In both John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men and Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn use the characters Curley, and the King and the Duke respectively to illustrate the predatory human nature. Both of the two characters are predating others; however Curley predates because of his own hostility on big guys, while the King and the Duke predates for money. Curley is a predator in the mean of physical power, in contrast, the King and the Duke are predating by their intelligence over peoples foolish.
Curley in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men is characterized to be arrogant. He is arrogant because he is the son of the ranchs boss. He glanced coldly when he first sees George and Lennie in the ranch, his glance is calculating and pugnacious (Steinbeck 25). The interview has not even started, he orders Lennie to talk. He stares levelly combatively at Lennie (Steinbeck 26). Curley used to show his physical power by beating up a big guy an licks him, he does this kind of action because he is physically small (Steinbeck 26). Curley shows his predation on Lennie when he tells Lennie that he can only answer when he is spoke to when they meet next time (Steinbeck 26). Curleys glance, and pugnacious conversations with Lennie send out message of challenge over him, and the belligerent behavior shows his predatory nature by using physical power.
The King and the Duke in Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn share the same nature as Curley does, they are predators as well, but they are predators by using intelligence and take advantage over the foolish people. The King and the Duke are characterized to be frauds. When they get on Jim and Hucks raft, they lie for their real identity. They claim to be nobility, the Duke professes that his great-grandfather is the eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater (Twain 125). The King, as well, professes to be Louis the Seventeen (Twain 126). Huck and Jim respect them, and they call them Your Majesty, and waited on him first at meals (Twain 127). However, they werent no kings nor dukes (Twain 128). The Kings and the Dukes are frauds, they use their intelligence to swindle Huck and Jim. In result, they gain trust, respect from their predation over Huck and Jim, and so that they can stay in the raft. Moreover, when they land on the first town, the King once again shows his predatory nature in the church camp-meeting. He claims himself to be a pirate out in the Indian Ocean (Twain 134). He believes in God now and he is going back to turn the pirates into the true path (Twain 134). He swindles money from them for the missionary fee. He shows his predatory nature by lying with his intelligence and makes the lie so real that the foolish people dont know. Curley, and King and the Duke are both predating over people that are weaker than them, but Curleys predation is more physical, yet the King and the Dukes predation is more mental and requires more intelligence.
The reason of Curleys predation and the Duke and the Kings predation are different. Curleys predation is all because his hatred and hostility on the big guys. Firstly, Lennie is innocent for the fight with Curley. He does not mean to laugh at Curley when he is mocked by Carlson and Candy. He is just smiling with delight at the memory of the ranch, not laughing at Curley (Steinbeck 62). However, Curley views Lennies smile as teasing him. He picks on Lennies smile just because he hates big guys (Steinbeck 26). Lennie does not strike back in the beginning, until Curleys hit that makes Lennie bleeds from his nose, Lennie fights back and Curleys fist was lost in Lennies big hand (Steinbeck 63). The lost in the fight causes Curley increasing hatred on Lennie, which brings to the climax of Lennie kills Curleys wife accidently. Although Lennie never done it meanness, Curley is infuriate and wants to kill Lennie (Steinbeck 95). Slim tries to persuade Curley not to go for the search for Lennie, he suggests him to stay here with your wife (Steinbeck 98). Curley refuses and wants to shoot the guts outa that big bastard himself (Steinbeck 98). Curley is so firm to kill Lennie not because he kills his wife, the real reason is because his personal enmity on the big guys and because he is still mad about his hand (Steinbeck 97). His hostility is so great that he wants to go and solve his enmity on Lennie rather than staying with his dead wife.
In contrast to the reason of Curley predates on Lennie, the King and the Duke predates for their own greed on money. The King and the Duke has more intelligence mind to create a more complete and perfect plan than Curley does. They first plan is to have a play of Romeo and Juliet in a town. They do anything that will pay (Twain 131) and they do not even care the quality. The quality is so bad that the Duke forgets the lines in the play, then he just makes up some. The first fraudulent plan does not come out good. Then they hunt for something else. After they realize Peter Wilks is died and leaves a lot of money and property for his two brothers, they go up to the town and pretend to be the two brothers, Harvey and William. They predate for the girls trust as well, and it turns out to be successful. The girls even allow them to take this six thousand dollars, and invest it for them when Dr. Robinson comes up to challenge the King and the Duke (Twain 173). They are still not satisfied, they held auction to turn the properties into money (Twain 197). Although they fail to rob any from the Wilks family, their predations over the foolish people is all for money, and they are extremely greedy for they try to get every single cents from their predation on the Wilks family.
The characters Curley in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men, and the King and the Duke in Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn show the predatory human nature. Curley, and the King and the Duke are both predators, they hunt for ones that are weaker than them. The characters show two kinds of predator, Curley hunts for Lennie by his physical power for his hatred and hostility, yet the King and the Duke predate the foolish people by their intelligence for money.
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