Curley to stop because Lennie did nothing to deserve it. When Lennie breaks Curley's hand at George's urging, the sympathy of the cabin falls to Lennie and Slim is able to blackmail Curley into keeping quiet about the fight.
* UnderdogsNeverLose: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Because of his shorter height, people will always sympathize with him for being a brave underdog going against the bigger bully in the ring. As Candy and Slim put it, even if his opponent was able to beat him in the ring, there's no true victory for them as they'll be ostracized for actually beating up a shorter guy, [[PlayingTheVictimCard which is something that Curley himself takes advantage of]]. When he ends up losing against the larger, dumber, but kinder Lennie Smalls, nobody sympathises with him because he was that much of an asshole.

Lennie's aunt who raised him. Lennie describes her as a "fat little old lady, with thick bull's eye glasses and a huge gingham apron".

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: She's mentioned to be a very kind old woman who raised Lenny despite his mental disability, but she acts uncharacteristically stern and scolding to Lennie near the end of the book. It's justified, however, as she was never ''physically'' there and it was just a vision of Lennie that personifies his guilt for burdening George.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The exact nature and name of Lennie's disability are unspecified. The important parts are that he's got the mental state of a child, likes to hold soft things, and he has strength beyond a regular man. Due to his child-like state, Lennie is unaware of what he's actually capable of and what damage he can do. Lennie has to rely on a carer to protect him from the outside world, as well as, reign him in when he gets agitated or scared. Since the story is set in the 1930s, there wasn't an official diagnosis for his condition and asylums treated mental illnesses with physical methods (i.e. electroshock therapy and lobotomies to name a few treatments).

* AnimalMotifs: Lennie is given animal similies to show how different he is from other people. Rabbits are often invoked by Lennie because they are his favorite animal. [[spoiler: The focus of Lennie's half of the dream is to tend the rabbits on the farm and when he realizes he's in trouble; he believes George will punish him by not letting him tend to the rabbits. While waiting for George, he hallucinates a rabbit berating him for causing trouble again and telling him that George won't let him care for the rabbits. In the ending, Lennie dies while imaging the rabbits on the farm. On the book cover, there is also a hare hiding from Lennie and George.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's Wife, George decides to kill Lennie after realising there were no positive outcomes for him. Other than killing Lennie himself, George only has 3 options.]]
## [[spoiler: Run away with Lennie again to another state as the cycle keeps going until they run out of places to go.]]
## [[spoiler: Allow a terrified Lennie to be lynched by a sadistic Curley as George watches helplessly.]]
## [[spoiler: Have Lennie committed to an asylum where he'll be subjected to inhumane treatments (like electroshock therapy) to treat his intellectual disability.]]

## [[spoiler: Have Lennie committed to an asylum where he'll be subjected to inhuman physical treatments (from electroshock therapy to a lobotomy) to cure his intellectual disability.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's Wife, George decides to kill Lennie after realising there were no positive outcomes for him. George can either; (''A'') run away with Lennie again to another state as the ViciousCycle keeps going until they run out of places to go, (''B'') allow a terrified Lennie to be lynched by Curley as George watches helplessly, or (''C'') have Lennie committed to an asylum where he'll be subjected to inhuman physical treatments to cure his intellectual disability.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: After Lennie accidentally kills Curley's Wife, Georgie decides to kill Lennie after realising there were no positive outcomes for him. George can either; (''A'') run away with Lennie again to another state as the ViciousCycle keeps going until they run out of places to go, (''B'') allow a terrified Lennie to be lynched by Curley as George watches helplessly, or (''C'') have Lennie committed to an asylum where he'll be subjected to inhuman physical treatments to cure his intellectual disability.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Not to him, but he does to [[spoiler:''Lennie'' after the latter accidentally kills Curley's Wife, as there were no positive outcomes for him. George can either; (''A'') run away with Lennie to another state until the ViciousCycle happens again until they run out of places to go and become the most wanted men in the USA, (''B'') allow Lennie to be lynched by Curley, or (''C'') have Lennie committed to an asylum where he'll be subjected to inhuman treatments to cure his disability.]]

An intellectually disabled person who means well is particularly strong (perhaps too strong) and loves to tend to soft things, especially living ones. His stupidity often puts him and George in hot water.

* MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency: Defied, Lennie is generally harmless and lacks the ability to be fully aware of the consequences of his actions. He accidentally kills animals, he unwittingly committed assault by grabbing a woman's dress (he did this to only feel how soft it is and wouldn't let go due to panicking about her reaction), and he only broke Curley's hand in self-defense and at George's command. [[spoiler: After accidentally killing Curley's wife; Curley took advantage of the situation to rally a lynch mob against Lennie for breaking his hand, not because Lennie murdered his wife. George only kills him, in the end, to save him from Curley's lynch mob and to save from being abused by the criminal justice system.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Not to him, but he does to [[spoiler:''Lennie'' after the latter accidentally kills Curley's Wife, as there were no positive outcomes for him. George can either; (''A'') run away with Lennie to another state until the ViciousCycle happens again until they run out of places to go and become the most wanted men in the USA, (''B'') allow Lennie to be lynched by Curley, or (''C'') have Lennie go to prison where he might get killed there or mistreated and corrupted by the other inmates.]]
* BullyingTheDisabled: In his backstory, he often made Lennie do stupid things because he knows that the latter is too stupid to think for himself. After Lennie nearly drowned from jumping into a river at George's behest, he becomes TheCaretaker for Lennie in their adult years as atonement.
* BullyTurnedBuddy: In his backstory. See TheAtoner and BullyingTheDisabled above.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The exact nature and name of Lennie's disability are unspecified. The important parts are that he's got the mental state of a child, likes to hold soft things, and he has strength beyond a regular man. Due to his child-like state, Lennie is unaware of what he's actually capable of and what damage he can do. Lennie has to rely on a carer to protect him from the outside world, as well as, reign him in when he gets agitated or scared. Some of this trope might be justified, as the setting is in the 30s.

* TheDitz: Due to being mentally disabled.

* MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency: Defied, Lennie is generally harmless and lacks the ability to be fully aware of the consequences of his actions. He unwittingly kills animals, he unwittingly committed assault by grabbing a woman's dress (he did this to only feel how soft it is and wouldn't let go due to panicking about her reaction), and he only broke Curley's hand in self-defense and at George's command. [[spoiler: After accidentally killing Curley's wife; Curley took advantage of the situation to rally a lynch mob against Lennie for breaking his hand, not because Lennie murdered his wife. George only kills him, in the end, to save him from Curley's lynch mob and to save from being abused by the criminal justice system.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: What he does to Lennie after the latter unwittingly and accidentally kills Curley's Wife, as there were no positive outcomes for him. George can either; (A) run away with Lennie to another state until the latter's simplemindedness causes another incident to flare up, forcing them on the run again until they run out of places to go and become the most wanted men in the USA, (B) allow Lennie to be lynched by Curley, or (C) have Lennie go to prison where he might get killed there or mistreated and corrupted by the other inmates.

* RageBreakingPoint: He hits this after losing many job spots due to Lennie's mistakes in the prologue, as well as the latter stating that he likes the beans with ketchup twice despite George stating that they don't have any.

* NotWorthKilling: The only reason Curley hasn't been punished for his behaviour by the farmworkers is that it's not worth the amount of trouble. Curley is a trained boxer with an underdog reputation and he's the son of the boss; if they assault Curley, the boss will fire them for attacking his son. If they fight him in the ring, they'll either look like idiots for fighting a trained boxer or they'll be assaulted by Curley's sympathizers for attacking someone weaker than themselves.

* NamedByTheAdaptation: In one of the film adaptations, she's called "Mae."

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: What he does to Lennie after the latter unwittingly and accidentally kills Curley's Wife, as there were no positive outcomes for him. George can either; run away with Lennie to another state until another incident flares up from Lennie's mistakes, forcing them to run again until they run out of places to go and become the most wanted men in the USA, allow Lennie to be lynched by Curley, or have Lennie go to prison where he might get killed there or mistreated and corrupted by the other inmates.

One of the main characters and Lennie's caretaker

* ButtMonkey: Lennie's cost him every job he's tried to hold down so far and keep him further from reaching his American dream of having his own land and farm with animals on it.

* TheCaretaker: George serves as this to Lennie; being smarter than him, George comes up with all the plans for getting money, tries to keep him out of trouble, "translates" for him to others, and generally does whatever it takes to keep him alive. PlayedForDrama in that, ultimately, the best thing George can do for Lennie is shoot him in the head.

* GrumpyBear: He's become short-tempered, gloomy and pessimistic as a result of all the trouble Lennie's put him through.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: As nice as a guy he can be, he's also very strong so getting him upset wouldn't be anyone's best interest.
* ChronicPetKiller: PlayedForDrama. He's this because he 1) doesn't really know or understand better and 2), is very strong. In one conversation with George, we find out his Aunt Clara stopped giving him mice because he kept killing them and, later, in the story, he plays with his new puppy a bit too hard, accidentally killing him.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Because of his detestable personality, very few characters like him. Even his own wife is rumored to be cheating on him, which shouldn't be a surprise.
* AssholeVictim: Curley gets his hand broken by Lennie after he tries to assert dominance over him in the bunkhouse. Everyone was clearly on Lennie's side as he had no interest or desire in fighting Curley, they were also more astounded by the act than sympathetic to Curley. Slim quickly blackmails Curley to lie about the source of his injury by threatening to tell everyone about how he broke his hand in a fight he started against a simpleton with herculean strength. Curley's wife had no sympathy for him either and revelled in finding out about the fight.

* DirtyCoward: For all of his big attitude and pride in his boxer skills, if the other guy he was fighting could challenge him and ''actually'' beat him in a fight, he'll count on the witnesses ganging up on the other guy simply because he's the "bigger guy picking on the shorter underdog". In the story itself, this form of cowardice is shown right before his assault on Lennie, as he was quickly intimidated by Slim who in turn, was frustrated on being constantly suspected by him of being with his wife and refusing to "bend over backward" to his intimidation. He also has no problem beating Lennie up because he believes that Lennie is intimidated by him and probably wouldn't fight back, and the moment that Lennie manages to [[PunchCatch catch]] his right hand and starts to crush it unintentionally he quickly starts to become frightened, and in the 1992 film adaptation, [[AintTooProudToBeg screams for mercy]].

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: You'll be hard-pressed to find someone who actually likes Curley because Curley just bullies anyone weaker than himself and plays the victim whenever someone tries to fight back. They only tolerate him because he's the boss's son and fighting him is more than it's worth.

* MortonsFork: Slim blackmails Curley with this dilemma. Either live with a crushed hand and emasculated ego or they'll tell everyone how he provoked a kind-hearted, mentally disabled, herculean simpleton into a brawl, lost in the said brawl with CareerEndingInjury, which then ends his boxing career and reputation, in order to salvage the remains of his dignity and masculinity.

* TheNapoleon: He's small in stature, [[PintsizedPowerhouse a trained boxer]], and willing to fight almost anyone at the drop of a hat.

* RealityEnsues: He may be seen as the underdog because of his height, leading to his bigger opponents losing no matter what; but when he tries to pick a fight with a kind, but clinically dumb {{Manchild}} while being recognized as an asshole who constantly throws his weight around, nobody sympathizes with him for being potentially crippled by Lennie as everyone instead sympathizes with the latter for being the victim of aggravated assault.

* YourCheatingHeart: Supposedly. Curley suspects the reason she's seldom around and difficult to find is that she's going around having sex with other men. So far, we've only seen her flirt with the other men and, if she did cheat on her husband, we don't hear about it.

* AndCallHimGeorge: He loves to pet things but animals don't last long with him. Earlier in the story, he had a mouse and, quote, "pinched it's head" so it'd stop biting him and we see how that went.

* TheDitz: Due to being mentally disabled.

* CareerEndingInjury: After taking his anger out on Lennie, the latter grabs his hand during a fight and crushes it because Lennie tightens his grip whenever he's panicking or stressed. It's never said if he'll ever be able to fight again, although his injury was described as having all the bones in his hand broken. Considering the theme of melancholy and unobtainable dreams in the book, the injury is most likely permanent and it karmically ruined his career.

* DirtyCoward: For all of his big attitude and pride in his boxer skills, if the other guy he was fighting could challenge him and ''actually'' beat him in a fight, he'll count on the witnesses ganging up on the other guy simply because he's the "bigger guy picking on the shorter underdog". In the story itself, this form cowardice is shown right before his assault on Lennie, as he was quickly intimidated by Slim who in turn, was frustrated on being constantly suspected by him of being with his wife and refusing to "bend over backward" to his intimidation. He also has no problem beating Lennie up because he believes that Lennie is intimidated by him and probably wouldn't fight back, and the moment that Lennie manages to [[PunchCatch catch]] his right hand and starts to crush it unintentionally he quickly starts to become frightened, and in the 1992 film adaptation, screams for mercy.

* HateSink: If you have already read all the other tropes describing this guy, it should be pretty obvious that he is ''not'' meant to be a likeable character in the slightest.
* HairTriggerTemper: It doesn't take much to rile Curley up into a brawl, and he immediately starts to pounding into Lennie when he "thought" that Lennie was laughing at him nevermind that he believes that Lennie was intimidated by him in their first meeting and was already in a bad mood, to begin with.

* PrinceCharmless: He's the boss's son and regularly uses his position to abuse the ranchers. Either goading them into fights or jealously abusing them for looking at his wife.
* RealityEnsues: He may be seen as the underdog because of his height, leading to his bigger opponents losing no matter what; but when he tries to pick a fight with a kind, but clinically dumb {{Manchild}} while being recognised as an asshole who constantly throws his weight around, nobody sympathizes with him for being potentially crippled by Lennie as everyone instead sympathizes with the latter for being the victim of aggravated assault.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Curley relies on people feeling sorry for him in fights. If his opponent loses, Curley will be lionised for defeating someone stronger than him while his opponent will be looked down on for picking a fight with a trained boxer; if the challenger wins, he'll be portrayed as the bully who knocked out someone weaker than himself and all the glory will be erased. Candy adds on to this by suggesting that a mob of Curley supporters will actually assault the challenger for beating up Curley. This gambit actually fails in his fight with Lennie, as the latter did not want to fight, Curley had no reputation to fall back on because everyone hated him, and the other ranch workers were trying to get him to stop because they liked Lennie more than Curley. When Curley gets his hand broken (presumably beyond repair) everyone is consoling a guilt-ridden Lennie and Slim quickly blackmails Curley into keeping quiet.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Curley used her death to get murderous revenge on Lennie for breaking his hand. Their marriage was lifeless and Curley didn't take too long to assume the role of a CrusadingWidower.

* PetTheDog: She was nothing less but kind and courteous to Lennie in their interactions, that is, until she let him stroke her hair.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: She's mentioned to be a very kind old who raised Lenny despite his mental disability, but she acts uncharacteristically stern and scolding to Lennie near the end of the book. It's justified, however, as she was never ''physically'' there and it was just a vision of Lennie that personifies his guilt for burdening George.

* AssholeVictim: Curley gets his hand broken by Lennie after he tries to assert dominance over him in the bunkhouse. Everyone was clearly on Lennie's side since he had no interest or desire in fighting Curley, they were also more astounded by the act than sympathetic to Curley. Slim quickly blackmails Curley to lie about the source of his injury by threatening to tell everyone about how he broke his hand in a fight he started against a simpleton with herculean strength. Curley's wife had no sympathy for him either and reveled in finding out about the fight.

* CareerEndingInjury: After taking his anger out on Lennie, the latter grabs his hand during a fight and crushes it because Lennie tightens his grip whenever he's panicking or stressed. It's never said if he'll ever be able to fight again, although his injury was described as having all the bones in his hand broken. Considering the theme of misery and unobtainable dreams in the book, the injury is most likely permanent and it karmically ruined his career.

* DomesticAbuser: Implied, however, while he isn't mentioned to hit or yell at her, he does isolate his Wife.

* HateSink: If you have already read all the other tropes describing this guy, it should be pretty obvious that he is ''not'' meant to be a likable character in the slightest.

* NeverMyFault: The fact that he wants to kill Lennie upon finding his dead wife as an excuse to really get back at him for breaking his hand leads him into ignoring the fact that it was mostly his ''own'' fault for attacking Lennie in the first place despite knowing how strong he was on the job, and even if he wanted to avenge his wife, Curley also ignores how his own poor treatment of her might've played a factor in her death as well.

* PlayingTheVictimCard: According to Slim, one reason Curley picks fights is to exploit people's sympathy. Because he's a trained boxer he often beats guys bigger than him, but if he picks a fight and loses, there's no glory in it for his opponent, and the guy who beat him often gets ostracized for beating up a small guy like Curley. Ultimately subverted when Curley picks a fight with Lennie. Lennie is a childlike GentleGiant with no stomach for fighting, and when he crushes Curley's hand it's in self-defense, and only because George told him to. Although Curley comes out of the fight physically disabled, possibly permanently, the sympathy of the workers rests solely with Lennie.

* RevengeBeforeReason: He tries to beat up Lennie for laughing at him but fails to remember Lennie's reputation for being the strongest man on the ranch, despite his childlike intelligence. Later on, he wants to painfully kill Lennie for killing his wife; but it's really to get back at Lennie for crippling his hand as he and his wife weren't close, to begin with, and he really didn't take the time to mourn her upon finding her body and quickly start the manhunt, ignoring the fact that Lennie obviously didn't intentionally kill his wife and it was more accidental than anything and that ''he'' was the one who attacked Lennie first and getting his hand broken was more of his own fault than Lennie's.

* ThinSkinnedBully: Curley spends his time bullying the ranch workers and picking fights with them to assert dominance. According to Slim, one of two things will happen if someone actually takes him up on his challenge. If they lose, Curley will be lionised for defeating someone stronger than him while his opponent will be looked down for picking a fight with a trained boxer; if the challenger wins, he'll be portrayed as the bully who knocked out someone weaker than himself and all the glory will be erased. When Curley fails to intimidate Slim and Carlson, he chooses Lennie for being the biggest guy on the ranch and for, seemingly, being the dumbest. When Curley starts assaulting Lennie, everyone jumps to his defense and tries to get Curley to stop because Lennie did nothing to deserve it. When Lennie breaks Curley's hand at George's urging, the sympathy of the cabin falls to Lennie and Slim is able to blackmail Curley into keeping quiet about the fight.
* UnderdogsNeverLose: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Because of his shorter height, people will always sympathize with him for being a brave underdog going against the bigger bully in the ring. As Candy and Slim put it, even if his opponent was able to beat him in the ring, there's no true victory for them as they'll be ostracized for actually beating up a shorter guy, [[PlayingTheVictimCard which is something that Curley himself takes advantage of]]. Too bad for him when he ends up losing against the larger, dumber, but kinder Lennie Smalls and gets treated with NoSympathy because he was that much of an asshole, to begin with.

* RealityEnsues: He may be seen as the underdog because of his height, leading to his bigger opponents losing no matter what but when he tries to pick a fight with a kind, but clinically dumb {{Manchild}} while being known as an asshole who constantly throws his weight around, nobody sympathizes with him for being potentially crippled by Lennie and everyone instead sympathizes with the latter as the victim.

* ThinSkinnedBully: Curley spends his time bullying the ranch workers and picking fights with them to assert dominance. According to Slim, one of two things will happen if someone actually takes him up on his challenge. If they lose, Curley will be lionised for defeating someone stronger than him; if the challenger wins, he'll be portrayed as the bully who knocked out someone weaker than himself and all the glory will be erased. When Curley fails to intimidate Slim and Carlson, he chooses Lennie for being the biggest guy on the ranch and for, seemingly, being the dumbest. When Curley starts assaulting Lennie, everyone jumps to his defense and tries to get Curley to stop because Lennie did nothing to deserve it. When Lennie breaks Curley's hand at George's urging, the sympathy of the cabin falls to Lennie and Slim is able to blackmail Curley into keeping quiet about the fight.

* MentalHandicapMoralDeficiency: Defied, Lennie is generally harmless and lacks the ability to be fully aware of the consequences of his actions. He unwittingly kills animals, he accidentally portrayed himself as a rapist by grabbing a woman's dress (he did this to only feel how soft it is), and he only broke Curley's hand in self-defense and at George's command. [[spoiler: After accidentally killing Curley's wife; Curley took advantage of the situation to rally a lynch mob against Lennie for breaking his hand, not because Lennie murdered his wife. George only kills him, in the end, to save him from Curley's lynch mob and to save from being abused by the criminal justice system.]]

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Because of his detestable personality, very few characters like him. Even his own wife is cheating on him, which shouldn't be a surprise.

* CrusadingWidower: Subverted, his planning to lynch Lennie comes more from still being sore about the latter breaking his hand in a fight than [[spoiler:avenging his wife]].
* DirtyCoward: For all of his big attitude and pride in his boxer skills, if the other guy he was fighting could challenge him and ''actually'' beat him in a fight, he'll count on the witnesses ganging up on the other guy simply because he's the "bigger guy picking on the shorter underdog". In the story itself, this form cowardice is shown right before his assault on Lennie, as he was quickly intimidated by Slim who in turn, was frustrated on being constantly suspected by him of being with his wife and refusing to "bend over backward" to his intimidation. He also has no problem beating Lennie up because he believes that Lennie is intimidated by him and probably wouldn't fight back, and the moment that Lennie manages to PunchCatch his right hand and starts to crush it unintentionally he quickly starts to become frightened, and in the 1992 film adaptation, screams for mercy.