Of Mice And Men Relationship Between Lennie And George Milton

The novel, “Of Mice and Men” takes place during the Great Depression, when people were trying to find jobs and make ends meet. The author John Steinbeck paints a humanistic picture of the friendship, power, and devotion between the two main characters Lennie Small and George Milton. Together they set out to achieve their American Dream of one day having their own ranch and house. As they are walking to the next ranch they set up to work at, their personalities begin to unravel. Lennie may be a man, but mentally he is a child. It is evident to see Lennie’s childlike behavior when George forcefully takes a dead mouse away from Lennie’s hand and Lennie starts crying and chasing after it. This shows that George is more of the caretaker in the story and even though Lennie causes so much trouble for George, he kept the dream alive for him. As the story continues when Lennie and George arrive at the new farm they meet some other interesting characters that begin to show us what it means to be human and what it means to be a mouse. The two men end up meeting; Slim and Candy, two other farmers, Curley who is the boss’s son, and Curley’s wife. Since Lennie is mentally handicapped and forgets things easily George has to constantly remind him of the little things he must follow. …show more content…
The power dominates with the character of Curly who is a small man with a lot of feelings. But unfortunately for Lennie, Curley puts his anger towards him through cruelty and manipulation to show Lennie that he is dominate and in charge of him and the farm. In the book, it talks about what it means to be human or a mouse. I think Curley is the mouse because he shows other people on the farm that he feels threatened from other men who are bigger then him and takes control of them. After Curley leaves Lennie scared, George tells Lennie that when Curley gets the chance to hit him that he wants Lennie to fight back for