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John Steinbeck 's Of Mice And Men

Decent Essays

In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men there are many themes to be taken away after reading it. The main theme I noticed while reading this book was the theme of innocence and weakness. One of the main characters, Lennie’s character creates the innocence effect, and George represents the weakness of having to take care of Lennie. From the beginning until the very end of the book, those two characters are the biggest representation of these themes. In the beginning of this book, we meet two men walking to a ranch after riding a bus. Within the second page, we see our first sign of weakness. George and Lennie have been walking longer than they wanted because the bus driver dropped them off too early. This is a sign of weakness because they don’t fight back to get the driver to finish the trip. Another immediate struggle we see is that of having to take care of others who weigh you down. He said patiently, “I like ‘em with ketchup.” “Well, we ain’t got any,” George exploded. “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble” … And Lennie’s face was drawn with terror. “An’ whatta I got,” George went on furiously “I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get.” (Steinbeck, 12) This is a weakness because with George taking Lennie everywhere with him, he has to share food and supplies therefore not having enough for himself. It isn’t until later on in the book when

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