To be in a symbiotic relationship is to have a balance of trust in both parties and to feel together with the other party. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George Milton is living in togetherness with his best friend and companion, Lennie Small, because they have a symbiotic relationship. Although George knows his life might be easier without Lennie, he cannot leave behind companionship and the feeling of being loved. Their symbiotic relationship is a balance of working together towards success, yet still depending on each other for prosperity in the real world. George and Lennie both share an incredible dream that they both need to work towards. They desire to own a ranch so they can “live off the fatta’ lan’,” (Steinbeck 14) and be successful. …show more content…
George depends on Lennie to keep him from the eternal ranch life of receiving their pay and blowing it at cat houses and to get drunk, with Lennie he is held back from that life because he is saving for their dream. Lennie depends on George to tell him what to do. Lennie does not make very good decisions without George’s input, and with George’s input, Lennie does exactly what he is told and follows through completely. Lennie is not as intelligent as George, but he is much stronger than the average man. which is why he makes up the body of the two, which George missing or is not very strong, being able to defend either one of them from someone else. When Curley goes after Lennie, bloodying up his face, punch after punch, Lennie is not so sure what to do, so he looks to George for guidance. George reacts to Curley attacking Lennie and says “get ‘im Lennie!... I said get him,” (Steinbeck 63) which then follows with Lennie listening and then harming Curley. And since George makes the decisions in both of their lives, he makes up the brains that Lennie is missing. Together the two of them make up one full man, and neither could function very well in the outside world without this …show more content…
George knows that his life would be much easier without Lennie, yet he can’t leave Lennie because Lennie depends solely on George. George makes it clear that he could live alone, “God a ’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble,” (Steinbeck 11) and Lennie knows throughout the book that George could do so. Although Lennie knows this, without George, his life would be in shambles because he would not know what to do, or he would get in trouble too often. George does not need Lennie to live a fulfilling life because unlike Lennie, he doesn’t need someone telling him what to
Lennie has always been told what to do by George. George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the
George and Lennie's ultimate goal is to "get the jack together," buy a few acres of land they can call their own, "an' live off the fatta the lan' (pg. 14)." George talks in great depth about how their dream house is going to have individual rooms, a kitchen with a fat iron stove, and an orchard. But, George only recites this yarn when he wants to get Lennie calmed down. Lennie has the mentality of an 8 year old, the memory of a senile 80 year old, and only desires to tend rabbits. George fully understands that Lennie can easily be manipulated. Even though the dream to have a piece of land is shared, George knows that by himself he cannot amass a large enough "stake," to buy it himself (pg. 33)." Just as the boss thought, George was "takin' his pay away from him (pg. 22)."
First, when Lennie sticks his head in the scummy water from the stream in the beginning of the book it shows his inability to think things through before he carries through with them. Another example includes when he grabbed the woman’s dress in Weed. He did not think it through when a normal fully mentally capable person would be able to think that grabbing a strange woman’s dress would not be appropriate. Similarly, he almost duplicates the situation except this time instead of finally letting go of the dress he accidentally killed Curley’s wife resulting in a worse outcome than the situation in Weed. Lennie is unable to think for himself in a safe and well opinionated manner, therefore, he needs someone like George to take care of him and prevent him from bad situations. However, the worse part about Lennie’s neverending trilogy of mistakes is that he does not learn from them. He makes the same mistake of killing multiple mice because he pets them too hard and never learns to be more gentle. George states in the novel ,”He’s awright. Just ain’t bright. But he can do anything you tell him.” (Steinbeck 22) This statement shows that though George is telling the boss how well he can work, he is also expressing how he doesn’t make decisions for himself and that he needs George to take care of him. George also says,” Yeah, you forgot. You always forget, an’ I got to talk you out of it.” (Steinbeck 23) This statement also portrays some of the reason he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Lennie has a very difficult time remembering anything other than instructions that George gives him. George could not have just let Lennie go because he would not be able to make good decisions, nor could he take care of himself on his own, therefore George made the right decision to end Lennie’s
George and Lennie need each other to achieve their dream of their own farm with rabbits to tend. Lennie could not take care of his rabbits or even survive without George.
Brotherhood is defined as a close relationship between two brothers. In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie have known each other since they were kids and they have been traveling around with one another looking for work. Lennie is mentally slow but he is strong, while George is an intelligent man but is a scrawnier individual. They are brothers from other mothers. John Steinbeck uses the character of Lennie to suggest the hardship about brotherhood with his relationship with George.
Lennie has a tendency to forget things even if he was just told them. Without George, Lennie would not have any idea what to do, where to go, or what to say. George is like Lennie’s brain; he does most of the thinking and just repeatedly tells Lennie what to say/do. Without George Lennie would never have
George’s struggles with himself become apparent at the beginning of the novel. Steinbeck clearly lets the reader know that George has conflicting feelings about Lennie. He believed, “ ...if he was alone he could live so easy. He could go get a job an ' work, an ' no trouble” (11). George is basically telling Lennie that sometimes, he wishes he could live
Just as looking after each other is important, another component of a healthy relationship is being able to make each other better people. With no surprise, George and Lennie are able to do this for each other constantly. The first way that George and Lennie make each other better people is because they have common goals between each other. George and Lennie explain to readers how their goal is to own a farm with each other. Their farm will take up an acre of land, and it will have a shack on that land that they can live in. They will own chickens, pigs, cows, and rabbits that Lennie will be able to tend. (Steinbeck 105-106)
From Lennie’s perspective his goal is to work hard, error free, in order to tend the rabbits on their dream’s farm, elsewise he will be punished by George. But you ain’t gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won’t let you tend the rabbits (page 9). From this quote we can see that they only stick by each other to stave off loneliness. Granted Lennie has the upper hand of strength, whilst George has more advanced communication skills; it creates a yin yang aeffect, but Lennie's immature, imbecile ways is beginning to threaten their dream. George as a result is becoming, understandably, sick of having to punish Lennie for threatening the aforementioned. For these justified reasons George emotionally ended Lennie’s life with positive thoughts of the two living off the fata of the lan' (page
In the novella, Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie have a unique relationship where they both rely on each other in order to fulfill each other's needs. This friendship has its strengths and weaknesses. Lennie has a mental disability that enables him to be low-functioning, meaning he can’t complete simple tasks and think like a normal person. However, due to his size, he has the manpower do the job of three men on the ranch. This is an advantage because most people are not his size, which means he can farm larger loads. This is what other farmers need. On the other hand, George does not have a disability, but he is small; he relies on Lennie to help them seem intimidating in order to work. Also, George is more intelligent than most people and
George is obviously taking care of Lennie from the get go. From page one of this rivenous book, it portrays George as the leader. When the duo first enter the scene, George is leading Lennie beside a river bed, and coaching him through what he should say and do in front of the new boss. Later in the book, other characters opinions come into play with the way George takes control of Lennie. Curley’s wife cared to tell Lennie,"I tol’ you an tol’ you," she said. "I tol you, ‘Min’ George because he’s such a nice fella an’ good to you.’ But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things.”(Steinbeck). She is stating that she feels George is good to Lennie and takes care of him. Although George didn’t necessarily mind taking care of Lennie, he still always had something to say to him out of his frustration, or because of concurrent situations with the quotations."God, you're a lot of trouble," said George. "I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl."(Steinbeck). In this excerpt, George expresses to Lennie that he would be better off without him and he could finally be on his own. In conclusion to the relentless dependability that Lennie relies on George for, George in turn became very exhausted and
A tumultuous relationship can be seen between two characters in a novella by Steinbeck titled Of Mice and Men. This relationship, like many has it’s variety of ups and downs between the characters George and Lennie. To a normal person, it may seem unusual for a so called friend to put the other person in unsafe and mindless predicaments, but there seems to be an underlying tone of attachment and care under all of their differences in the part of George for Lennie. When I think of a great friend, I visualize a person that will care for you, protect you, and always remain by your side and that is exactly what George did for Lennie many times. The hardships that Lennie put George through could have easily seen the demise of their friendship,
A friendship is a special relationship between peoples , It occurs between friend that care about each other. In talking about friendship , the novella from John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men”. Two friends George and Lennie ,they are trying to find a job together to complete their dream of having a farm. But Lennie is an adult size with a child's mind, he gets in trouble a lot and as his friend, George helping him solve the problem and taking care of Lennie. Later George and Lennie finds a new job , but George lies to the boss about the problem that Lennie has.
Friendship is a way to express the emotions for the person that you love and care the most in life. Steinbeck created the two main characters, George who lives a normal life and Lennie who has a intellectual disability. George serves as a father figure, he gives Lennie counsel about what he should do in order to survive. The dream of both men is to buy their own ranch and spend the rest of their lives happily. But the road to prosperity is full of difficult challenges. In the beginning of the novel, the author quote, “They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight
George started this novel with a dream of living an ideal life with Lennie. “We’re gonna live off the fatta the land,” he’d say. He wanted to go somewhere off the grid with Lennie so that they’d both be safe and not have to worry about other people or Lennie getting in trouble. He wants to escape the harshness of the world that the two live in so that they can both be safe and happy. “I’d be bringin’ in my own crops ‘stead of doing all the work and not getting what comes outta the ground,” he hopes to leave the life of the migrant worker and own his own ranch and be his own boss. As the novel goes on he realises that any of this is probably not possible. No matter how much he saves up he will never be able to get enough money to buy and sustain his dream farm and Lennie is going to keep getting in trouble.