Was George and Lennie’s Dream Realistic? In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the story focuses on two friends in a time of hard labor and low pay. They struggle in their daily life, and have many obstacles to overcome to achieve their end goal; to have their own farm. The story directly correlates to Thomas C. Foster’s words in the first chapter of his guide, How To Read Literature Like A Professor. One of the two main characters in Of Mice and Men, George, is a prime example of someone who goes on a quest, as he fits all 5 of Foster’s criterion to consider his journey of self-discovery a quest. At the beginning of the story, George wants to achieve a happy life working on a ranch with Lennie, his companion with a mental disability. But by …show more content…
the end of the book, George comes to terms with his own thoughts and realizes he can not continue to follow his dream as Lennie is no longer by his side. This self realization that their dream will never come to fruition satisfies Foster’s fifth criteria for a quest in that there is another lesson to be learned: the world is a cruel place. Foster says that the first requirement to have a story be a quest is to have a quester, someone to go on the stated quest. In this case, George fits the criteria better than Lennie does. Foster explains, “…a quester is just a person who goes on a quest, whether or not he knows it’s a quest. In fact, usually he doesn’t know,” (Foster, 3). George is originally on a quest with Lennie as his sidekick. He helps Lennie get along, but after, he has to save Lennie from the pain and torture of his immanent and likely violent end, and his quest comes to an abrupt stop. George and Lennie had dreamt during their travels to open a ranch with a garden and rabbits, living happily together. They want something to call their own with the freedom to work as they please. Foster considers their dream their “place to go,” the second step of deciding whether or not an adventure or story really is a quest. George and Lennie want a future. Their entire dream is based off of desire to break out of the vicious cycle of migrant workers and create something they can call their own. George and Lennie often talk about their dream to pass the time, much to Lennie’s pleasure. As George often told the story, Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothin’ to look ahead to, (Steinbeck, 13-14). In finding each other, George and Lennie find companionship. The ultimate realization of their dream would be to create a world in which they had self-determination, to carve out a little place in the world for themselves. This is their “reason to go there,” as Foster had stated. This was their reason to get to this idea of a perfect life, their dream place, their dream life. Another way that George and Lennie’s story may qualify as a quest is that they did have to face many challenges along the way to reach their “Holy Grail.” Foster talks about the “Holy Grail” being the end goal of a person’s quest, saying, “…someone tells our protagonist, our hero, who need not to look very heroic, to go somewhere and do something.
Go in search of the Holy Grail,” (Foster, 3). He also says there are many challenges and trials en route to said Holy Grail. George and Lennie’s Holy Grail is their romanticization of the idea of living on their dream ranch, living happy lives. Although, to them, though their dream seems tangible, they have to face many obstacles. One of the biggest obstacles is Lennie’s mental disorder. Steinbeck makes it clear that Lennie operates much slower than an average person. He is prone to trouble, which is a major setback for George and Lennie’s journey. Another challenge is that all of the minor characters in the book seem unsympathetic to George and Lennie’s plight, probably because they have their own issues and personal conflicts to juggle. Crooks proves this by saying, “I see hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them… An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it,” (Steinbeck, 74). Another setback to their quest is simply the fact that George and Lennie are migrant workers. Their socio-economic status is restrictive, so money is …show more content…
an issue. The fifth and final criteria for a quest, according to Foster, is the “real” reason for the quest, saying that the real reason is always self-knowledge, and in George’s case, it is returning to reality.
He realized that the world, especially in the 1930’s as an agricultural migrant worker, truly is a rough and tough place. Foster states, “…as soon as something seems to always be true, some wise guy will come along and write something to prove it’s not,” and that is what George realizes, (6). George has a moment of dread and fear that follows saving Lennie from a crueler end. Steinbeck proves this feeling by saying, “George’s voice was almost a whisper. He looked steadily at his right hand that had held the gun,” (Steinbeck, 107). George was clearly having an eternal battle with himself over Lennie, and once his actions were completed, there was no returning to how they were before. Steinbeck made the entire scene very tense, where George performs commonly known actions that are a clear sign of nervousness, such as fidgeting and hesitation. George comes to realize that their dream of running their own farm, while seeming palpable, really was not. There were things holding them back, one was Lennie, but there was also the issue of economics and money, and getting workers, et cetera. After George sees that Lennie is holding him down, he starts to see all of the things holding him back, similar to Foster’s anecdote about how his mushroom-picking trips with his father. He’d have
trouble seeing them, but once one was pointed out, they started to seem like they were appearing. Steinbeck’s story, Of Mice and Men, satisfies all five elements of a quest in Thomas C. Foster’s How To Read Literature Like A Professor. Most importantly, the fifth element of a quest is the fact that it is not actually a quest at all. What it is, is a mere exercise of self-knowledge, where George realized how tough the real world is. Everyone wants to believe in something magical, romanticizing the world, but sometimes literature comes along and tells them how it really is.
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).
is in the air. Animals begin to scatter. Two men have arrived on the scene,
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.
...is a major breakthrough for George's understanding that he is responsible for Lennie and that he must do whatever is best not just for himself but for the both of them. This understanding leads to George ending Lennie’s life not by motivation to prevent him from causing any more mayhem but to keep Lennie out of harm’s way.
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 the novel, Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck used George and Lennie's relationship and the theme of hope to point out the loneliness in the novel. The novel starts off and is set in Soledad which means lonely. At the beginning they get a job working on a farm together. Lennie is a little retarded and has great physical strength that isn't too controllable. As they work from ranch to ranch, Lennie relies on George for guidance and help. Rather than wasting their earnings, they try to save it in the hope of buying a place of their own. While working at one ranch they meet a worker named Candy who tries to help them financially. Before their dream can be fulfilled, Lennie kills the wife of the boss's son. As the novel concludes George must kill Lennie for his own benefit. Later Lennie goes into town and abandons his dream by spending his money.
As the story continues on and the pair arrive at their job, the character chart begins to branch as we are introduced to Slim, another worker on the farm. After learning of the two’s past together, he openly expresses, “Ain’t many guys travel around together... I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other” (Steinbeck 35). There is a unique value to George and Lennie’s relationship which the world lacks. Rather than combining their might, people would rather watch their own back with one set of eyes than having a second set to keep watch. There is mistrust between people and the idea of backstabbing and swindling is very present due to the economic decline and the loss of wealth for all social classes. Due to Lennie’s mental decline, however and the fact that if it were not for George, Lennie would not be alive, there is a strong bond apparent. To be separated from one another would mean becoming the rest of the world, sad and lonely. Neither of the two would like to bring sorrow to one another or let each other go through
The biggest dream throughout the story is for George and Lennie to have enough money to go and buy a farm of their own. But then Lennie does something that he can’t change back or hide from, and all hope is lost for him and George to have a farm when George does what he never thought he’d do. “And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger… Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (page 106) This one final scene symbolized all of George’s aspirations, hopes, dreams, ambitions, anything he had, diminishing before his eyes. He made a point earlier in the book, “ I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘jump in.’... well I ain’t done nothin like that no more” (40). He promised himself he wouldn’t hurt Lennie again, he took it upon himself to keep Lennie safe. But George fired that last bullet and killed Lennie, stripping himself of all his hope and ambitions. The other main ambition that was crushed in this story has to do with Lennie and his rabbits. “We’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs… An’ have rabbits!...” (14) This is a recurring event throughout the book; they talk about their future dreams, and Lennie tells everyone he meets about the rabbits he's gonna have, but again that all changes when Lennie messes up badly and kills Curley’s wife. The story displays the reader the visual of, “She struggled violently under his hands… “Don’t you go yellin’,” he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” (91) This visual can help you see where Lennie’s dream of ever handling another living being again diminishes because if he can’t keep an
What truly led up to this, and how would the story have gone differently if George had not killed Lennie? As aforementioned, they lived in the Great Depression, a time where achieving the American Dream was almost impossible to do, especially with all the farms being lost in Oklahoma. Most of the character's perspective of Lennie was that he was most simply a passive aggressive retard. Later in the novel the reader notices that he is incredibly strong which serves to positive and negative effects in the story.
Of mice and men - How far was it from becoming reality? The George and
Loneliness and Companionship are one of the many themes that are conveyed in the novel Of Mice and Men, By John Steinbeck. Many of the characters admit to suffering from loneliness within the texts. George sets the tone for these confessions early in the novel when he reminds Lennie that the life of living on a ranch is among the loneliest of lives. However Lennie, who is mentally disabled holds the idea that living on a farm very high. "Tending the rabbits" is what Lennie calls it. Often when Lennie is seaking encouragement he askes George to tell him how its going to be. Men like George who migrate from farm to farm rarely have anyone to look to for companionship and protection. George obviously cares a lot for lennie, but is too stubborn to admit to it. The feeling of being shipped from place to place leaves George feeling alone and abandoned.
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.
“Of Mice and Men”, by John Steinbeck is a novel about the hardships of life and the importance of having other people around. The story is of two men trying to survive with one another in a world full of loneliness; their relationship is quite rare and strange. Lennie, a large bear, has a mental disability which causes him to be in a childlike state. George, a much smaller and more competent man takes care of both of them. Although they work for others on ranches, their dream is to get by on their own and live off the land. However, Lennie’s state causes conflict as they travel from job to job. Steinbeck uses clever ways in his novel to develop his theme and characters as the story progresses; both of these elements also help create a large
George’s struggles with himself become apparent at the beginning of the novel. Steinbeck clearly lets the reader know that George has conflicting feelings about Lennie. He believed, “ ...if he was alone he could live so easy. He could go get a job an ' work, an ' no trouble” (11). George is basically telling Lennie that sometimes, he wishes he could live
The characterization of George and Lennie’s friendship shows the importance of having a friend to be staunch for you. Here, when George and Lennie argue, they resolve to do whats best for eachother. “I was only foolin’, George. I don’t want no ketchup. I wouldn’t eat no ketchup if it was right here beside me.” Lennie later adds: “I’d leave it all for you. You could cover your beans with it and I wouldn’t touch none of it.”(Steinbeck 12) Lennie, although mentally disabled, still does what he can for George and only wants him to be happy because he knows how much George does for him. He can’t help himself, but when it comes to George he’ll do anything for him, because George gives him hope. Lennie gives George the ambition to succeed because George knows he has to succeed to support both of them. Lennie is later told by Crooks what it’s like to be lonely: “A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.” (Steinbeck 72) Without a friend, Crooks doesn’t have the brightest light for a great future because he has nobody to depend on like Lennie and Georg...