Context: In Chapter 5 Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife in the barn. Candy discovers her body and alerts the others. Once the men learn what has happened, Curley becomes furious and wants immediate revenge.
- What Curley demands: Curley insists that George lead him (and the other men) to where Lennie is hiding. He expects George to tell or show them Lennie’s location.
- Why he demands this — immediate revenge: Curley is enraged by his wife’s death and wants to find and punish whoever did it right away. There’s no patient investigation or law enforcement coming in the moment, so he demands personal action.
- Why he targets George to lead them: Curley knows George is Lennie’s companion and assumes George must know where Lennie would go or be hiding. He thinks George can point them to the killer quickly, so he presses George to show the way.
- Character and motive: Curley is hot-headed, violent, and driven by pride and a need to assert control. His demand is less about legal process and more about avenging his wife and proving his toughness to the ranch hands.
- Narrative consequence: Curley’s insistence creates urgency and threat. It forces George into a choice: risk that a vengeful mob will capture and brutalize Lennie, or act himself. That pressure directly sets up George’s decision in the final chapter to find Lennie before Curley does.
Short summary: Curley demands that George show him where Lennie is because he wants immediate revenge for his wife’s death, believes George knows Lennie’s hiding place, and is driven by anger, pride, and a desire to take justice into his own hands.