Steinbeck
uses narration but also dialogue to
show the insider/outsider dynamic of the ranch. Insiders include Curley, Curley's wife, and
Slim. Outsiders include , , and Crooks.
An example of the narrator telling us
through narration that someone is an insider are these words about Slim:
He was a jerkline skinner, the prince of the ranch, capable of
driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders.
Phrases such as "prince of the ranch" locate Slim as a
ranch insider with a good deal of power.
He also has personal power that
derives from the force of his character. Narration also tells us this. We learn that he
has:
gravity in his manner and a quiet so profound that
all talk stopped when he spoke.
An example of dialogue
showing a power dynamic comes when Curley speaks harshly to George for answering a question
Curley directed at Lennie:
By Christ, hes gotta talk
when hes spoke to. What the hell are you gettin into it for?
Curley, as the ranch owner's son, knows he can get away with bullying the ranch hands
and shows it in the rude way he speaks to George.
Crooks' outsider status as
a black man is related to us through narration, such as the description of the harness room off
the barn in which Crooks sleeps by himself as the other men won't tolerate him in the bunkhouse.
It is also conveyed through dialogue, such as when Crooks explains he can't play cards with the
ranch hands because they think he physically "stinks."
A piece of
dialogue (with a bit of narration interspersed) that shows both Crooks' outsider status and
Curley's wife's insider statuscomes when Crooks tries to order him out of her room. She responds
by threatening him with a lynching, a threat creditable enough to cow him:
You know what I could do?
Crooks seemed to grow
smaller, and he pressed himself against the wall. Yes, maam.Well, you
keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even
funny.
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