The Pairings In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck used pairings within five critical scenes in his novel “Of Mice and Men,” these pairings seemed to hint at universal truths of the human condition and beliefs at the time. In a competitive society, the strong will exploit the weak. A controversial idea at the with the red scare in the 1930s. However, Steinbeck used the triads along with the power he gave to each character to help or oppress another. In the opening of the chapter, the reader is told about a horseshoe game going on outside, hinting at the competitive society of the ranch. While inside the bunkhouse the manipulation of the strong over the weak is shown through the pairing of Slim and George.
Slim is said to be the “god-like” characters whose word is “law” on the

ranch.Slim gets George to “confess,” to him, but Slim is accepting and understanding of George sins. George opens up to Slim and tells him about how he used his power to exploit Lennie. George tells how he played jokes on Lennie for entertainment. Until one day he told Lennie to jump in the river and Lennie almost drowned. Lennie forgot that George told him to jump and thank him for saving his life. Slime follows by saying he's a “nice fella” and being understanding with George for taking advantage of Lennie. George confesses that even though Lennie is a “nuisance” he needs Lennie around. Leading him to accidentally bring up what happened in Weed. Once Slime gets George to open up the reader is finally told that there is a lynch mob after them, because Lennie was falsely accused of rape. At this time Slim could have used his power to tell the others and get them kick off the ranch. Instead Slim says “he ain’t mean,” “I can tell a mean guy a mile off,” and choose not to exploit George.
In addition, Steinbeck uses Carlson and Candy to show the strong exploit the weak. The reader is told in chapter 2 that Carlson wants to get the reader of Candy’s dog. Carlson confronts Candy about it “ That dog stinks. Get him outta here,” Candy doesn't notice the stink and loves the dog too much to get rid of him Carlson continues “got no teeth... He’s all stiff with rheumatism… he’s no good to you, and he ain't no good to himself,” followed by “ why’n’t you shoot him.” Candy has had the dog scene he was a pup and just the thought of that made candy “squirmed.” saying “I couldn’t do that, I had him too long,” Carlson was not going to give up he wanted the dog gone had was going to do whatever it took to make that happen. He even offered to shoot the dog himself. Candy and Carlson went back and forth till Carlson brought Slim in on the argument “that dog ain't no good,” Slim word is law so that settled that. Candy couldn't bring himself to kill his dog, so Carlson did it for him. Later Candy was talking to George and realized he was taken advantage of and should of “shoot that dog myself.” Carlson used his leverage with Slim to exploit Candy to improve his will being on the ranch at Candy's extent.