Analysis Of The Tragic Hero In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck writes about the unlikely pair of travelers, George Milton and Lennie Small. This novella takes place during the Great Depression on a ranch in California. The people that make up the ranch are migrant farm workers, who are poor, desperate, and low in society. Lennie Small and George Milton are two of these ranchers. George Milton becomes a tragic hero in the story. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his own destruction (Tragic). George is flawed because of his need for Lennie, which is his only family. Since George keeps covering for Lennie his actions lead to his downfall. Steinbeck uses George Milton to show that if an individual is good …show more content…
George needs to look after Lennie because he has a mental disability. Over the course of the novella, George looks out for Lennie and tries to keep him out of trouble. When the two were sitting by the river around the fire, George says, “I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself” (Steinbeck 13). This shows that George wants to protect Lennie and make sure he is safe by keeping him with him. George and Lennie have spent such a large amount of time together that Lennie has become like a brother to George. George really cares about Lennie and even loves him and does not want to lose him. When George is talking to another migrant farm worker named Slim about how Lennie used to do anything he said. The text states that “George’s voice took on the tone of confession”, then George says, “I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in’. An’ he jumps. Couldn’t swim a stroke. He damn near drowned before we could get him….Well I ain’t done nothing like that no more” (40). This shows that George does not want put Lennie into any kind of risk because he is scared that he will lose Lennie. He is the only family that George has and if George loses Lennie then he will have nobody. After Lennie almost drowned, George realized that he really cares for Lennie which is why he does not put him into any more …show more content…
George is a good man, but he is flawed. His flaw is that he needs Lennie, so he continues to cover for him. Lennie does not learn from past mistakes because George does not want him to mess up anymore. This lead to George needing to kill Lennie. In a sense this kills the only positive thing in his life. If a person has a flaw that holds them back, then it is better for them to correct it before it can hurt them in the future. If you do not correct the flaw, then you will suffer the