Cruel or Kind?

In the novel Of Mice and Men, the characters often act cruelly to each other, but at other times we see acts of kindness. Describe at least one act of cruelty and one act of kindness from the novel and explain what you think the character’s motivation was. Are some characters only cruel? Only kind? Or is there a mixture of both?

 An obvious act of cruelty in the novel is when Curley intimidates Lennie. Curley, taking advantage of Lennie's passiveness in battle and childlike behavior, picked a fight with Lennie and pushed him around a bit before Lennie finally retaliated by breaking his hand. Granted, Curley got the punishment he probably deserved, but Curley still lit the spark to the conflict and greatly distressed Lennie's childlike mind. Curley's motivation for picking on Lennie was purely because of his jealousy for men with a bigger build, and because he saw Lennie has an easy target and took advantage of the fact for his own pleasure.

An act of kindness done by the characters in the novel is when George agrees to let Candy take part on his and Lennie's quest to own land (and, on Lennie's behalf, rabbits). George was agreeing to let a third man come into the plan that had already been so carefully dreamed and thought out, and by doing so would rearrange his plans but also gave Candy a new sense of hope, belonging, and companionship with George. George probably had already thought this through in his head and allowed Candy to join them because of this (and also because now there would be another source of money invested for the project).

I think that if we analyze most of the characters in the novel, each has a good side and a cruel side. For example, George is often cruel to Lennie and acts exasperated with him, but the fact remains that he loves Lennie and cares for him, and most of the "cruel" acts he commits against Lennie are for his own good. Crook, who sets himself out to be the cynical stable-boy, also puts on a mask of indifference and cruelty, but in reality all he wants is company to spend time with. Finally, Curley's wife indisputably has the secret desire to rouse action amongst the men by drawing them to her. However, as her conversation with Lennie revealed, all she may really want is a kind company who won't take her suspiciously or treat her ill.