The Main Characters in Of Mice and Men

How Does John Steinbeck Introduce The Main Characters In Chapter 2 And

What Do We Learn About Them?

John Steinbeck is the author of the story called Of Mice And Men. It

is set in the 1930’s in America and the story is about two men called

George and Lenny who struggle and fail to achieve their dreams in the

hard, cruel world.

So far in the story we have met different characters such as Lennie,

George, Candy, The Boss, Curley, Curley’s wife, Slim and Carlson.

In chapter 2 John Steinbeck introduces the characters. Two of the main

characters are George and Lennie who are two men who have ‘The

American Dream’ and share the same aunt. Lennie is an extremely tall

man with big hands that are described as paws. He likes to stroke soft

things and he doesn’t know his own strength. Lennie is simple-minded;

he does things he shouldn’t do without knowing what he is doing. For

example in Weed he tried to stroke a girl’s dress, he frightened her

and they had to get out of the town. His innocence and vulnerability

makes the reader, and George, feel sympathy for him. He is mentally

slow and has no instinctive wisdom. He can sense when something is not

right but he cannot explain it. Lennie does not see the future or the

consequences. Lennie is described by Steinbeck as a child, rather than

a grown man. Lennie and George’s ‘American dream’ is to save up enough

money to buy their own small farm but it is different for what they

both want to do with it. Lennie wants to look after rabbits of his own

and George want to work for himself, being independent. Lennie and

George need each other because George says to Lennie, ‘Guys like us,

that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world………. With us

it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that

gives a damn about us.’

George is a lot different to Lennie, George is smaller, shorter, and

much more intelligent, and also looks after Lennie. He is kind and

friendly as he made friends quickly with Candy, Carlson and Slim.

George can see consequences and the future. George is important to

Lenny because he looks up to him. George is like a parent and Lennie

is like a child. George sometimes can get annoyed with Lennie and

shouts at him but he doesn’t actually mean it. George and Lennie just

cant live without with each other.

Curley is one of the characters in the book who is the boss’s son.