In the book, “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck, we see George and Lennie, a group that is very ordinary, come together as a family and have a dream that they are trying to reach. In the way of this dream there are many conflicts that stop it. Mainly having to do with where they and the people they meet are from. The dream that George and Lennie have is to have a place of their own, where they don’t work for anybody, that has animals and crops. In the way of this dream, there are many conflicts and because of that, they can’t get to it. The one conflict that affects the book the most is the conflict between Lennie and Curley, who Curley happens to be the boss’s son. Lennie is a guy that looks very big and scary but has the mind of a child. Curley is short and puts up a problem with everybody to prove he is much more than his height. When …show more content…
Curley came in the bunkhouse following Slim and apologizing for questioning him, Carlson said to curley “you’re yella as a frog belly… you come for me, an’ I’ll kick your God damn head off” (Steinbeck 62), that is where all the guys laugh at Curley and he sees Lennie laugh which gets him embarrassed so he fights him.
Even when George by accidentally killed Curley’s wife, Curley suspected it was because Lennie did not like him and he wanted to do something hurtful to him. He got so mad that he said to Carlson, “When you see’um, don’t give’im no chance. Shoot for his guts.” (Steinbeck 97). He wanted Lennie to also suffer for what he did to him and his wife. Another conflict in the book that changed everything was the conflict between George and Lennie. Even though George loves Lennie and would do anything to keep him safe, Lennie has not done the same. He has made them lose jobs and move place to place
constantly because of his actions. Survival is the number one thing for these men but for George, it’s double. He has to make sure that Lennie survives too. When George and Lennie are sitting near the campfire, George says “God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No trouble at all… Why, I would stay in a cat house all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of” (Steinbeck 11). After George looks at Lennie's face, he sees that Lennie is upset, so he tries to comfort Lennie by saying he is just fooling around. He still has this thing in the back of his mind questioning whether staying with Lennie is the best choice for him. He denies it and stays, but it’s still there. At the end of the book, George is the one who shoots Lennie. His hands shook so much, that at one point he put the gun down, but he knew that he had to this or else Lennie was going to get hurt very badly and George was going to go through a struggle trying to prove that Lennie is innocent and he was tired of doing that. All of the conflicts that are brought up in the book, only show up because of where all the characters are from. Curley is from a family that owns acres of land that have workers constantly working on them. He has the money and because of his height, he tries to talk and act tough, to look tough in front of everybody. But the real Curley is weak and he can’t control his wife because she has the “eye” for every man she sees. The fact that Curley come in and questions about his wife constantly shows that he wants sexual power over his wife because that is what shows his masculinity in front of other men. Lennie is tall and buff guy that looks tough, but isn’t tough at all, he is like a child and he loves soft things. He is very close to George because George was the one that promised Aunt Clara that he would take care of Lennie after her. Lennie also is the type that panics very quickly, like on the day that he killed Curley’s wife, “Lennie was in a panic. His face was contorted. She screamed then, and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose” (Steinbeck 91). He doesn’t know what he does and forgets incredibly fast. George is very calm but he shows a bit of a different side to Lennie. He constantly tells him how their lives would be great because since Lennie is like a child he needs to have dreams and George gets to attached to this and when he has to let it go, it becomes a very big difficulty. When all of these different backgrounds come together, there ends up being a conflict. Either between each other or with themselves. Consistently, George and Lennie go over there dream farm. They try to comfort themselves in knowing that they will reach to the top one day. But that never happens because of the conflicts that are led by most of the characters pasts.
George felt though an extremely difficult choice, killing Lennie himself was the right decision. Curley was gonna get his revenge and George did not want that because he did not want Lennie to die painfully. “‘I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot him in the guts.’”(Steinbeck 96). When Lennie killed Curley’s wife, Curley wanted to give him the most painful death. Curley wanted to shoot Lennie in the stomach which wouldn’t kill you at first, Instead you would bleed out slowly and painfully. George didn’t want Lennie to suffer so he knew he had to get to Lennie before Curley did and kill Lennie the fastest and least painful death he could which he did. Lennie would be arrested and thrown in jail for
Because of Lennie?s mental impairment and immaturity, he would not be able to handle such animosity. In saying that Lennie is not to blame for the death of Curley?s Wife, Lennie should not have to face the merciless people at the farm. George knows that Lennie is unable to survive in the world. As disappointing as it is for George to know that he and Lennie will never be able to fulfill their everlasting dream, George realizes that the best possible thing for Lennie is to end his complicated and unachieved life on Earth.... ... middle of paper ...
Of Mice and Men - George and Lennie seem to have a very close friendship
Firstly, if George did not kill Lennie, Curley would have inhumanly killed Lennie. Curley plans to torture Lennie because he has killed his wife and wrecked his hand in the fight earlier in the book. For example: Curley says, “ I’m gonna shoot the guts out of that big bastard myself even if I only got one hand. I’m gonna get im” (98).
There are a variety of relationship of people can have with other people. In John Steinbeck's novels, relationships between characters can be difficult, but are always important. The central relationship in Of Mice and Men is between Lennie and George.
...od to himself. During this scene, you get to really see how their friendship, the bravery and courage of George and the shear companionship that they had drove George to do what he did. If George did not do, what he did then Curley would have shot him like how Carlson killed Candy's dog. If George let Curley kill Lennie, he would have the same regret as Candy had for not shooting his dog himself. When Lennie killed Curley's wife, he had not only wrecked his life but the person he cared most for, George. Not to forget Curley's wife and Candy. Curley's wife lost her life and Candy lost the dream as well as George. So you see how important Lennie was in the sense of keeping the dream of owing a farm and "living of the fatta the land" alive. So although George may not have seen it at the time, but Lennie was as much of the key to the dream as he was the destruction of it.
While George is away, Lennie does something very bad, he kills Curley’s wife along with his dog; both on accident. This event causes Lennie to run away and Curley to go after him in anger to kill him. “‘All right, you guys," he said. "The nigger's got a shotgun. You take it, Carlson. When you see 'um, don't give 'im no chance. Shoot for his guts. That'll double 'im over’”(48). In the quote, it shows that Curley has no compassion or empathy. He does not show empathy towards neither his wife or Lennie and his actions. Instead, he says he is going to kill him in a painful, long way. This whole quote says so much about Curley’s character, it shows he has a poor character and bad morals; unlike George. Curley’s characterization reveals a lot about his character and how he is ruthless and doesn’t care for others not even his deceased wife. George later kills Lennie out of compassion because he is better off killed peacefully than by what is to come, Curley and his painful death. “Lennie begged, "Le's do it now. Le's get that place now." "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta." And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he
In the end Lennie caused a big conflict by killing Curley's wife. This lead George to kill Lennie for his own good. If George wouldn’t of killed Lennie, Curley would have killed him in a more brutal way by making him suffer. George and Lennie could have ran away but Curley wasn’t going to give up until he found them. If they would have ran away they both would have been lynched. Killing Lennie was a big decision George had to make, but it was the best for Lennie. Even when Lennie died George managed to make him happy by telling him the story of their dream farm and their plans for it. George was a good friend so he did what a good friend would do in that
The novel of mice and men by John Steinbeck is a heartwarming story about two men George and Lennie. George is a small stocky man who prides himself on his ability to be independent, and often taunts Lennie by saying "God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want.” (pg12). Lennie on the other hand is a very large childlike man who is very dependent of George. These two have stuck together for a long time and over that time have developed a dream of owning their own ranch. Steinbeck uses a variety of techniques to display the theme “even the best laid themes can go wrong”
These two drastically different characters rely so much on one another that it becomes difficult to function alone in a “normal” society. Their friendship is pushed to the breaking point when Lennie’s actions lead to the death of a another human. George must then decide what is best for Lennie. He proceeds to take Lennie’s life himself rather than condemn him to an uncertain fate if handed over to the authorities or, worse yet, to Curley (Steinbeck 103-116). This recurring theme of friendship lasts throughout the entirety of the book through George and Lennie’s undeniable bond, how they face society's narrow minded view of their relationship, and through their
George knows that if Curley finds Lennie he will abuse him and unmercifully kill him. Another instance is when Curley is being made fun of by all the other guys and he gets flustered and takes it out on Lennie because he thinks Lennie is laughing at him. Abruptly Curley starts thrashing and punching Lennie and Lennie is not doing anything to avert the punches so George has to be courageous and step in, to tell him what to do. It is not long after the fight breaks out that “George [is] on his feet yelling “get him Lennie”( Steinbeck 63). George has to use immense courage to get on his feet and encourage Lennie to fight back because if Curley wants to he can very well stop fighting Lennie and turn around to confront George. However it takes even greater courage when George makes the decision that he will have to kill Lennie. It is evident to the reader that when George is trying to work up the courage to end Lennie’s life it is very difficult. When he finally finds his unmistakable bravery he” brought the muzzle close to the back of Lennie’s head... the hand shook… his hand steadied...he pulled the trigger”(Steinbeck 106). George kills Lennie knowing that he did the right
Overall, Steinbeck presents several dreams from various characters in order to portray how dreams are ripped asunder. Through the story the reader followed main characters George and Lennie, as well as Curley’s wife’s dream through the novella and understood that “even the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” (Burns Corporation)
George is constantly wanting him to remember things he simply can’t. However, the situation get worse when they get to the farm. The owner son, who was a fighter, is threatened by Lennie’s physical appearance. “Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys” (Steinbeck 26). Curley is provoking Lennie and wanting to fight with him. However Lennie does not want to fight, and clearly states “ I don’t want no trouble” (Steinbeck 29). This is not good for Lennie because this only worsens his disability because he becomes more nervous.
Walter Winchell, an American newspaper and radio commentator, was once quoted saying, “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” George and Lennie from the novel, Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, embody Walter Winchell’s definition of a real friend by always walking in for each other when it seems like everyone else walks out. The relationship of these two friends is one that is better than the relationship that Romeo and Juliet have in the novel, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. Of Mice and Men is a novel about two traveling workers, George and Lennie, during the Great Depression who arrive and begin working on a farm in California. The unlikely bond between George, a small but intelligent
First and foremost, when Lennie feels as if his dream would be ruined by Curley’s wife, he aggressively uttered, “I don’t want you to yell. You gonna get me in trouble jus’ like George says you will” (91). By showing Lennie’s reaction to Curley’s wife struggling to get out of his sturdy grip, Steinbeck is proving how when the slow, bear-like character feels as if his dream of tending rabbits is at risk of disintegrating, he instinctively protects himself. Needless to say, Lennie is working for his and George’s goal to later own their own land and doesn’t want anyone to get in the way of that; consequently, in Lennie’s attempt to silence Curley’s wife, he kills her. Furthermore, while explaining to Slim what happened in Weed, George mentions, “an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is just hold on” (41).