Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

During the time of the depression, an author by the name of John Steinbeck wrote a novel called Of Mice and Men. The novel’s setting is in Southern California during the same time period. John Steinbeck shows us that friendship is a valuable thing to have in the novel Of Mice and Men. The book expresses how friendship can get you through hard times and help you keep going. Two of the characters in the novel named George and Lennie, have a relationship that describes the perfect friendship in my opinion. They are always there for each other and always have each others back.

George and Lennie and two very different types of people. Lennie is mental challenged, but he is a very large man, and is as strong as an ox. George is intelligent, a smaller built man, and definitely not as strong as Lennie. George promised Lennie’s aunt that he would look after Lennie when she past away. That is not the only reason George keeps Lennie around though, you can tell when reading the novel that George really cares about Lennie. George sometimes says some harsh words to Lennie like,”I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl.”(7) When George says things like that though, he doesn’t say them to try and hurt Lennie’s feelings, I think he just gets frustrated at the things Lennie does and how he gets in trouble. George tries to do things for Lennie also. While working on a ranch in Southern California, George asked Slim, who is the master skinner, if Lennie can have one of the pups his dog gave birth to. George also help Lennie get his job on the ranch by using his intelligence and telling the boss,” He can do anything you tell him. He’s a good skinner, he can rassel grain bags, drive a cultivator. He can do anything . Just give him a try.”(22) Lenny also cares a lot about George, George is perceived as Lennie’s role model. He tries to do things just like George and he does whatever George tells him. One time a bunch of people where down by the Sacramento River, and George turned to Lennie and said ,”Jump In.”(40) Lennie didn’t know how to swim and he almost drowned, but he jumped in just because George told him to. “Lennie coulda bust every bone in” Georges body “