Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Friendship is a great thing to have throughout your lifetime. In the novella Of Mice and Men friendship is a greatly promoted theme. The two main characters George and Lennie were very close friends who had each other’s backs. George had promised Lennie’s aunt that he would look after Lennie because he wasn’t exactly right in the head, and had the mindset of a young child. Since then George has always taken care of Lennie no matter the circumstances. Candy is also another character in the story with a white, old, and sick dog as his companion that he’s had for a very long time. Friendship can be between any two people no matter their qualities, in life and even in death.

To start off the many different examples of friendship shown in the story, is at the very beginning. It was mentioned on page 7 of the book, ”An’ you ain’t gonna do no more bad things like you done in Weed, neither.”. I the very beginning of the movie it explains that scene a little more

and shows the two running from a field and then hiding into the overgrowth among a small stream, most presumably in Weed. George was keeping the promise that he had made to Lennie’s aunt and kept him out of trouble, being the actions of only a true friend.
There was then later on another act of friendship, but between two other characters; Candy and his dog.

Candy had explained that him and his dog had been friends for a very long time, since his dog was a pup. It’s said that a dog is a man’s best friend so i imagine that candy’s dog was indeed his BEST friend. Carlson had came into the bunkhouse after a day of work and said to Candy that the stench of his dog was preventing them all from sleeping, and proposed that Candy should shoot his dog in the back of the head. Throughout the whole conversation Candy had hesitated more than once to tell Carlson that he was right, that the dog needed to die in peace. (Page 45) “No, I couldn’t do that. I had ‘im too long.”, “I’m so used to him...I had him from a pup.”. Then he finally gives in to Carlson when he offers to even do it himself. Him letting Carlson is a true act of friendship, because Candy knows that his dog is suffering and chooses to let him be put down peacefully, despite all of the time that they had

together.
Lastly is a foreshadowed moment from the last example of the dog being shot, when George shoots Lennie. Lennie has always had a great fascination with soft and pretty things, so when Curley’s wife offers to let him stroke her hair he of course has to. However Lennie cannot control himself about how vigorously he is stroking her hair, and the girl begins to scream. Lennie doesn’t want George to know he’s made the girl scream, because he wants to tend the rabbits they’re going to get at their new house they had saved money for, so Lennie tries to quiet the girl… Using more strength than he intended, and thus leading to him snapping the girl’s neck and him having to run away from the ranch to the hiding spot George previously told him to go to. George finds him in the location and knows that Curley is going to want to shoot Lennie to make him suffer, and that there are next to no circumstances where Lennie would be locked up for his crime. George decides that whilst in the middle of a conversation where Lennie is extremely happy, is the best time to shoot him in the back of the head so that he feels no pain (with the same pistol that was used to shoot Candy’s dog).