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…
And to be successful in their eyes they would no longer be on the run from Lennie’s problems. They work together to receive fifty dollars per person at the end of the month to put towards their dream of owning a ranch. They depend on each other to work hard and to continue working. Their relationship may be a balance of working together, but that does not mean they do not depend on each other.
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…
companionship. They, together, are each other's companions. They do not have to go find one, much like many other people, including the majority of the ranch workers. For them, companionship is a part of their dream, even they are already companions. Companionship builds their dream. Without companionship, the dream dies, much like in the end of the book. Although there are aspects of their relationship that make it symbiotic, there is a reason to call it a parasitic relationship, too.
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
do. The relationship between George and Lennie is beneficial to both of them because they both shield each other from the world of reality. They keep going together, pursuing their dream as one. Without the other, they would be in a dreadful situation in the world of reality. They need each other to have fulfilling lives that they want to 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)
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.
We also notice that Lennie is always traveling or right next to George. Lennie isn't “living” because “If you need assisted living 24/7 you are not living” (we need to talk about euthanasia). Without George Lennie would just cause more and more harm to his surroundings and would be unable to live and operate without becoming a danger to
Steinbeck gives a lot of reasons for George to stay with Lennie, but his critics also have some merit in their criticism that the story isn't believable. Steinbeck's critics suggest that Steinbeck is "simply sentimental in this regard." There are some very compelling reasons George would like to stay with Lennie... but being "sentimental," towards Lennie has nothing to do with it.
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.
In all of these quotes George is looking after Lennie similar to how a brother would look after a younger sibling. From when he is talking to Slim about Lennie’s work ethic on page 39 to when he is trying to keep Lennie from getting into trouble with Curley and his wife on pages 32 and 29, George is always looking after Lennie in some way. Alongside the last example, Steinbeck illustrates a caring relationship between George and Lennie. “ [George] ‘They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that gives a hoot in hell about em-’...[Lennie] ‘But not us’” (104). George and Lennie always come back to the subject of looking out for each other. This is demonstrated when Lennie is talking to Crooks about George and Crooks says, “jus’ s’pose he don’t come back. What’ll you do then” (72)? Just the mention of George doesn't come back or being hurt makes Lennie defensive about George, “Suddenly Lennie’s eyes centered and grew quiet, and mad. He stood up and walked dangerously toward Crooks, Who hurt George” (72). Lennie is attached to George, to Lennie, he is the only person in the world that actually cares about his well being.They have been together for years, which is quite similar
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
George understands that he can’t hide Lennie from the world forever and that the natural order of things is that the strong pick off the weak, and he will eventually have to let Lennie go. This motivates him to seize reality, meaning he had to kill Lennie, which itself was a sign of tremendous growth in himself. Killing Lennie had many effects on George; one of them being that he became one of the men he’d tell Lennie stories about. George believed that he and Lennie were not like the other migrant workers – travelling alone and spending all their earning on a whim. When George would te...
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
Honestly, George did not have a chance with Lennie in his life. With Lennie constantly needing George in everyday life, I find that it would be hard for George to live his own life without having to worry about Lennie in every way of his life. Every time George sets up something for Lennie and George’s “dream” to come true, Lennie accidentally and innocently screws it up. In the beginning of Steinbeck’s novel, the leader brings up a past incident in a town they had previously worked in, Weed. In Weed, Lennie had a mishap with a lady there who did not understand his condition. In his child like state of mind, he simply wanted to feel the softness of her dress, but she took it as he wanted to rape her? I;m not sure how that could be, but just as well, it was probably very frightening to have a large strong man grabbing onto your dress. All in all, they ended up having to flee Weed to keep themselves out of trouble. Later on, George tells Lennie that it is bound to happen again; he wishes it would not. "Oh, so ya forgot that too, did ya? Well, I ain't gonna remind ya, fear ya do it again." A light of understanding broke on Lennie's face. "They run us outa Weed," he exploded triumphantly. "Run us out, hell," said George disgustedly. "We run. They was lookin' for us, but they didn't catch us." (Steinbeck). Characters other than just George knew that Lennie was
Lennie can not be left alone in the world because it is evident that he cannot sustain a somewhat normal life without somebody constantly guiding him in life. Abandonment was never the issue between George and Lennie, however it was not beneficial that Lennie always seemed to get himself into frustrating situations. In the book, George portrays the qualities of a good friend when does not let Lennie get run out of town by himself (Steinbeck 41-42). Lennie was caught in a situation that was misunderstood by the men of the town of Weed and had no choice but to leave or get lynched. George had no part in the misunderstandment but still decided to take matters into his own hands and protect Lennie from the town’s men. By doing this, we know George is a good friend towards Lennie by having the generosity in not leaving Lennie alone to suffer the deadly
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