Of Mice and Men and Narcissism

Echo, a nymph, distracted Zeus' wife Hera with stories while Zeus slept around. Hera found out and became angry and so cursed Echo by taking away her voice, except for echoing what others said. Echo then fell in love with Narcissus, a vain and attractive fellow. Narcissus was not interested in anyone's romantic advances, and crushed Echo when she made advances on him. Ameinius, one of the more dedicated Narcissus-pursuers, was asked by Narcissus to use a sword to prove his interest. He did so, killing himself, but also asked the gods to kindly curse Narcissus. Artemis obliged and made Narcissus fall in love with his own reflection, leading to a deeply unsatisfying and frustrating existence for the guy, who killed himself (lots of suicide in these stories).

Curley from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a narcissist whom I abhor. He's obsessed with his self-image as tough. When Lennie, one of our two main protagonists and a huge, strong, kind man with mental limitations, arrives on Curley's father's farm as a farmhand, Curley feels threatened by his great strength and provokes him. Eventually, through a complicated and tragic series of events, Lennie is killed. Curley's narcissism contributes to this death because  he sets into motion the chain of events by which Lennie is killed.

In the same story, Candy is an altruist. Candy has been a farmhand for most of his life, and is getting on in years. He's missing a hand and has become somewhat cynical. When Lennie and the other main protagonist, George, express their desire to buy and run their own smaller, gentler farm (with bunnies because Lennie loves bunnies), Candy agrees to pitch in and join them in this venture. Certainly, Candy has some self-interested motives: he'd rather live and work on a friendly bunny farm than on a harsh non-bunny farm. That said, Candy's willingness to gamble his life savings on a hare-brained venture (sorry) with two friendly near-strangers demonstrates some altruistic, mensch qualities.

What altruism looks like.
Source: http://www.baseballtrips.net/09_22_06.htm