Essay On Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men

Though it's from John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent, the quote, “It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone,” can be used to describe the relationship between George Milton and Lennie Small. George and Lennie were ranch workers during the Great Depression in California. Most ranch workers in that time period were incredibly lonely and depressed, as they had no one else and had to do laborious work just to survive. However George would often remind himself and Lennie that they were different, as they had each other. The two seemed like an unlikely pair of friends, as George is street smart and temperamental and Lennie is considered simple minded and kind. Steinbeck portrays

One of the foes being Curley, the son of the ranch owner. Curley had a particular dislike for Lennie, as Lennie was very big, and Curley was considered very small. While all the workers were in the bunkhouse, Curley barged in and accused Slim, a well liked ranch worker, of sleeping with his wife. Slim and the workers all laughed it off, but Lennie was still smiling after all the laughing had died down. Curley then confronts Lennie in a quarrelsome way, and throws a punch at Lennie. "Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me. I'll show ya who's yella." (62) Curley repeatedly hit Lennie, and Lennie kept begging him to stop. All the workers were yelling at Lennie to stop Curley, but Lennie was panicked and didn't listen, but when he heard George’s voice telling him to fight back, he grabbed Curley’s fist. He grabbed it and didn’t let go, crushing it. Curley was crying out in pain, but Lennie wouldn't let go, and it had taken all the workers to separate each other. Lennie then began sobbing, blubbering about how he didn't want to hurt anyone. "I didn't wanta, I didn't wanta hurt him." (65) After all the yelling had died down, Slim had made Curley promise to tell people his hand had been caught in a machine. While all the ranch hands went to bring Curley to the hospital, George had stayed behind to clean up Lennie’s cuts. This can be considered an act of

Lennie had been in the barn, playing with his puppy when he had realised that he had killed it. "I was jus playin’ with him… an’ he made like he’s gonna bite me… an’ I made like I was gonna smack him … an’… an’ I done it. An’ then he was dead.” (87) Miserable over his dog’s death, he started yelling at the puppy for ruining his chance to tend the rabbits on their farm. While Lennie was mourning, Curley’s Wife had entered the barn and sat down next to Lennie, he then hurried to hide the puppy’s corpse into a pile of straw. Since he had repeatedly been told not to talk to her, he was reluctant to do so, but after gentle persuasion on her part, they had gotten into a discussion about things that are soft. This unfortunately lead to Lennie snapping her neck, whilst feeling her soft hair. Panicked, he immediately ran to the brush where George had instructed him to go to incase of emergency. “I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing.” (91) After word had spread about Curley’s Wife’s death, George saw the puppy and knew it was Lennie. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the ranch workers, and Curley had organized a group of men to seek out and lynch Lennie. George raced to the brush, where he found Lennie crying. After being asked if he was mad at Lennie, George consoled him telling him that he wasn't mad at him. "No, Lennie, I ain't mad. I never been mad, and I ain' now. That's a thing I want ya to know."