How Does Steinbeck Show the Importance of Friendship in the Novel "Of Mice and Men"?

The novel ironically starts off in Soledad, which means ‘Solitude’ but when translated into English it means lonely. George and Lennie are anything but lonely when they are together ‘guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world… but not us, they aint got nothing to look ahead too. We got a future; we got somebody to talk to

Lastly, Lennie is relying on George all the time based on how he relates to George in the text. Lennie is always with George because they have a relationship like a mother and a son, Lennie's relations with George prove this. George has been with Lennie for a long time and George feels like Lennie has been holding him back. When George yells at Lennie he says, “When I think of the swell time I could have without you” (Steinbeck 12). This quote proves that Lennie has been with George for a long time, long enough to drive George into a rage of regret and sorrow. The reason they have been

Strong friendships have the power to make people’s lives better. George and Lennie travel together and eventually live together, resulting in a strong bond between them. George cares for Lennie and he makes sure

What would you do, if you had a friend that always got in trouble and prevented you from being where you want to be? In the novel, “ Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, there are two great friends George Milton and Lennie Small who travel everywhere looking for work and chasing their dream. While taking care of Lennie, George demonstrates being kind and caring, which shows how people who are inspired to push harder to achieve their goal. Throughout the novel, George demonstrates kindness towards Lennie. At the beginning of the story The boss questions George for looking out for Lennie so much, “‘ Well, I ain’t never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.’” Furthermore, The boss observes that George is taking a lot of trouble to take care of Lennie. After this, George denies this statement by claiming that he is his cousin. The readers do not know if this is true, but not to mention it leaves us to believe that he is lying. When this occurs, it gives the readers clues that there strong friendship may not go unnoticed. The author does this to make the readers think that their friendship being recognized, likewise may happen later on in the story. Again, someone recognizes their friendship and how kind George is to lennie to go through all of this trouble with him. While George meets slim for the first time, Slim says, “‘ Funny how you and him string along together’” then George replies “‘ What’s wrong bout it?’” (39). Again, someone recognizes their friendship.

Any good person does not want to watch a friend to be hurt, and George is no exception. George is most worried for Lennie when Curley says ‘“i’m gonna shoot the guts outta that big dumb bastard myself, even if i only got one hand.”’ (steinbeck 48). this is when Curley, Slim and Carlson are getting together to find Lennie and hurt him and kill him. George thought

The author John Steinbeck presents the relationship between the two characters, George and Lennie in different ways as they are both different characters and have different personalities. He presents it like a parent and child relationship, with George being the parent and Lennie the child.

    George took Lennie in after Lennie’s aunt died. George knew his aunt pretty well. Lennie had nowhere to go afterwards, so George let Lennie come along with him. George wasn’t always nice to Lennie in the beginning. George would tease him and trick him. Lennie didn’t know any better than to listen to George, even if it was a taunt. After an incident happened to Lennie, George stopped tormenting him. He felt bad for Lennie and how he treated him. From this moment on, George actually took into consideration of Lennie’s mindset. In the book, Steinbeck writes,

As Thomas Aquinas states, “There is nothing on this earth more prized than true friendship.” Friends cheer each other up when they are sad and support them when they are happy. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, two migrant workers, George and Lennie, arrive as newcomers on the ranch. Throughout the story, different problems are thrown their way, and their friendship is tested with each one. George shows how true friendship requires sacrifice because friends sacrifice personal freedom, they protect each other, and they sacrifice emotional energy.

Lennie is a large slow and a bit childish due to his mental disability. George is small, rough, bright but short tempered man that travels and cares for lennie. On page 14 George was talking to Lennie about how guys like them are lonely, they have no family or place to go. Unlike themselves they have a future and theycare for eachother. Then lennie says happily “But not us! Ah’ why? Because.. Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you and that's why” this shows that George and lennie have each other's back and they're basically each other's family and if they ever got lost or separated, they had a specific spot to go find each other so they wouldn't have to worry where they would be.

How does Steinbeck portray the friendship in this novel. Steinbeck portrays loneliness in this novel and shows how George and Lennie are alone even when they are together. This entire book is based on being alone and how all these men are looking for companionship.

It was clear from the beginning of the book that Lennie had caused George a great amount of trouble in the long time the two had known each other. We learned that George and Lennie had been forced to run away from Weed because Lennie “wants to touch ever’thing he likes,” (Steinbeck, 41), and he grabbed a woman’s dress, and “the girl lets out a squawk,” (Steinbeck, 41), and all Lennie did was hold the dress tighter, which upset her so

At the beginning of the novel when the reader is first introduced to George and Lennie, they are first described as in “The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”(Steinbeck 2). Together they sat at a bank and drank some water from the not moving green pool. For a long while together they walked four miles from where there bus dropped them off. Lennie's aunt Clara passed away and since he wasn’t smart enough to live in the world they lived in George said “Your Aunt Clara wouldn’t want you running off by yourself, even if she is dead”(Steinbeck 13). When candy got his dog put down he regretted not doing it himself. After Lennie killed Curley’s wife and ran off, George knew that moment, when he saw her dead, that he was going to kill Lennie himself because he was his best friend. George came quickly out of a bush to find

Curly and Lennie, two men that traveled together everywhere they went. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck describes friendship, dreams, and personality to describe Lennie and Curly adventures.

The greater part of the novel's appeal, George and Lennie's relationship, although far from what one could call a reciprocal friendship, intrigues the reader in the same way many comic duos intrigue. It is easy to identify with the "smart guy" who helplessly tries to cope with and control his irrational, dumb and, yet, spontaneous, child-like partner as they lurch from one self-inflicted crisis to another. Steinbeck uses that classic comic routine so that the reader warmly identifies and recognizes the relationship. Steinbeck's narrator establishes and characterizes George's lording of power and control over Lennie early in the first chapter:

George: George is a small and quick man from Soledad, California, a modest town south of San Jose and west of Fresno. He jumps from ranch to ranch, working odd jobs in hopes of one day owning a few acres of his own. He has taken care of Lennie since he was fairly young; there aren’t “many guys who travel around together.” He cares for Lennie deeply and is quite devoted, and through everything that Lennie has done