“If I catch any one man, and he’s alone, I get along fine with him. But just let two of the guys get together an’ you won’t talk. Jus’ nothing but mad. You’re all scared of each other, that’s what. Ever’ one of you’s scared the rest is goin’ to get something on you.”
– John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, Chapter 4. Curley’s wife on men. She speaks of how the men are driven by fears of failure and what dirt other men will get on them, rather than by banding together to fight a common cause. The survival of the fittest is a constant theme throughout the book.