True Friendship What is the definition of true friendship? John Steinbeck's book Of Mice and Men is about two men, George and Lennie, who are migrant workers in California during the great depression. A true friend is someone who cares for you, is loyal to you, and will be there for you. Some people might think that George is not a true friend to Lennie. They may think this because George is mean to Lennie on occasion because he can not defend himself because he has a mental illness, but overall, George cares for Lennie, and helps him through thick and thin. George and Lennie have been at the farm for a few days now. Lennie is out, and George is talking to one of the other migrant workers. His name is Slim. George is talking to Slim about …show more content…
how he use to tease and bully Lennie. “‘Used to play jokes on ‘im ‘cause he was too dumb to take care of ‘imself…’Tell you what made me stop that. One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in.’ ‘An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke...An’ he was so damn nice to me for pullin’ him out… Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more’”(40). George use to pick on Lennie, but now you can see that he does not. When George said “Well, I ain’t done nothing like that no more” he is showing that he feels bad for what he did to Lennie. A reason George is a true friend is because he takes care of Lennie.
George does all the work of getting Lennie the job on the ranch because he knows that Lennie could not get the job himself. George and Lennie just got to the farm and are talking to the Boss. George is telling the Boss how good of a worker Lennie is, and George is doing all the talking so Lennie does not have to. “The boss said suddenly, ‘Listen, Small!’ Lennie raised his head. ‘What can you do?’ In a panic, Lennie looked at George for help. ‘He can do anything you tell him,’ said George. ‘He’s a good skinner. He can rassle grain bags, drive a cultivator. He can do anything. Just give him a try”(22). George is advocating for Lennie, he is saying how Lennie is such a good worker, and for the boss to give him a try. Lennie looks to George for help when the boss directly talks to him. George being the true friend he is, helps Lennie out. Another example of George being a true friend is when George and Lennie are at the river bank the night before they go for their first day of their new job. George is talking to Lennie about if he gets in trouble, to come to the river bank. “‘Look, Lennie. I want you to look around here. You can remember this place, can’t you?...’ ‘Sure,’ said Lennie. ‘I can remember this...’ ‘...Well, look. Lennie-if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here and an’ hide in the brush.’ ‘Hide in the brush,’ said Lennie slowly. ‘Hide in the
brush till I come for you. Can you remember that”(15)? George wants Lennie to come back to the river bank and hide if he gets in trouble, he says he will come find Lennie in the brush. This is a good example of George being a true friend because it shows the emotion between George and Lennie. George wants Lennie to come back here because it is the safest spot that George knows of. One way that George is a true friend to Lennie is what he did for Lennie, how he prevented Lennie from suffering. Lennie is on the run from the farm because he accidentally murdered the Boss’ daughter in law. Thankfully, Lennie remembered to go to the river bank. George found Lennie hiding in the brush just like George told him to.
George chooses to stick with Lennie, despite his mental disabilities. They are loyal to each other, even though they are different: “Even in the open one stayed behind the other” (2). Their desire to spend time together in fellowship indicates the theme of true friendship. Later on in the novella, George and Lennie are introduced to Slim, the jerkline skinner on the ranch. Because his job requires him to move around, Slim, like most migrant farmers, is lonely. He observes George and Lennie’s unusual friendship and questions it saying, “You guys travel around together?” (34). George and Lennie’s loyalty to each other protects them from the loneliness of their work, revealing one important benefit of true friendship. Near the end of the novella, Lennie is in the barn with
In chapter one, George and Lennie are introduced onto the scene and you get to know them a little bit and you get to see how they are related/ their relationship. When I read this first part, I could tell that George was pretty much Lennie’s caretaker and it was his job to find Lennie a job and make sure he ate enough and stayed a live. He kind of resented having to drag Lennie around (pg 11~12: “Well we ain’t got any!” George exploded. “Whatever we ain’t got, you want. If I was alone I could live so easy… But wadda I got? I got you. You can’t keep a job and you loose me every job I get.”), because Lennie’s a bit slow and he messes up a lot. He tries really hard to be good and listen to what George tells him to do, but in the end of every situation, Lennie forgets what George told him beforehand and sometimes it creates a little trouble (pg 45~46: “Well, he seen this girl in this red dress. Dumb like he is, he likes to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl just squawks and squawks. I was jus’ a little bit off, and I heard all the yellin’, so I comes running, an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on. I socked him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go. He was so scairt he couldn’t let go of the dress. And he’s so strong, you know… Well, that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she’s been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in an irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day.”). But when you look at them, you can tell that George is...
George and Lennie were lifelong friends and had varying personalities even from the start. Lennie thought about how his Aunt Clara said he should have been more like George. At the time when the story took place, the two men were travelling together, and had been for some time, working and then moving on to search for the next job they could find. They were like many other men in search for work, except it was rare for men to travel together. George felt a need to take care of Lennie because he was somewhat slow. George was an average man of the time. He was a good size, nice, but firm, and he had aspirations to be more than just a nomadic laborer. Lennie, on the other hand, had always been a little different. He was big, goofy, clumsy, but sweet. They were also both good workers. George was concerned with working and getting his money before they got into trouble and had to leave camp. Lennie was the one who normally started the trouble. He was a hard worker and lived to appease George, but he got distracted easily which angered George. George told about how they would own a house and a farm together and work for themselves. Lennie loved to hear the story and think about the possibilities, even though nobody knew if any of it was a possibility. George and Lennie's differences in part led to George's inclination to kill Lennie. Despite their dissimilarity, the two men needed each other probably more than they realized.
I believe everyone has that one person they can count on whether it’s your best friend from school, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, ect. But there’s just this one thing holding back the character Crooks from Steinbecks book Of Mice and Men. That is making and desiring a friendship someone he can talk to and not be whipped or discriminated on. Crooks is the African American, hunchback man who lives in the horse stables. Steinbeck shows many examples of how Crooks desires a friendship.
After reading the novella I think that George is a really good friend to Lennie. The first reason that I think that he is a really good friend to lennie, because that he runs off with Lennie when Lennie gets in trouble. George have a choice of running off with Lennie and been trace by those people or he could just don’t care about Lennie and keep his job. But he choose to run off with Lennie and been trace by those people. The second reason that I think George is a good friend to Lennie is because that in the novella it shows that George care about Lennie. On the first section it shows that George tells to Lennie to get off the the green water and throw away the dead mouse that Lennie had. He did that because the mouse might get him
The emotional symbiosis between George and Lennie helps each man. Lennie’s attachment to George is most strongly visible when Crooks suggests George is not coming back. Lennie is almost moved to hysterics and his fear does not quickly abate. George prefers to feign dislike for Lennie to Lennie’s face: “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail” (7). When pressed, George reveals his true feelings for Lennie. “I want you to stay with me Lennie” (13). They stay together because “It’s a lot easier to go around with a guy you know” (35). Both men need and value their strong emotional relationship.
That shows the power of friendship. Friendship is like a spark of life that brings two people together from sometimes different situations to learn more about each other and to benefit one another. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, two close friends, Lennie and George, who are opposites in size and personality, come from different situations, but end up traveling together to find a job in the Salinas. Both have done so to pursue their hopes and dreams of happiness and to purchase a small ranch of their own.
George’s relationship with Lennie has made him selfless; his conversations, with and with out Lennie, are generally revolving around Lennie, although in the case of their dream-ranch George seems to find fulfilment for himself as well. Due to these altruistic tendencies that he shows throughout the novel, a danger is bestowed upon George; he tends to care for Lennie far too much, and too little for himself. In occasional moments, he escapes his sympathy and compassion for Lennie, and realises the burden that he causes. This usually results in George taking his frustration out on Lennie, which can often harm his simple mind, leaving Lennie upset and forced to confess to his own uselessness, and George feeling guilty for what he has caused. We can learn very little about George through his actual conversations, which made it necessary for Steinbeck to focus the novel on him in particular, and let the reader gain an closer insight on him through his actions. Generally, he seems to be caring, intelligent and sensible, but is greatly worn by the constant attention Lennie requires. This illustrates a major theme in Of Mice and Men, the dangers that arise when one becomes involved in a dedicated relationship.
Friendship is a bond that brings society together as a whole. The article, “Friendship in an Age of Economics” by Todd May describes six friendships that pertains to life. In the Of Mice and Men excerpt, the reader meets two characters, George and Lennie, and their friendship is shown. Of the six friendships, in “Friendship in an Age of Economics,” the true friendship, developed by Aristotle, is used in Of Mice and Men through George and Lennie’s relationship because of how they act towards each other, and how they take care of one another through many different ways.
George explains to Slim that he, "Used to play jokes on [Lennie] cause he was too
The relationship between George and Lennie is a friendship based off unity and teamwork. Lennie, mentally handicapped, but strong and tall, depends on his friend George, who is small but smart, to give him comfort and protect him. “ Because…because I got you to look after me, and you’ve got me to look after you, and that’s why.” (p. 15). When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch, they are questioned by the boss. Lennie, being small minded, is silent. This causes George to answer for the both of them, and he emphasizes their strong work skills. This shows how far George would go to protect Lennie. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t
In the novel, George and Lennie were sitting near a fire and George was explaining their American dream and rabbits to an ecstatic Lennie. George also explained that men like them are very lonely without any true friends. They were different though, because Lennie had George to take care of him and George had Lennie as well. This exemplifies that Lennie provides George friendship that he wouldn’t find with anyone else, while affecting him positively. Men in the 1920s usually traveled alone from farm to farm and had no one by their side. George and Lennie were an exception, since they spent all their time together and had each other to rely on. They also shared the same American Dream, which they would buy a ranch and live “off the fata of the land”. They were yearning for a place to call home and be their own bosses. Lennie was not perfect and made things difficult, like what happened in Weed (The dress incident), but he was always by George’s side no matter what happened. He understood when George was mad at him, and tried not to make him angrier, he also obeyed George’s every command and respected him dearly. It was very hard to find someone that respected you and looked up to you as much as Lennie did to George, because of how everyone traveled alone. George would not receive that companionship with anyone else; he would end up being alone like the other men, if he did not have
George has been taking care of Lennie for a long time and he knows him very well. In the world that Lennie and George were brought up to live in, being strong is the only way to survive. This is difficult for a lot of people including Lennie. Even though Lennie is a big strong guy, he is not bright and has trouble dealing with his differences. Even George does not know what to do with Lennie. At the end of the story, George made a very hard decision that would affect his whole life and Lennie’s.
“In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” (Albert Schweitzer) The novel, Of Mice and Men, portrays the lives of the main characters, George and Lennie, as they make their way from one city to another in search of jobs and the obstacles they face. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck reveals that to get through life, one needs friendship and companionship. He explains this through dialogue, conflict, and characterization.
John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, set in California during the Great Depression, depicts the desire for the American Dream, held by many different individuals. Throughout the novel many characters are introduced, and their conflicts ignite trouble. For instance, the main characters, George Milton, intelligent and irritable, and his companion, Lennie Small, hefty and senseless, are migrant workers who hope that one day they will acquire the American Dream. Lennie, being senseless, makes George have a difficult time trying to find a job because of Lennie’s wrongdoings. Withal, in the Bunkhouse, many conflicts arise as these migrant workers join the ranch. Steinbeck uses the lives of George and Lennie to demonstrate the importance of friendship