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Of Mice and Men “You can ask the Universe for all the signs you want, but ultimately, we see what we want to see when we’re ready to see it.” John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, demonstrates how George and Lennie’s friendship and shared dreams reveal moral ideas that are weaved throughout this story and present the universal truths that are grounded in the realistic contrast of friendship and shared dreams. The commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss within George and Lennie’s friendship and shared dreams. As all these elements are part of society. The commitment and hope within a friendship and shared dreams support and hold it together. George takes care of Lennie and Lennie keeps him company. They are committed in their own …show more content…
way to each other. Lennie claims” ...i got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you,...(8)” A great majority of men in this time period were alone moving from ranch to ranch without a future to look forward to. Lennie is committed to not get in any trouble, so that he can be able to tend the rabbits with George and hope goal of owning a farm one day. “ I won’t get in no trouble, George. I ain't gonna say a word(8).” To go along with this Lennie also promises not talk to Curly and his wife. Lennie is determined and hopes to help achieve his and George’s shared dream. George is pessimist compared to Lennie so Lennie keeps him on his toes. George said” I told his old lady I’d take care of him(12).” Lennie can be in trouble to due how naive he is. That’s why George and Lennie travel from job to job together."I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl(6)."George is explaining to Lennie how much he is giving up for Lennie. However, doing all this shows George’s friendship and loyalty towards Lennie because he is still wanting to help Lennie with all the obstacles. Commitment and hope go hand in hand when it comes to George and Lennie’s friendship and their shared dream of one day owning a farm. Loss and hope are two opposing forces.
Though you can’t have one without the other. George and Lennie’s dream is all about hope. Their dream is shared equally between the both of them. Before Lennie dies he claims ...I could stay in a cat house all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel... get a gallon of whisky...",(47). On a side note, after Lennie dies he becomes like the rest of the workers. With no goal or purpose in life. Lennie was the other half of the dream and without it George couldn’t pull himself together enough to pursue it. Lose and hope have powerful impacts on everyone. When Lennie feels he lost his chance to tend to the rabbits after he kills Curley’s wife he also loses hope. He tries to run away to the bush George told him to go to when he got himself in trouble. Lennie starts making plans about going to the nearby cave and living there(50). Even when we think about what we would want if things were different more often times people change their train of thought. George often tells Lennie he is a nuisance but George confessed to Slim ”Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time," said George. "But you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him(21).” Lennie’s hope of George not leaving him is in George’s hands. George is not capable of expressing his true needs because Lennie is all really …show more content…
needs. Loneliness is sadness because one has no friends or company.
Throughout the majority of the story George and Lennie have been an exception from this concept. John Steinbeck puts them overall all his other characters. A truth in life is no matter how different you are from others you are still very much similar even though it may not be evident. When George decides what has to be done with Lennie he loses all hope in his dream even before Lennie's death he begins to feel lonely. “I’ll work my month an’ I’ll take my fifty bucks an’ I’ll stay all night in some lousy cat house...An’ then I’ll come back an’ work another month an’ I’ll have fifty bucks more(47).” George is already like most men who work “on ranches, are the loneliest in the world. They got no fambly. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go into town and blow their stake(8).” Even Lennie feels lonely and scared at the thought of George not coming back for him at the barn.” Maybe George come back already. Maybe I better go see(36).” When someone or something is lost that is very dear to one they feel empty and alone in the world. As if not one person in the world doesn't understand their
feelings. The commitment, loneliness, hope and loss within George and Lennie’s friendship shared dreams are all elements of society. Our everyday lives revolve around these universal truths. John Steinbeck's parable “Of Mice and Men” demonstrates how these moral ideas make us human. All of these ideas in such a small complex story link to one another in many aspects. Overall we see what we want to see even if it is far from the truth. Yet in the end we see how everything lines up much like the parable “Of Mice and Men”.
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.
Steinbeck makes Lennie and George well developed, with colourful personalities and appearances at the beginning, as both of them are looking for work during the Great Depression. From reading the first chapter, I feel that I can relate to George because of his wise, parent-like, and rigid personality. George is a very responsible and tries his best to take care of a very mentally unstable person, where getting irritated is very easy. I also experienced a similar situation, but not with a mentally disabled person. My grandfather, a heavy smoker and alcoholic, suffered a lot of mental problems referring to addiction, as well as health problems because he was diagnosed with throat cancer in the last six months of his life. It was a tough time for my family because both of my parents had to work in order to support the family, so I was the only person who could take care of him. Furthermore, he was confined to a hospital bed until the day he passed away. Staying by his side and providing whatever he wanted was very difficult because there was very little communication, besides writing, because he could not talk due to an artificial respirator in his throat. Staying in the hospital for the majority of the time over the course of six months is extremely tough because of school and family problems I had to deal with. This is relatable to the
Since the begging George and Lennie have stayed together, but as they work there are times when they are separated. George docent
The main cause of George and Lennie's lonesomeness and that of all the people at the ranch was a lack of a home. The only thing that kept the two men going was their friendship with each other and the hope to soon get a place of their own. In the novel George and Lennie mention what their dream place is going to be like: "Someday we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house, and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and ---" (Steinbeck 16). Throughout the book the reference to having a place of their own is stressed. It is a deeper dream for Lennie than George because he is always asking to talk about it. It is here where the friendship between both men is starting to develop as they share the same basic dream.
From the introduction it seems that Lennie is more excited than George about the vision. George is easily unhappy about “them rabbits” (Page 5) it makes you think the George thinks this whole dream is a foolish idea. This will get more difficult as we get to understand that George might actually be as thrilled about the dream as Lennie is; it seems George is actually more vigilant about his eagerness, given that he is more mature and weary of things than his friend. The last paragraph of the book explores a deep friendship that has not been revealed in the novella, this part of the book also brings emotions for the characters and even the readers. In the last few pages of the novella you start to release the dream actually doesn’t become a reality as sadly Lennie will be shot by George. “I thought you were mad at me George.” (Page 120) “No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know.” (Page 120) George knows that the only way to make Lennie happy before he gets shot is to retell the dream about tending the rabbits and also telling him
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
George and Lennie need each other to achieve their dream of their own farm with rabbits to tend. Lennie could not take care of his rabbits or even survive without George.
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
George and Lennie live in a hopeless present but they somehow try to keep a foot in an idealized future. They dream of one day running their own ranch, safe and answerable to no one. Others such as Curley's wife dreams of being a movie star, Crooks, of hoeing his own patch and Candy's couple of acres'.The dream ends with the death of Lennie.
These devices are incorporated into the journey of two companions working their way towards a dream. Steinbeck uses symbolism to complement his words to depict a higher meaning. As experienced readers will discover, the relationship between the intelligent, but small and weaker George Milton and the mentally handicapped, but large and stronger Lennie Small is symbolic. Even Lennie expresses this relationship “because I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you, and that's why” (14) .This suggests that they are not alone-they have each other. While George complains in the first chapter that he does not know why he keeps Lennie around, George argues "I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my tail"(11), he later explains the importance of Lennie's friendship -:“I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't' have no fun. After a long time, they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time” (41). Although he is often irritated with Lennie, The reader can infer George stays with Lennie out of his promise to Lennie's aunt or the reader could look deeper and understand George cares about Lennie and that, meaning in life depends on upon sharing. This idea is central to Steinbeck's theme of brotherhood and how men are better if they are not alienated because, if alienated, they become mean and cruel out of their fear of vulnerability. The strength to oppress others originates of weakness, Steinbeck tells his readers. Most importantly for both George and Lennie, Lennie is the keeper of the dream. Without the child-like Lennie there is no dream of a ranch and rabbits and "livin' off the fat of the land." It is for Lennie's sake that George repeats the dream of them owning land. At first George does not really believe that this dream will come to fruition. But, with his childlike friend's
Of mice and men - How far was it from becoming reality? The George and
When ever things are bad Lennie asks George to tell him the story of the future life they will have together. Lennie needs this to think about the future especially when thing are bad because he needs to have something to keep him going. Even George new that when Lennie had to be shot, it was better to make him think happy thoughts "An' live on the fatta the lan" (101).Obviously George give Lennie dream that helped him live and starve for.
George and Lennie depended on their dream as motivation to live on and work. They've been working all their life to accomplish their dream. While taking a break by a pond on the way to another ranch, Lennie asked George to tell him why they are working and saving money. "Guys like us got nothing; they work up a stack and blow it in the town. But we're different, we got a future " (14). Most workers back then just live on day by day, without a goal. But George and Lennie are different, they got a dream to work and live for. Lennie kept on wanting to be told about their dream a few times in the story, indicating that it's really important to them. George depends on the dream to save up money and take care of Lennie instead of using all the money like all the other workers. While staying in the cabin, Lennie asked George about their dream. "George, how long's it gonna be till we get that little place an' live on the fatta the land and rabbits" (56). George and Lennie's dream has been repeated several times in the story. Each time they describe it, it gives them more will to work and try to accomplish the dream. The dream keeps George and Lennie together so they can work toward their dream. Without the dream, George and Lennie would be different from what they are now. George would be like the other workers, spending all the money right after getting them. And Lennie might be in jail for accused of rape or get bullied by other workers.
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.
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