Of Mice And Men Relationship Between George And Lennie

Of mice and men is a novel written by John Steinbeck in 1937, the book was the seventh he wrote out of thirty one. It explores the complex relationship that childhood best friends George and Lennie have. The novel shows in great detail their problems they will face and solve together, why and what keeps their opposite personalities and physical appearances in coexistence, and how their bizarre personality traits differs to other people they will meet along their journey.In the novel there are many problems that the two main leads, George and Lennie face. Because of Lennie’s childlike demeanor and innocence he often gets intotrouble with other people, an example of this is (Chapter 2, paragraph 24) “The girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she

been raped. The guys in weed start a party outto lynch Lennie...An’ that night we scrammed outta there.” This shows that people take advantage of Lennie’s dense personality and his lack of understanding in social settings while make him out to be the villain.

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

way.
In the book the duo George and Lennie are portrayed as the “odd ones out” for having each other’s back.

They differ from the other people on the farm for never knowing what loneliness is because they have always had one another. George is a man who without Lennie would be alone, even though he would never admit it. Similarly there is a character in the book who goes by the name of Crooks. Thereason why the author put Crooks into this novel is to show what George would have possibly turned out to be without Lennie. Crooks is a man who has been alone ever since he came to the farm, he rarely talks to anyone and demands to be left alone as shown in this quote (Chapter 4, paragraph 2) “He kept his distance and demanded that other people kept theirs.” When in reality all he wanted to do was to talk to others as seen in this example (Chapter 4, paragraph59) “Come on in. If everybody’s comin’ in, you might just as well.’ It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger.” This quote shows that even though he seems cold and cruel deep down he has needs just like every human being has, and that is the need for companionship. Without Lennie, George would have been more alike to Crooks. But since George always had Lennie he is dissimilar to Crooks and the other workers on the farm because he has never felt unaccompanied since Lennie entered his life.All in all George and Lennie had a very peculiar friendship because of the differences they share mentally and

physically. George was the father-like person to Lennie, he scolded him and protected him. Lennie was the seemingly big guy with a child-like mentality and pure innocence to how the world works. Even though Lennie always got them into problems and even though they both shared striking differences in their mindset and physical aspects they always had one another’s happiness in mind and that truly showed in the final chapter of this novel.