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Character of George in mice and men
Lennie character of mice and men
Character of George in mice and men
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Selflessness is thinking of others lives and safety before what is to come upon yourself. It is hard to achieve because it means putting someone 's life on the line for other people 's.There are so many book characters out there, many are selfless in some way. However, a few stand out in the books Code Orange, Uprising and Of Mice and Men. The following characters all share the drive to save other people 's lives. In Code Orange, the character Mitty Blake is willing to kill himself to save his city from smallpox. George Milton in Of Mice and Men shows he is selfless by taking in a mentally ill man who can 't care for himself. George opens his life Lennie knowing it will change his life by not allowing him to achieve his dreams, because he has …show more content…
Then the virus dies with me” (Cooney 118).Mitty is feeling disappointed. He does not want to do this to his parents, and feels like he is letting them down when writing the letter. He is trying to stay strong because he feels it is the right thing to do to kill the virus. He may have found scabs from the smallpox epidemic and was exposed to them. He feels like it is the right thing to do when he kills himself, he is eliminating the possibility of the disease and killing the kidnappers.Mitty is keeping his eye on the captors to pass them. He is going to kill himself for the life of others because he feels it would be worth it and help the city in some way. Because he is killing the kidnappers along with himself. He is trying to stop them from hurting the rest of the city from what started out as a school essay. He is showing his selflessness when doing this.Because there is a possible outbreak of smallpox, Mitty has to overcome the problems in front of his face and overcome the problem about the city. He doesn’t focus so much on escaping but stolling and strategizing against the kidnappers. His overall plan is to get rid of the problem at its source. Even though he is in grief about his parents it is the right thing to do.It 's hard to focus on saving others if the life at …show more content…
You can 't keep a job and you lose me ever ' job I get. Jus ' keep me shovin ' all over the country all the time. An ' that ain 't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out. ' His voice rose nearly to a shout. 'You crazy son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time. ' ¨ (Steinbeck 11).George if feeling anger at Lennie because he always forgets things and isn 't very bright. He gets mad because he always has to answer Lennie´s silly questions and Lennie doesn 't understand how much George has done for him.George knows Lennie is mentally ill and since his Aunt Clara died he has no one to take care of him so George is being selfless by taking in Lennie and putting his life before his own.Since George take in Lennie, when Lennie gets in trouble George has to leave with Lennie even though it wasn 't George 's fault. He puts Lennie 's problems. In front of his own and solves them in order to help Lennie.George knows Lennie gets in a lot of trouble. George is taking the risk of getting in trouble along with Lennie if anything were to happen to Lennie. George is willing to help Lennie by taking care of him and helping him the best he can.In Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck, George takes in Lennie
As George becomes aware of the situation he begins to ponder what will happen if Lennie gets away. George understands that Lennie would not be capable of providing for himself out in the wild. As George contemplates allowing Lennie to be free of all the men, he “[is] a long time in answering” (94). George is one of the few men who understands Lennie’s mental limitations, he knows Lennie would not remember how to survive and “the poor bastard’d starve” (94). He
Steinbeck believed that friendship was important. Lennie knows that George will always have his back, although Lennie cannot really protect George he feels like he can (Steinbeck 14). Even though George says, he does not want Lennie with him, he does not want to leave him by himself (Steinbeck 13). When Lennie and George first get to the ranch, the boss starts to ask them questions. George answers all of them even if they were asking Lennie. He knows that if Lennie talks, he might say what happened in Weed (Steinbeck 22). The boss, at the new farm, thinks that George only wants to take Lennie money. But George tells him that he only wants to take care of Lennie. The boss tells George that he had never seen two men traveling together like him and Lennie (22).
Lennie Small, a mentally impaired man, is first introduced to us traveling with George. George, however, is not related to Lennie. Lennie travels with George because no one else understands him like he does. Lennie says, “Because…because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you…” (Steinbeck 14). Lennie believes if George ever left him that he could live in a cave by himself and not bother anyone again (Steinbeck 12). Lennie realizes he would be alone without George, but he never has known anyone else to depend on but George, and from that, they have a bond, a friendship. This shows Lennie’s need for his relationship with George.
Lennie, like a mouse, is helpless. Lennie relies on George to think for him like mice rely on scraps of food from the dinner table to eat.
John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men, as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University. He then moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. With the publication of Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck achieved fame and became a popular author. He wrote many novels about the California laboring class. Two of his more famous novels included Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck got the title for Of Mice and Men from a line of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck includes the theme of loyalty and sacrifice between friends. Steinbeck illustrates the loyalty and sacrifice between friends through the friendship of Lennie and George.
George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the trouble in weed and George explains “Well he saw a girl in a red dress and a red dress and he just wanted to feel it and when he touched it the girl just starts yelling and all he can think to do is hold on” ( Steinbeck 41). The quote states or explains how Lennie can scare or harm people.
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
In this book George is constantly taking care of Lennie and is always reassuring him that they will have their own land and be able to tend the rabbits. George doesn’t actually believe in this dream which shows how he is willing to say anything to make Lennie happy. Also, George is constantly bringing up how easy his life would be without Lennie, he said "God almighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could get a job a work, an no trouble (12). This quote shows how George is aware that Lennie is holding him back from making more money but how he choices to stay with him because they have a genuine friendship. George takes his parental figure role seriously and would never leave him.
Lennie constantly causes trouble. “George told Lennie to keep quiet while George was trying to find them a job”(Steinbeck 35). “Why can't you just let em’ talk?” (Steinbeck 35). It's hard for Lennie to have a regular conversation with someone. He does not understand people well. The boss found it hard to believe that George wasn't trying to fool him by talking about how great Lennie was at working and how strong he was.
"OF MICE AND MEN IS A NOVEL WHICH EXPLORES THE BURDENS OF RESPONSIBILITY AS MUCH
Lennie’s illness was seen as common and nothing to take concern over, which pertains to the vague yet soft sympathy from George whom “babysits” Lennie. George was an older brother to Lennie in a sense, helping him to get through life without any mishaps. However for George, Lennie’s illness determined their income and job status. In several incidences, Lennie overreacted in certain situations causing them to lose or leave their job spontaneously. At different points in the book, George became frustrated with Lennie: “You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out” (Steinbeck 12). This showed the overall frustration yet compassion towards Lennie, however extreme concern. According to Lennie, when he killed the puppy he said: “Why do you got to get killed, you ain’t as little as mice I didn’t bounce you hard” (Steinbeck 85). This really brought out the fact that Lennie’s illness was not to be tempered with, as he really couldn’t ever contemplate the harsh, unintentional things he’s done. When George and Lennie arrive at their new job, tension rises in the book and the author brings out that possible aspect of Lennie unintentionally doing something wrong which in turn would cause them to lose their job--or
The physical symbiosis of George and Lennie is beneficial to Lennie but detrimental to George. Although George used to hurt Lennie, Lennie now needs George to bail him out of trouble. Lennie also profits because he needs a person to tell him what to do. “He can’t think of nothing to do himself, but he sure can take orders” (39). Lennie is “a hell of a good worker”(22) and able to “put up a four-hundred pound bale” (22) but is likely to get himself in trouble without George’s protective influence. George likes Lennie but would be better off without him because “you (Lennie) can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get” (11). Lennie hinders George while George helps Lennie.
“There is no greater loan than a sympathetic ear (Frank Tyger).” It’s always very important to have someone to confide in and vent to otherwise life just feels empty. You feel lonely without anyone. That’s what the characters in Of Mice and Men experienced. Loneliness. This book demonstrates what they viewed a friendship as. Most of them don’t even know what it’s like to have a friend. In this book Lennie, George, and Carlson deserve the most sympathy because each one of them has gone through some tough phases from being treated like crap to not having anyone who understands them and who sympathizes why the things they've been through reflect who they are as a person.
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.
The first focus of living is surviving. Therefore, it does not follow logical reasoning to explore other aspects and enhancements of life until one establishes a sense of security in one’s ability to survive. Survival starts with an individual’s ability to endure, and ultimately progresses to an entire species’ ability to subsist. Selfishness is often viewed as morally wrong, however it may be necessary for individuals to think of themselves before others, in order to put them in a position to be able to help the others. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, this selfishness is demonstrated by the characters who are struggling to better their own lives; therefore, helping to better the lives of others is a secondary thought if it exists