Written in 1930s’, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men exactly express his naturalist belief that human beings are always doomed to fail. Lennie and George’s characterizations clearly reveals this belief, Lennie cannot well control himself, and he often does insane things. His inner beast is continuously destroying him. George, however, holds a dream with Lennie despite harsh realities. Yet still, he is beaten by the external world, and finally, he grows desperate.
Lennie dreams to have his and George’s own ranch where he can raise rabbits. He always mentions the dream to George and asks George to repeat the blueprint of their ranch. Nevertheless, his dream stops here. He is constantly making trouble wherever he gets because he especially likes to touch soft things like silk and velvet, which is one of his inborn defects. He touches a beautiful woman’s red dress and makes her scream when he is in Weed, so he and George have to abscond to find a new ranch for work. As a result, George warns Lennie for several times that he cannot make mistakes again. Everything seems to go smoothly for a while. Yet as the story unfolds, Lennie recommits to what he has done at Weed before. He starts off having a wonderful talk with Curley’s wife, but when the woman invites Lennie to touch her hair, he finds that soft feeling again. He grabs her hair unusually tight and the woman gets panic. She shouts aloud to ask Lennie to stop holding her hair, but that big man does not let go. Lennie panics, too, because he is afraid to be caught by George, namely losing his opportunities to raise rabbits. As a result, he clamps over the little woman’s mouth, until he finds her die. Although Lennie does not mean to kill Curley’s wife, his formidable inner power forces him to do so.
While Lennie is driven away from his dreamed destiny by his dominating inner beast, George is nonetheless defeated by the external world in the end. In 1930s where vagrants are lonely and helpless, he regards Lennie as his brother. He takes care of Lennie; He forgives him even if Lennie makes mistakes. Their fellowship is shining with the unfolding of the story. However, things dramatically turn around after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Curley and other workers quickly find out what Lennie has done after they return to the ranch. The enraged Curley says that he will shoot Lennie in guts. George knows that Lennie is hiding at the brush where he told Lennie to be after Lennie is in trouble. When George meets Lennie in the brush, Lennie is happy that he can still have ranch and raise rabbits. However, he never knows what George has been thinking. George is struggling at that time, because he exactly knows what will happen after Curley arrives. As Curley and Slim’s step gets closer and closer, although reluctant, George eventually shoots Lennie from the back, at which the spine and neck connects. In the very ending of the book, Slim says that a guy got to sometimes. True, George is actually left with no choice. Instead of seeing his best buddy Lennie dies in a torture, with a bullet shooting through his guts, George chooses to let him die peacefully. The external situation in his current ranch does not allow George to dream anymore. And although he would like to continue to have Lennie on his side, he fails in the end.
Sadly, that the two best buddies Lennie and George, are defeated either by their inner beast or external pressure on the way to their perfect dream. It is sure that 1930s’ United States society is responsible for their miserable destinies. Yet the issues of how to treat abnormally-functioned persons, and what a desperate man will behave under an abject circumstance are still broached out today. But anyway, this book definitely confirms Steinbeck’s identity as a naturalist.
