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1. To any length you like, please describe the relationship between Lennie and George. In particular, focus on what it is that keeps them together. As characters in the novella ask, why does a smart guy like George stick with Lennie, whose limitations cause both men nothing but trouble. But, then too, why does Lennie, who could break his smaller companion in two if he chose, do whatever George says.

 

2. Here is the brief passage we did not get to work on in class. Revise the passage to make it clearer why a sentence about George and Lennie follows a statement about Stenibeck's focus on the poor. Please assume that you are writing for readers who have not read "Of Mice and Men."

Like many writers in the 1930s, John Steinbeck focused on the plight of the poor. George and Lennie in “Of Mice and Men” dream of having a ranch of their own. Readers know that they will never get it. 

I am putting a video in the Forum's "Clips" section. I think it will give you some additional background for understanding Steinbeck's text. In fact, its title is "Steinbeck and the 1930s". It's short and has great music, so I hope you will watch it. 

Last edited by Laraine
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I think the relationship between George and Lennie, just like the relationship between the parents and the kid. Why I say that because of the many things happened to them. Obviously, George doesn’t have any ability to beat Lennie, but why he can give any order to Lennie, because Lennie doesn’t smart enough, he always gets in trouble, he always feels guilty when he make a trouble to George, he has a man body, but a little kid’s mind, he regard George as a parent or a brother who always can help him or take him out of the trouble, that what Lennie thought.

 

  George doesn’t have the strong body as Lennie,but actually, he realized what he can do or what Lennie can do, so he try to protect Lennie and make them work together to done jobs well. Also George isn’t a selfish guy, he also has the responsibility to take of Lennie, he has to take care of Lennie whether Lennie gets a Kid’s thought or not. 

 

  Actually, Lennie can be not listen to George sometime, but why he can’t? I think I get an example to describe it. It like a tiger was controlled by a person when it was young, it try to revolt, but it failed, when it grows up, it already can revolt it, but it always keep the thinking when it was young, it think it must be fail if it revolt. It just like Lennie, he can revolt, but he just gets a kid’s thought, he thinks he can not.

 

Jason, This is a lovely piece of work. I had not thought of the family connection, although I had considered George to be Lennie's caretaker. And what you said about the tiger fits perfectly with Lennie's obedience, which goes just so far and then he becomes dangerous. Wonderful, wonderful insights here. I will e-mail you a more academic reply, but on a personal response level, this is simply terrific.  If I could triple like it it, I would. 

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the special relationship between George, the small yet smart man, and the strong but straightforward Lennie is really eye-catching. They are both impecunious and vagrant, however, they both dream to have their own ranch, in which they are not restricted. In addition, they clearly know that if one of them is in trouble, the other one will be on that guy’s side immediately. Generally, the common dream and mutual trust binds them together and makes them travel all around the California.

 

George plays an instructive role in their relationship. George tries every way to prevent Lennie from causing trouble. He tells Lennie not to drink so much water in a seemingly unclean green pool before their arrival at new ranch; he avoids Lennie from getting into trouble by informing him not to speak when he meets the new boss; he asks Lennie not to speak with Curley’s wife. Yet George is actually ready for helping Lennie get out of trouble. The little man tells Lennie to flee to the brush on the north of the ranch, and wait for him to come when getting in trouble. George chooses to stick around with Lennie instead of smoothly living alone, because he realizes that having a buddy around himself and going together wherever they go make him feel safe. He says to Slim, another guy in the ranch where they work, that it is a lot nicer to go around with a guy you know. Although Lennie is troublesome to some extent, George is well aware that Lennie is really a nice fellow, and he is not mean.

 

As George always defines what Lennie should do, Lennie, on the other hand, is quite obedient with George. One example is that when George asks Lennie to jump into a river, he actually jumps. Although it doesn’t make sense that people who function normally will do the same thing, Lennie agrees to George without a second thought because he really trusts George. The reason why Lennie cannot leave George to go living in a cave is that he needs someone to be on his side to back him up. Lennie knows that he will unconsciously make trouble, and he also realizes that all the people but George will get inpatient or even abhorrent with his “foolish” personality. As a result, Lennie cherishes George so much. And he knows George is never away. For instance, when Crooks, a black guy working in the ranch, supposes that George will never return to the ranch, Lennie believes firmly that George is going to come back. It is George that gives Lennie the courage to live in the world where he is not at all recognized by other people.

 

In all, when George and Lennie get along for a long time, they seem to mentally rely on each other more and more. Although George seems to be more sophisticated than Lennie, this guy actually shares a pure dream-to own a ranch with Lennie. In 1930’s society where discrimination and oppression is widely emerged in the society, life has been hard. It is really considered a reachless dream to have a guy on one’s side, and make both of them keep looking for happiness. But for George and Lennie, this dream comes true. 

In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, there were two main characters here, George and Lennie. They were totally distinct people. George was a small but smart man whereas Lennie was a big and dull guy. But these two different guys were good friends; they ate together, worked together and even lived together. Their relationship, however, was a bit peculiar. George could live without Lennie. Actually, he would live much relaxed and cozy without Lennie. But Lennie would starve to death if he lived without George because of George’s intelligence and protection.

 

However, George and Lennie became very good friend. They even like a family. And they both had a dream which always made Lennie feel exited. Their dream was to have a piece of small land to grow some vegetables, to keep some rabbits, to feed some poultry, and to live freely. Moreover, George always used the dream to control Lennie’s cranky behavior. George told Lennie if Lennie made trouble, he would be not allowed to raise the rabbits anymore. Also, George was a real smart guy that he could always help Lennie to get rid of troubles. So that’s why Lennie always complied with George’s words. The relationship between them was very special.  

 

For George, he regarded Lennie as his little bro and he really treated Lennie very well although Lennie was a real good trouble maker and Lennie took George lots of trouble. Because George really moved by Lennie. Once, Lennie made a trouble and George told Lennie jumped into the river. Lennie didn’t think about anything and jumped into the river, he almost drowned so that George realized Lennie was not able to swim. This thing really touched George. George knew Lennie was a nice fella and he trust George without reserve. George loved Lennie so that he could bear his clumsiness and lived with him peacefully. Even if George had to kill Lennie at last, George didn’t blame Lennie anymore. He really loved this big and dull guy. George always knew Lennie didn’t mean when he made trouble. But this time Lennie violated the law. Instead of killed the mice by accident, this time Lennie killed a real people, he had to be assume all of punishment this time by himself. George knew he couldn’t help Lennie to get through this time, so he chose to kill Lennie by himself. He told Lennie to look the piece of land in front of them. That was their beautiful dream. George really wanted Lennie to be happy all the time without exception at the end.

 

Basicly, whatever Lennie or George, they both relied on each other. Maybe they all knew they were not able to realise their dream, but they also knew they had hopes when they had each other.

@Silver

 

As always, really great work and a very close reading of the text. This line, in particular, shows  insight into Steinbeck's work:

 

"It is George that gives Lennie the courage to live in the world where he is not at all recognized by other people."

 

That phrase about "the courage to live in the world" is lovely and exactly right as an interpretation of the relationship between the two men.

@Lewis

 

What you wrote shows a real understanding of the text, and that last line is simply a knock out. "Maybe they all knew they were not able to realise their dream, but they also knew they had hopes when they had each other." The role of the dream as the binding element in the relationship is something we should talk more about in class later. 

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