In Of Mice and Men, what are Slim's external and internal conflicts?

John Steinbeck's character Slim from Of Mice and Men, known as "The Prince of the Ranch" because of his quiet leadership and ability to command respect, faces both external and internal conflict without seeking it. 

From an external standpoint, Slim unintentionally gets pulled into man versus man conflict because of Curley. Because of his handsome demeanor, stature, and place among the ranch hands, Slim represents a threat to the smaller, insecure, bullish Curley. The boss's son roams the ranch looking for his wife and falsely accuses Slim of carrying on a relationship with her. In Chapter 3, this conflict boils over when Curley cannot find his wife and immediately assumes that she must be with Slim. Although Slim never gets into a physical altercation with Curley, he does use harsh words to put Curley in his place and forces Curley to lie about his hand injury in order to protect Lennie.

In some ways, Slim is also in conflict with nature and society. Steinbeck describes the quiet leader as someone who might lead a very different life if it were not for The Great Depression. Despite Slim's natural ability to lead others and his skills as a jerkline skinner, he is essentially trapped at the ranch working for a boss he does not respect because his society cannot offer him better options. Had the United States not been suffering from drought, dust storms, and vast poverty during Slim's time, he might have easily moved to a different area or even been able to take on a different line of work.

Internally, Slim's character offers some hints of conflict, but because Steinbeck characterizes his figures primarily through dialogue and action in Of Mice and Men, readers have to infer what specifically might trouble Slim. In Chapter 5, Steinbeck reveals the most about Slim's thinking and internal conflict by his pondering George's situation after Lennie has killed Curley's Wife. Slim decides to provide a way for George to get a head start on Curley. Getting involved in someone else's messy business at first seems out of character for Slim, but his external conflict with Curley ultimately solves his internal conflict about how to handle Lennie's fate. Slim is a fair, objective man and simply cannot allow a bully like Curley to torture the mentally handicapped Lennie; so his decision to stall Curley while George gets Carlson's gun and heads to the river demonstrates Slim's ability to resolve his own internal questioning quickly in the name of moral justice.