Look at the Relationship Between George and Lenny in the Novel of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men draft

The novel Of Mice and Men is a story set during the 1930’s Great Depression in California, America. The two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small are displaced migrant ranch workers who travel around the country looking for casual manual labour as farm hands. John Steinbeck presents George as an intelligent yet cynical man and his friend Lennie is portrayed as a man of large stature and great strength but limited mental abilities.

The two are close friends and George is Lennie's protector. Throughout the novel Steinbeck uses analogies to animals to describe Lennie and the fate of the animals foreshadows what is going to happen to him.

The first impression of Lennie that Steinbeck depicts shows an insight into how Lennie is viewed throughout the rest of the book. He says that, ‘he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.’ He continues with this use of animal imagery to describe his character and behaviour by comparing him to a bear, a horse and a dog and a bull. Lennie is symbolised as a bear to show he is a slow, but aggressive character. It also portrays him as a simple character which we come to learn is a very important part of who Lennie is. When “Lennie dabbled his big paw into the water” and then said to George “look George. Look what I done,” it shows a very childlike and simpleminded behaviour done in order to gain the attention of someone they look up to (in this case George). It is also something an animal would do to get the attention of another animal or its owner.

When Steinbeck compares Lennie to a horse he is describing how Lennie is drinking from the pool. The way in which he uses phrases such as “snorting into the water like a horse” suggests that Lennie is not a very civilised person as he is drinking in the way an animal would.

Although Lennie is mentally slow Steinbeck shows that he is a physically strong man who dreams of "living off the fatta' the lan'" and being able...