In the exemplary classic Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie, two barley buckers, are looking for work during the Great Depression. Steinbeck weaves George and Lennie’s dream as an anchor through the stark loneliness of travelers, the unrealistic want for the perfect life, and the poverty that plagues this time period. After wishing away Lennie, George is reminded how bitter and crude he would become he didn’t have such a hopeful dream to look forward to with Lennie. This is executed by the harsh words of George and Lennie’s obsession over the future. After George has blown up on Lennie due to his ignorance of money he states, “...are the loneliest guys in the world...But not us,” a declaration that sets Lennie and George apart from everyone …show more content…
Because of this they have no purpose. Because of this they have no passion for life. George voices the reason for their isolation from other company: “They got nothing to look ahead to.” This sapient remark shows Georges knowledge of what solitude does to a human heart. It turns love into hatred. It turns hope into despair. It turns contentment into anguish. It leaves nothing joyful in the soul: “...they get mean...wantin’ to get fight all the time.” This claim was stated with a conviction that proved his fear of becoming one of these men. George is holding on to Lennie as an anchor to life. Near the end of the book, George has made the decision to kill Lennie. Right before he shoots him, he tells Lennie their dream: “He said woodenly, ‘If I was alone I could live so easily.’ His voice was monotonous, had no emphasis. ‘I could get a job and not have no mess.’ He stopped.” He said these words as if he was condemning himself to a life without joy or happiness. In order to feel joy, you must have something to compare it to, there is never joy without pain. He feels like he will never know laughter without Lennie. Having George kill Lennie is like having a father kill his son. …show more content…
After Lennie made the mistake of asking for ketchup, a luxury they can’t afford, George erupts. When he has finally calmed down, Lennie asks for George to tell him about their dream:“‘Tell me-like you done before.’ ‘Tell you what?’ ‘About the rabbits.” Lennie feels secure when he hears George tell him about their little house. Their dream is like a mother’s heartbeat to a newborn. It is always there when he is in need of comfort. Later on, when they have gotten their job, Lennie meets Curley. In an effort to fight back as Curley attacks him, Lennie grabs his hand and annihilates it. On his way to get cleaned up Lennie turns back to look at George and ask him, “I can still tend the rabbits, George?” The small responsibility of taking care of rabbits means the world to him. He thinks that because he protected himself, George would take away his privilege to nurture the little BB bunnies. That was all that mattered, everything in his life was just leading up to the bunnies. When he kills the puppy Slim gave him, again, his thoughts immediately turn towards the bunnies: “Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits. Now he won’t let me.” This time though, instead of comfort, these thoughts bring him misery. Everything thing he wanted in life (mostly) was taken away in one simple
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.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel about loneliness and the American Dream. This book takes place during the Great Depression. It was very difficult for people to survive during this time period. A lot of people hardly survived let alone had the necessities they needed to keep relationships healthy. Of Mice of Men has a common theme of disappointment. All the characters struggle with their unaccomplished dreams. The migrant workers, stable buck, swamper, and the other men on the ranch had an unsettled disappointment of where they were at in their lives. George and Lennie, two newcomers to the ranch, aren’t like the other guys. They have each other and they are the not loneliest people in the world. Lennie has a dream though he wants to own a farm with plenty of crops and animals one day. The only problem is his blind curiosity of people and things around him. George wasn’t justified for killing Lennie because Lennie was innocent and never got the chance to find out what he did wrong.
A friendship is not all they have together, Lennie and George have dreams. Lennie and George have worked up the idea of owning their own piece of land together. Lennie wants to tend the rabbits (Steinbeck 11) and George just wants to be his own boss (Steinbeck 14). The only problem with their dream is that it is unrealistic. They cannot buy land to tend and just go days without tending it because they do not want to. Like many traveling farm hands during the 1930s, George and Lennie think they could work up enough money to buy their own place and not give a “hoot” about anyone but their selves. Although their dream is unattaina...
Consistently throughout the story George and Lennie were there for each other; in fact towards the very beginning Lennie and George discussed how they were better off than most guys because they had each other (14). When George killed Lennie a part of him died too, George knew murdering Lennie would hurt him mentally and emotionally. However he did it because he wanted what was best for his friend no matter the cost. His actions were altruistic and that made his decision the more favorable one. Another instance when George was selfless was when he gave up his dream. Throughout the story George and Lennie dreamed of and worked towards owning their own piece of land together. However, after discovering Curley’s wife dead, George returned to reality and informed Candy that they would, “never do her” (94). After losing his friend George understood the impossibility of achieving the American Dream. Beforehand George knew he would not want to live out his dream without Lennie, so by protecting Lennie and giving up on his own dream he put Lennie above himself. Conversely, someone may believe that George's actions were selfish and that he benefits himself by killing Lennie. After George comes after Lennie, the dim-witted man asks if George was going to yell at him. Reluctantly George told him “If I was alone, I could live so easy,” (103). Although George said
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.
Everyone has a dream they hope to achieve, but dreams are not always possible to attain. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, two ranch hands, George and Lennie, find work in Salinas Valley. Lennie, constantly getting into trouble, inadvertently causes the two of them to be run out of town and thus have to find new work regularly. George and Lennie's search for work in the hope of accomplishing their dream of a small farm of their own displays how futile realizing dreams can be.
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck walks us through the journey of best friends named George and Lennie, who work on a ranch during the Great Depression in California’s Salinas Valley to achieve their goals. Throughout the book, Steinbeck suggest that social hierarchy and classification can lead toward a treatment to lower class workers, different genders and race, and the mentally disabled, when compared to white men workers.
During the presidential reign of Hebert Hoover in the early 1930's, America was hit with a severe economic slowdown which was notoriously known as The Great Depression. During this time of crisis, an estimated sixteen million people were left unemployed and many others were left homeless. Even though it was expected that many industries in the United States would be significantly affected as a result of the crash, it was Agriculture that was destroyed. Many landowners were desperate to employ workers on their farm, whilst workers were anxious themselves to find a job to support their family. In this story, two displaced Anglo migrant ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, travel around America in search for a job. We soon realise their goal to pursue the American Dream, a dream that has equal chance of becoming a reality or a mere fantasy. Steinbeck?s novel shows a concern for these two friends as tension is raised over whether they will reach the Promised Land they cherish so much. Much of this concern can be attributed to the contrasting characters that both George and Lennie possess ?Although George is seen as an intelligent caring individual, his companion Lennie, although physically strong, is a psychologically limited man who has a good chance of inadvertently spoiling their hopes and ambitions, primarily due to his mental incapacity.
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck reflects the conception of the fleeting American dream in the characters of George, Lennie, and Crooks. Steinbeck depicts the harsh reality that migrant workers, most likely, would not achieve their dream through George and Lennie’s failure to gain
Whether or not the men have a stable friendship with others determines some of their actions. George and Lennie’s friendship is very strong, so they base off their actions on the other persons. The have been staying together for many years. The two moving around and living together is great for Lennie, because due to
With the setting as the Great Depression in the 1930s, George and Lennie of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men have overcome the adversity of being unemployed as they pursue work through Murray and Ready.In addition, they are bindle stiffs and are among other dispossessed males who must ride railroad cars and migrate from job to job. However, they are not alone like most of the other workers; due to the fact they have the friendship and trust of one another. In the beginning to the end George and Lennie share the hope of having a little farm of their own on which they can live on "the fat of the land" someday. (Citation) With this dream, they conquer the terrible alienation that men without homes encounter. Thus, George and Lennie overcome the adversities of poverty, alienation, and despair while staying true to their friendship.
This is the main conflict. As the two men move throughout the novel, it is apparent they are clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. George and Lennie are insecure, with no permanent jobs, no real home, and separated from their families. Also, in the end, it was society which leads to George into killing Lennie. After Lennie gets into the debacle with Curley’s wife, he runs to the oasis described at the beginning of the book. George fears the men will tear Lennie apart and murder him. He also knew he would be institutionalized, or “caged” if he survived the attacks. He had the moral clarity that lets him see that killing Lennie is the what is best for him. When George kills Lennie, it’s a kind of mercy killing. It’s clear that killing Lennie is the right thing to do, and George is manning up by pulling the trigger. We know this because Steinbeck gives a contrasting example of Candy, who says that he "shouldn 't ought to of let no stranger shoot [his] dog" (39). Second, Slim says, "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda" (107), and Slim is the novel 's ideal man. His Struggles against society carry on even after Lennie’s death. He now faces living alone without friendship or hope. It is also the death of his dream; owning a shack on an acre of land that they can call their own.
...nning for the future, life often goes awry and leaves one with nothing but grief and pain. Identically, when George kills Lennie, even through the planning of Lennie not talking to Curley's wife and having their own farm, life went off the tracks when Lennie kills Curley's wife and George is left with pain and grief when he is left to kill Lennie and be alone.
George understands that he can’t hide Lennie from the world forever and that the natural order of things is that the strong pick off the weak, and he will eventually have to let Lennie go. This motivates him to seize reality, meaning he had to kill Lennie, which itself was a sign of tremendous growth in himself. Killing Lennie had many effects on George; one of them being that he became one of the men he’d tell Lennie stories about. George believed that he and Lennie were not like the other migrant workers – travelling alone and spending all their earning on a whim. When George would te...
The connection between George and Lennie illustrates the adversity during their course towards achieving the American dream. Things Lennie did, either on accident or purpose, foreshadowed what was going to happen in the book and the way people acted impacted this. Like millions of other people, George and Lennie were affected during the great depression heavily, and dreamt of owning land of their own. They worked from place to place making barely any money, and didn’t have a real home. To add to this, Lennie got in trouble a lot and in the end George had to make the crucial decision to shoot Lennie so he wouldn’t have to deal with any more difficulty. George knew he had to do what was best for Lennie and himself.