Of Mice and Men I have read many books during my lifetime, one of which was John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. At first I couldn't really understand the relationship between Lennie and George the mear fact that George seemed to be rough with Lennie sometimes seeming a bit abrasive towards him. However, reading onward I learned that there was reason behind his abrasiveness. The story takes place during the depression, a time in which families where struggling to get by with the little they had. Men traveled across the country looking for any possible job, many worked as ranch hands traveling from ranch to ranch working till there was no more work. This brings us to George and Lennie both traveling ranch hands, both hoping to gather enough money to be able to live their dreams of owning their own ranch. …show more content…
We know that Lennie’s demeanor is that of a child, to him George is a brother figure that took him in after the death of his aunt. However, due to his limited understanding of actions and consequences is why George doesn’t abandon him. Throughout the story other character emerge, each one different however similar, trying to achieve a dream that may never come true or yearning to escape from their loneliness. Loneliness comes in many shapes and forms some in a loveless marriage others by the death of a companion yet others via the lack of social acceptance. This loneliness is the precursor to Lennie’s demise by the hand of his best friend and protector George. The isolation of a young woman, the need of her husband to prove his manhood creates a Pandora’s box of hate, lies and betrayal leading to the death of an
...e ever since they were children. Lennie knew that he owed George for all that he had done for him over the years. Other than that, Lennie just loved George and wanted to be with him. He hated the thought of making George angry. Often times Lennie said he could go by himself and live in a cave if George really did not want to be with him. It was obvious that Lennie could never really think of leaving George. Lennie stayed loyal to George until the very end, unaware of what would happen. Even though George did care for Lennie, he did not give Lennie the loyalty and friendship back like he deserved. It was easy for Lennie to be so loyal partially because of his simple mindedness. He almost acted like a puppy, following around its owner and trying to defend it. If only George realized what a good friend he had in Lennie.
During the beginning, Lennie is characterized as childish. He is very small minded. Steinbeck indirectly states that he has a mental disability. Readers notice this because of his child-like actions, specifically on page 3, “Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all, and then he sat up on the bank and his hat dripped down on his blue coat and ran down his back.” This disability forces George to sacrifice his freedom to help survive with his disability. George gets frustrated with Lennie’s playful personality easily, as a father might with his son. On page 11, George lets his anger out on Lennie. “I wisht I could put you in a cage with
Lennie's loneliness stems from his constancy of being yelled at by George. Lennie didn't like to be around George when he was yelling at him. Lennie and George were friends, but George yelled at him just to try to keep him out of trouble. Lennie tried to make friends other than George, but it never seemed to work out. He even tried to make friends with Crooks, when no one else would ever talk to him. This shows that Lennie really needs a friend that can understand him (Moore 603).
We find out in the latter stages of the story that George has a weakness, specifically his dependency of Lennie. Lennie, intelligently, tries to manipulate George by stating that he will leave him and ?live in that cage?. This irritates George who is desperate to win Lennie?s friendship back: I want you to stay with me Lennie, no you stay with me?. This shows that he needs him just as much as Lennie needs him. In general the reader can see that George needs his mate, Lennie to be able to survive, regardless of how mentally retarded he is.
Lennie thinks of George as his only friend, his guardian, someone who he can trust and depend on, someone who had accepted him for who he is despite his childlike tendencies. Every time he did something wrong, his only thoughts would be of George’s disapproval. “I did a real bad thing. I shouldn’t have done that. George’ll be mad at me.
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...
George and Lennie are like brothers. They need each other to survive. Lennie seems to suffer from a brain disease as his mind cannot grasp on to anything for too long. For this reason, George is fond of Lennie’s company and feeble-minded personality.
George cares for Lennie, but Lennie’s naive characteristics leads them both to trouble. Lennie is essentially on the run due to the crime he commits; that is why Curley and his men are on a manhunt to kill Lennie. Lennie also becomes a hinderance to George; Lennie’s desire to pet soft things never led to a stable life. No matter all the accidents Lennie gets George into, their bond of a companionship never broke. George never leaves Lennie’s side, and Lennie never leaves George. “Cause I want you to stay with me.” They both need each other to reach the one goal, which is to own a ranch. From all the experiences together, George is the only character who has the right to take Lennie’s life, since George is the only one who understands Lennie and he is his caretaker. “When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin’, got kind used to each other after a while.” Proving the long term relationship George has with Lennie, and everything they endure on a daily
In Of Mice and Men, there are two main identifiable causes of George and Lennie’s conflict. The first one is that Lennie is not bright, so he causes harm without even meaning to. Lennie is like a hyper dog playing with a small kitten, even though he does not mean to hurt anyone, he still does sometimes. This is shown when he kills one of Slim’s pups (Steinbeck pg 62). The other cause of this conflict is that George and Lennie can not earn all of the money that they need. The farm that George has in
George and Lennie’s relationship is a complex one. For Lennie, it is all he has known since being brought up by his Aunt Clara. He makes a veiled threat to George at the beginning of the novel that he can live alone “If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time.” However both George and the reader know that Lennie would not survive. George feels responsible for Lennie, and in a way is making up for the mean things he did to him as a child, like making him jump into a river when he couldn’t swim. However, Lennie also gives George great comfort as his love for his friend is unconditional. Lennie is an honest companion: he brings out the paternal side in George “I wisht I could put you in a cage with about a million mice an’ let you have fun.”
The part that George plays in problems is that he protects Lennie and takes care of him no matter what.The reason why the odd pair of friends have stayed together for so long is because of the death of Lennie’s guardian, Aunt Clara. In hindsight of her death Lennie was forced into finding a person who can take care of him, which was George. Since George and Lennie have known each other ever since they were adolescents which is shown in this quote (Chapter 2, paragraph 18) “Him and me was both born in Auburn. I know his Aunt Clara...When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin’. Got kinda used to each other after a little while.” George being the more serious and straightforward type of person he ended up turning into Lennie’s father-figure and the man that Lennie respects and looks up to. While Lennie being the more dense and innocent of the two turned into the person that gives George company along the
The first topic this novel explains is the importance of companionship in one’s life. Companionship, and also lack of, is a consistent theme throughout the novel regarding George and Lennie’s friendship, and also the ranchmen's lack of companionship. From the beginning of the novel it is easy to realize that George and Lennie have a very special friendship. It is not just a friend or bestfriend, but rather a big brother to a little brother or even a dog to its master. George and Lennie spend their lives roaming from ranch to ranch in search of work, which many men did during the times of the Great Depression which is the era the novel takes place.
The relationship between George and Lennie shows the limitless reaches one would go for his fellow man on a microcosmis level Steinbeck uses these two characters to represent strong one-on-one relationshiips that one experiences throughout their own personal life. Although George and Lennie are two individual men, the qualities that one lacked, the other possessed: "Behind him[George] walked his opposite" (mice, pg.2). Consequently, over the years George and Lennie created such a bond that they completed each other. Through George, Steinbeck represents the sacrifices that are made in the best interest of a loved one. These sacrifices presented George with many hardships and frustrations throughout his life. "If I was alone I could live so easy." (mice, pg. 11) Because Lennie was unable to think in a logical manner for himself, George gave up his own dreams and created a single dream for both himself and Lennie: "OK, someday we're gonna get the jack together and we'...
At this time, families were split up because they couldn’t always afford to feed all their children. Kids became homeless, riding trains from town to town, looking for work or food. There’s a sense of seclusion associated with this reality, the survival of your own. Then, companionship developed amongst these travelers, the kind of friendship that George and Lennie have in the story. All they really have is each other, having given up everything to try to endure the Great Depression: “ ‘There’s enough beans for four men’…
Relationships In “Of Mice and Men” Relationships are the essential “backbone” of John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, the most prominent being that of George Milton and Lennie Small. We learn early on that these two men are not related but rather are brought together by Lennie’s aunt Clara when she passes and George agrees to take care of Lennie. What is surprising about this pairing however, is not that they are not bonded by blood but rather that they are bonded at all in the time period of the depression. George however, lets us know pretty early on that this relationship hasn’t always been as fair as they make it out to be.