The relationship between George and Lennie is a friendship based off unity and teamwork. Lennie, mentally handicapped, but strong and tall, depends on his friend George, who is small but smart, to give him comfort and protect him. “ Because…because I got you to look after me, and you’ve got me to look after you, and that’s why.” (p. 15). When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch, they are questioned by the boss. Lennie, being small minded, is silent. This causes George to answer for the both of them, and he emphasizes their strong work skills. This shows how far George would go to protect Lennie. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t …show more content…
Starting from the beginning when George and Lennie run away from Weed to avoid the consequences that Lennie caused by touching the girl in the red dress and is accused for rape. "We run. They was lookin' for us, but they didn't catch us.” (p. 50). Another big problem, that sparked a chain of problems was Lennie killing George’s puppy. “God damn you. Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits. Now he won’t let me” (p. 83). This causes Curley’s wife to see Lennie distressed and she tries to comfort him, which leads to Lennie accidentally killing her. This causes an angry mob to go after Lennie to find him and kill him. This made George realize how much destruction Lennie caused and how Lennie is holding him back from being successful in his …show more content…
When Curley’s wife sees Lennie distressed she goes in to talk to him and cheer him up. “Don’t you worry none. He was jus’ a mutt. You can get another one easy. The whole country is fulla mutts.” (p. 87) Lennie tells her that he seeks comfort by stroking soft things. Curley’s wife then offers to let Lennie stroke her hair. Things took a turn for the worst and he got to aggressive and accidentally snapped her neck and killed her. When George finds out that everybody is out to kill Lennie, he meets Lennie at the same spot they were at when the novel started. Lennie asks George is he's mad at him, he tells him he is not. George then tells Lennie the story of the farm they've always dreamed of having, and then shoots Lennie and kills him. When the others find out what happened Slim then seeks to comfort George and tells him "'Never you mind,' said Slim. 'A guy got to sometimes.’" (p.
It is not, however, a one-sided friendship. George must be very close to Lennie because he goes to a lot of trouble to make sure that they both stay together. When Lennie got himself into trouble in Weed George didn't abandon him; they ran away to a different ranch together. I think George relies on Lennie for companionship because of the unfriendly and lonely environment they are in. he obviously cares about lennie because he says, "God, you're a lot of trouble.
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
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.
George was answering questions so much for Lennie that the boss though that George was going to take Lennie’s pay (Steinbeck 22). George lied to the boss and told him that Lennie was his cousin, and he was taking care of him because he got kicked in the head by a horse when he was a kid (Steinbeck 22). George also lied to the boss about why he and Lennie had left their old jobs in Weed (McMurray; Steinbeck 40). George and Curley’s wife exchanged some words in the bunkhouse before Curley came in and picked a fight with Lennie (“Stage”; Steinbeck 48). Curley’s wife is a threat to George and Lennie’s dream by bringing the harsh realities of the outside world, and by arousing Lennie’s interest (“Stage”; Steinbeck
chance I get I’ll give you a pup” (p14) then he gets George to re tell
...od to himself. During this scene, you get to really see how their friendship, the bravery and courage of George and the shear companionship that they had drove George to do what he did. If George did not do, what he did then Curley would have shot him like how Carlson killed Candy's dog. If George let Curley kill Lennie, he would have the same regret as Candy had for not shooting his dog himself. When Lennie killed Curley's wife, he had not only wrecked his life but the person he cared most for, George. Not to forget Curley's wife and Candy. Curley's wife lost her life and Candy lost the dream as well as George. So you see how important Lennie was in the sense of keeping the dream of owing a farm and "living of the fatta the land" alive. So although George may not have seen it at the time, but Lennie was as much of the key to the dream as he was the destruction of it.
“The best laid schemes of mice of men often go awry”. George and Lennie go through a series of events that get them in trouble and they have to go and find somewhere else to work. Lennie gets them in trouble three times and it causes problems with their farm dream. The last time Lennie does a bad thing, he has to get shot by George and George shoots him. George shoots him so he doesn’t have to suffer from curley.
In the end Lennie caused a big conflict by killing Curley's wife. This lead George to kill Lennie for his own good. If George wouldn’t of killed Lennie, Curley would have killed him in a more brutal way by making him suffer. George and Lennie could have ran away but Curley wasn’t going to give up until he found them. If they would have ran away they both would have been lynched. Killing Lennie was a big decision George had to make, but it was the best for Lennie. Even when Lennie died George managed to make him happy by telling him the story of their dream farm and their plans for it. George was a good friend so he did what a good friend would do in that
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.
In chapter one, George and Lennie are introduced onto the scene and you get to know them a little bit and you get to see how they are related/ their relationship. When I read this first part, I could tell that George was pretty much Lennie’s caretaker and it was his job to find Lennie a job and make sure he ate enough and stayed a live. He kind of resented having to drag Lennie around (pg 11~12: “Well we ain’t got any!” George exploded. “Whatever we ain’t got, you want. If I was alone I could live so easy… But wadda I got? I got you. You can’t keep a job and you loose me every job I get.”), because Lennie’s a bit slow and he messes up a lot. He tries really hard to be good and listen to what George tells him to do, but in the end of every situation, Lennie forgets what George told him beforehand and sometimes it creates a little trouble (pg 45~46: “Well, he seen this girl in this red dress. Dumb like he is, he likes to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl just squawks and squawks. I was jus’ a little bit off, and I heard all the yellin’, so I comes running, an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on. I socked him over the head with a fence picket to make him let go. He was so scairt he couldn’t let go of the dress. And he’s so strong, you know… Well, that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she’s been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in an irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day.”). But when you look at them, you can tell that George is...
It all starts with a short-lived and tragic pouring out of the soul by Curley’s wife to Lennie, “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before. Maybe I ought’n to. I don’t like Curley.” (page 89). Their conversation goes ok until Curley’s wife makes one fatal mistake, “But [my hair] is soft and fine… Here- feel right here.” (page 90). Lennie’s mental disability coupled with his addiction to touching soft things ends in a tragedy for Curley’s wife. He pets her harder and she protests harder until she is trying to scream, and Lennie holds a hand over her mouth and shakes her to try and get her to stop. He breaks her neck. “I done a bad thing.” (page 91). Lennie realizes what he has done and becomes suddenly scared of what George will do, “George’ll be mad.” (page 92). Lennie and Curley’s wife’s brief relationship goes terribly awry, one of the two best examples of Steinbeck’s theme, the second being Lennie’s own death. However, Lennie did trust George enough to hide in the bushes like he had told him to. Now comes Candy and George’s final interaction. Candy finds Curley’s wife dead in the barn and immediately shows George, who instantly realizes what Lennie has done. Candy goes into denial and asks if he and George can still achieve their American dream together, “You an’ me can still get that little place, can’t we George?” (page 94) but George loses all hope after
Lennie and George are best friends but they don't have any ordinary relationship. In their relationship George is like the boss while Lennie is the subordinate. George is very bossy towards Lennie. He is always telling Lennie what to do. Lennie doesn't ever really have a say on what they do. Like when they reach the ranch, George tells Lennie not to speak to anyone at the ranch because he is scared that Lennie might say something wrong, but George only does that because he is very worried and protective of
George is faced with witnessing the death of Candy's beloved, old dog and Candy's reaction to his death, which helps George to finalize his resolution. After several years of looking after Lennie, George knows what is best for Lennie, as well as the people around him. George?s act of shooting Lennie can be seen as gracious. If Lennie had not left the world and his problems, a large amount of torture would have come his way. The bloodthirsty mob, including the violent, disruptive Curley, has the mindset to demolish this ignorant man who killed Curley?s wife.
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.
The famed nurses study from Harvard found “Not having a close friend is as detrimental to your health as smoking.” Lennie and George’s friendship is necessary to keep the better for each other. Throughout the story, Lennie and George need each other and look out for one another no matter what. Lennie and George’s friendship and journey throughout the story symbolizes the struggles to achieve the American dream. Steinbeck, in the story Of Mice and Men, combines characterization and symbolism to prove friends do whats best for eachother.