John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Introduction

This is a novella written by John Steinbeck in 1937, about two men that lived during the depression. They were migrant workers, who wanted to buy a farm. ()

Friendship

Ever since Lennie’s Aunt Clara died, George had to look after him because Lennie cannot look after himself (Steinbeck). Lennie accidentally scared a girl and he and George had to leave Weed, and they had to go get new jobs (Attell). George gets angry at Lennie for accidentally getting them in trouble and says he should leave and how easier his life would be without Lennie (Hart). He then tells Lennie that he did not mean what he said and would not leave him (Hart).

Lennie offers to go away to someplace else if that was what George wanted, but George lets Lennie stay with him (Steinbeck). Lennie says he will go live somewhere else and take care of himself, but George does not want that (Steinbeck). When cooking the beans, Lennie says George can have all the beans he wants and that he was only joking about wanting ketchup to go on the beans (Steinbeck). George says how people like him and Lennie are lonely, by Lennie says that he and George are not lonely because they have each other to look after (Attell).

Before George and Lennie get interviewed for their new job, George tells Lennie to stay quiet so he would not accidentally mess up and not get the jobs (Steinbeck 3). Lennie remembers for the first part, but then forgets and George has to explain why he answers for Lennie, saying that he is Lennie’s cousin who takes care of him since his aunt died, and the reason why Lennie is like the way he is is because he got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid (Steinbeck 11). Later after the interview, Lennie asks if what George said was true. Ge...

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"Dreams into Nightmares." John Steinbeck's Fiction Revisited. Warren G. French. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994. 69-74. Twayne's United States Authors Series 638. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 21 May 2014.

Reith, Duncan. "Futile dreams and stagnation: politics in Of Mice and Men: the American novelist John Steinbeck has sometimes been criticised as a sentimentalist. Duncan Reith uncovers the bleak political pessimism behind his novel of ranch life during the Great Depression, Of Mice and Men." The English Review 15.2 (2004): 6+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 21 May 2014.