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Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Steinbeck shows us that presence of friendship can make people less lonely and have a positive outlook on life. This is shown with George and Lennie as they have each other, unlike the other characters. We see this when George saying "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. … With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us” and then Lennie continues "But not us! An' why? Because… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why." This demonstrates the fact that George and Lennie’s friendship is a way in which they can avoid loneliness as they are in constant company of each …show more content…

We can see this when George says ”I ain’t takin’ it away jus’ for meanness. That mouse ain’t fresh.” This shows us that George feels a sense of responsibility towards Lennie and needs to take care of Lennie as Lennie can not do it for himself. This only happens because they are friends and share a close bond which is why we do not see it happening with the other characters. In this we see how George takes the mouse away from Lennie because it is dead and not ‘fresh’ and is a sign of danger as and it may result in making Lennie sick which shows how George takes charge and cares about Lennie’s wellbeing. As soon as he sees how upset Lennie gets after he takes it away he tries to cheer him up by saying he took it away for his own good and later on even promises to get him a puppy which shows he cares about Lennie’s feelings too. Lennie is a liability which means he needs George to look after him and sometimes even care of how Lennie feels, this may be negative in some aspects but overall it gives George an opportunity to be responsible and even caring and …show more content…

It prevents George form having a romantic relationship and freedom. We see this when George tells Lennie “I could get along so easy and nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl”. This clearly shows that if George didn’t have Lennie he could have the freedom to do whatever he wants and even have a relationship of some sorts with a girl but he can not because he has to look after Lennie. This is due to the fact Lennie’s simple-mindedness makes him a liability. George has to constantly look out for Lennie making sure he doesn’t get in trouble, and if he does he has to try and get him out of

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