The irony is that this inward orientation doesn't ensure survival. In fact, it guarantees the opposite -- irrelevance, obsolescence and death.

Anger is energising. The opposite of anger is depression, which is anger turned inward.

The fact that he is in pain guarantees that he will get some dental attention,

It may be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.

Curley's wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head and her lips were parted

Relax. They're not going to kill us. They're going to TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing.