Discuss On The Relationships Between George And Lennie / Between These And The Outter World.

John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, is a story of broken hopes and the harsh reality of the so-wanted American Dream. George and Lennie are two homeless workers, doomed to a condition ofwandering in search of a job that will give them the opportunity to recieve a benefit of their own work. Their desires may not seem so unfamiliar to any other person’s: “a little place” of their own, theopportunity to live and work for themselves without depending on anyone else to survive. George and Lennie desperately hold on to the believing that they are different from other workers who go fromranch to ranch because, unlike the others, they have a future and each other. However, the two friends refuse to accept the conditions life has imposed to them and fight for their dreams; something othermen do not do.

The relationship between George and Lennie is the base of this novel – we follow these men through their journey and life in the Salinas Valley. The two men are not unique fortheir desires (the wish of a place of their own and a peaceful life), but for the fact they have each other: “I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you”. This companionship contrastsdrastically with the loneliness and despair that surround them: all of the rest of the men are lonely in this world reaching the point of being totally selfish with other people.

However, can theirrelationship be called friendship? Surely Lennie sees George as a friend, but George may be reluctant to admit the same towards Lennie. He tells Slim he is so used to Lennie’s company that he “can’tget rid of him”. He is perhaps motivated to stay with him because of a feeling of guilt, responsibility, or pity, or a desire to not be alone himself. Most likely it is a combination of all of thesemotivations. However, it seems strange that George would choose to remain with Lennie, knowing the danger that Lennie causes for both of them. George is not blind to the fact that life would be...