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Essay On Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese writer, poet and a visual artist once said, “Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity,” which proves true in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. In Of Mice and Men, two migrant workers named George Milton and Lennie Small find work on a farm in Salinas, California. George and Lennie are very good friends and traveled together, which was very unusual for migrant workers to do, especially since Lennie is mentally challenged. They have a dream that one day they will be able to buy their own little house, “an’ live off the fatta the lan’,” (Steinbeck 14) which was a typical American Dream. They come upon many struggles at the farm which they are working, resulting in George having to kill Lennie to prevent other men from killing him in a vicious way. Crooks is the stable buck at the farm but is discriminated against because he is black. He sits lonely in his room in the farm, away from the bunkhouse where the other men live. Crooks shows how lack of friends creates loneliness because everyone needs a friend with whom to talk about life and the American Dream depends upon the time and place in which one lives. Crooks keeps to himself spending most of his spare time reading books in his room and he rarely talks to others. Lennie is …show more content…

This gives Crooks a brighter outlook on his future than he would have if he continued to keep to himself and asks to go with them to work for free, “If… you guys would want a hand to work for nothing just his keep, why I’d come an’ lend a hand. I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to,” (Steinbeck 76). Although the men never get their land, Crooks would have never had the opportunity to get off the farm if he did not talk to and befriend Lennie. This shows that having friends can open opportunities that may never arise if one keeps to

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