Pg 2: “Behind him was his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. Pg 3: “His huge companion dropped his blankets and flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool; drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse.” This shows that Lennie is more like an animal, innocent, but reckless and big. Pg 4: “"I forgot," Lennie said softly. "I tried not to forget. Honest to God I did, George." ... "Tried and tried," said Lennie, "but it didn't do no good. I remember about the rabbits, George." This shows how forgetful Lennie is and that all he can ever think about is the rabbits. This depicts that Lennie might forget something important, like not talking to Curley’s wife. Pg 9: “George snapped his fingers sharply, and at the sound Lennie laid the mouse in his hand. "I wasn't doin' nothing bad with it, George. Jus' strokin' it."” Pg 9-10: "They was so little," he said, apologetically." "I'd pet 'em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead- because they was so little.” This shows how much Lennie likes to pet soft things and he kills them by accident because he is so big even though he never means any harm. This could foreshadows Lennie killing the puppy and then killing Curley’s wife. Pg 11: God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cat house all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of. An' I could do all that every damn month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool." This foreshadows that someday, George will live alone. Pg 13: George said, "I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody'd shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.” This foreshadows the scene where Candy says to George, "We oughta let 'im get away.
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
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
Lennie dreams of living on a wide open ranch with George where he tends to the fluffy little rabbits he loves so much. Nevertheless, Lennie sadly never reaches his ultimate goal as his flaw finally becomes his fatal flaw. Lennie kills Curley 's wife by shaking her so hard that her neck breaks. He does not kill her on purpose but Lennie does not know his own strength. He is only shaking her like that because he wants her to stop yelling. Curley 's wife observes that Lennie is "jus ' like a big baby" (Steinbeck 99) and invites him to stroke her soft hair. Lennie begins to feel her hair and likes it very much indeed, which leads him to pet it too hard. When she started to complain, he panicked and started to try to silence her. He was afraid that George would not let him be part of the dream anymore if Curley 's wife got mad at what he did. So he 's shaking her to try to protect his part in the dream but he kills her and the dream too. Lennie observes that he has "done a bad thing" (Steinbeck 100) and covers her body with hay. Lennie is hiding in the brush where George had told him to hide when he got into trouble. George finally emerges to get Lennie while he is an emotional mess. He then tells Lennie to take off his hat as he continues to recount "how it will be" (Steinbeck 104) for them. He orders Lennie to kneel and pulls out Carlson 's Luger. As the voices of the other men in the search party near their location, George tells Lennie one more time "about the rabbits,"(Steinbeck 106) tells Lennie that they 're going to get the farm right away, and shoots his companion in the back of the
Imagery is shown through two hallucinations that Lennie has before the end of the book. He has just escaped the ranch because of the accidentally killing of Curley's wife. Lennie also realizes that George will not let him tend rabbits on a farm, which was the desire that he wanted the most. After all George said, "But you ain't gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won't let you tend the rabbits" (65). Constantly throughout the book, Lennie pesters George about taking care of rabbits on a farm of their own; tending rabbits was Lennie's dream. As he hides near the river where he and George stayed the night before going to the ranch, Lennie begins seeing his Aunt Clara. But Aunt Clara was speaking in Lennie's voice. She begins to blame
She spoke in Lennie’s voice. “I tol’ you an’ tol’ you,” she said. “I tol’ you, ‘Min’ George because he’s such a nice fella an’ good to you.’ But you don’t never take no care. You do bad things. George ain’t gonna want you aroun’ no more.”
Lennie had a soft spot for petting animals and soft things. He is totally oblivious to the fact that he hurts almost every thing he touches. He had pet mice and ended up killing them and when he played with the 'pup' he ended up killing it too. His uncontrolled strength also caused him to kill Curley's wife. "Lennie's fingers fell to stroking her hair... he stroked harder... "Let go!" she cried... She struggled violently... and then she was still; for Lennie had broken her neck." (Page 91). With the death of Curley's wife, Lennie's innocence was taken. He had unwillingly killed. He had to pay the price, by losing his life.
In Of MIce and Men Lennie often wants to pet nice things his favorite being a piece of velvet his aunt gave him. All throughout the story as Lennie pets the things he find soft he kills them because he doesn't realise he's petting a little too hard. “ I like to pet nice things.” (John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, 1937) “Lennie went back and looked at the dead girl. The puppy lay close to her.” When Lennie looks back at the dead girl or Curley's wife he realizes he has done a bad thing like before with the puppy. Through the death of the puppy and the mice John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to show how Curley’s wife will die. Lennie always kills the things he pets by
George muttered to himself “God dam Lennie, I told ya’, I told ya’ and ya’ still.” George became silent and clenched his hands into fists.
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.
Curley’s wife represents her broken dreams of becoming an actress. Lennie and George represent a dream in progress, it is uncertain if their plans will work out as intended or plummet before takeoff, even Crooks and Candy see the appeal in Lennie and George’s fantasy and join them. The dream in progress gives hope to Lennie and George and continued to even after losing previous jobs. Curley’s wife is constantly restricted, she married Curley so that she would no longer be alone but now is in the same state as before, just on a ranch of men. She tries to talk to the other men but she is then seen as "jail bait" and avoided, making her even lonelier. Her dream of being an actress has failed because she chose a quick way out and married Curley. She is now living in her failure and has no longer a dream to aim for. Perhaps the most important part of the story is the the part in which Lennie has accidentally killed the puppy given to him by Slim, and is grieving over him in the barn, “This ain’t no bad thing like I got to go hide in the brush. Oh! no. This ain’t. I’ll tell George I foun’ it dead.” He unburied the puppy and inspected it, and he stroked it from ears to tail. He went on sorrowfully, “But he’ll know. George always knows. He’ll say, ‘You done it. Don’t try to put nothing over on me.’ An’ he’ll say, ‘Now jus’ for that you don’t get to tend no rabbits!” (Steinbeck, 85) He feels powerless to his own strength, he believes that he will never achieve his dream because of his mistake. George and the other men are out once again and the only person who comes to his emotional aid is none other than Curley’s wife. “Don’t you worry about talkin’ to me. Listen to the guys yell out there. They got four dollars bet in that tenement. None of them ain’t gonna leave till it’s over.” “If George sees me talkin’ to you he’ll give me hell,” Lennie said cautiously.” (Steinbeck, 85) He
Lennie, one of the two main protagonists, is a very dramatic character who can be found doing many questionable things, some, which are very inhumane and animal-like. From the very first page in the book, Lennie is known to be a very big person who is not the smartest. In every chapter there is at least one incident of him being compared indirectly or directly to an animal, and each time he is compared the topic is brought up that the similes written directly correlate to the economy at the time, especially in the working class. Lennie being compared to animals was written to prove that humans at the time were animalistic, to allude to the economy of the working class at the time, and to prove that negative occurrences can happen to anybody.
Curley's wife, an accident that seals his own fate and destroys not only his dreams but George's and Candy's as well. In the beginning Lennie used to pet mice that his Aunt Clara used to give him, he would always end up killing them because he didn't know his own strength. Lennie never killed any pet or person purposely; he pets too roughly and kills them accidentally. An example of his rough tendencies is in the first chapter (page7) when Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse and George wouldn't let him Lennie says" Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George.
Throughout the novel, Steinbeck associates Lennie with animal movements, and reveals Lennie’s love of dogs. In the first chapter of the story Lennie is described to us in an odd way. “Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked
The dog displays Lennie’s death and Candy’s dog shares the same death and have people wanting to kill them to get rid of the problems they are causing to others. The dog symbolizes his death by getting killed with the same weapon which is the Lugger. The rabbits shows the pureness in Lennie by Lennie wanting to protect that part in him and the rabbits representing as a shoulder angel after he killed Curley’s wife and ran away. The pureness are shown through the rabbits by Lennie making sure that he will kill any cats that harms the rabbits which means that he wants to secure the goodness he still has. The cats displays the bad and viciousness in Lennie by claiming to kill the cats for killing the rabbits he thinks he is going to have and both the cats and Lennie share the same animal that cats kill. The animals resembling the sides that Lennie has in him and his death is shown through Candy’s dog, the pure innocence in him through the rabbit, the bad and monstrous side in Lennie are shown through the cat in the conversation that he had with
... Steinbeck mentions numerous times how often Lennie forgets that little animals must be treated gently. For example, in the scene in the barn, Lennie accidentally kills a puppy while playing with it because he simply could not remember to treat it gently. The question arises as to how Lennie can forget everything else but still remember to return to the place that George pointed out.