Of Mice and Men
At first glance, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a tale of two best friends traveling the countryside looking for work. This would seem like the norm for lower class people trying to survive in the rat race of society. Yet, the story isn't merely George and Lennie's search for jobs. Rather, it is about their all out quest for the American Dream, the dream of owning their own stake of land and ending their subservience to their bosses. In order for this to happen, however, George and Lennie had to remain a team. They had to pool their resources as well as their manpower, something their apparent mutual love for each other seemed to take care of. Yet, an irrevocable rift between them sent the dream crashing down. This caused George's feelings of love and understanding to change from being existent to non-existent. Since the passing of Lennie's aunt, George felt an obligation to take care of Lennie as well as to act as his guardian. George fulfilled this role with love and understanding. We first see change in George's attitude towards Lennie when th
ey moved onto the ranch, their place of work. George immediately feels that he is jeopardizing his relationship with other men in order to defend Lennie's actions. George is further discouraged when he realizes, based on Lennie's behavior that he can never be left alone- even to go to the bathroom. Lennie can't even be trusted not to kill puppies while petting them. Lennie, in fact, goes so far as to kill the owner's daughter-in-law. By this point, George, a nice yet overly ambitious individual, could no longer control this growing contempt towards his once beloved Lennie. Once it becomes obvious that Lennie killed Curley's wife, George knew what they had to do. There was no place for a retarded man in George's coarse, hard world. George killed Lennie for both their own goods. Neither of them could handle the constant fleeing that Lennie's condition caused them to do. Lennie was too much of a trouble for himself, and for that matter, George as well. George could not deal with the responsibility of taking care of Lennie anymore. George's loving feelings towards Lennie changed drastically, so h
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Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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