Similarities Between Lennie And Of Mice And Men

1) Robert Bern’s “To a Mouse.” and John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” run some parallels in general theme. One of the most prevalent themes that runs parallel is the idea of a “promised joy” (Bern 41). This is a direct quote from the poem and presents itself throughout Steinbeck’s novel. Steinbeck shows this idea by having George and Lennie discuss their plans for their farm in detail in virtually every chapter. This discussion makes Lennie happy because he thinks he will be able to pet rabbits and it motivated George to work harder so he could achieve their shared goal. The promised joy motivated Lennie and George in very different ways, but ultimately it was still a motivator that made the two closer. The darker side to the theme (and poem) is “grief and pain” brought forth by the “promised joy” (Bern 41-42). This concept eerily presents itself at the end of the book when George makes the decision to shoot Lennie and kill him. This was clearly a hard …show more content…
On one hand Lennie is incapable of controlling himself and his actions. On the other hand George is an example of being in full control of himself and his actions. This dealing ideas are presented throughout the book. Lennie is unable to control himself throughout the book. Lennie accidently killed a mouse at the beginning of the book, couldn’t resist the red dress, killed a puppy, and finally killed Curley’s wife. Lennie didn’t want any of these to happen. This is made clear by Slim’s statement of “‘He ain 't mean,’…’I can tell a mean guy from a mile off’” (Steinbeck 42). George would also agree with this. The overwhelming majority of the people agree that Lennie is too strong and not smart enough for his own good. Lennie’s inability to control himself makes his choices not determined by the forces of his own