Taking Care Of Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In a way, George was like a parent or a big brother to Lennie. He scolded Lennie and yelled at him, but, all in all, George was just looking out for him. Readers see how George is like a guardian to Lennie in the first chapter when George says, “Lennie!... For god’ sakes don’t drink so much... Lennie.

In chapter one, George talks in the rude way that any person talks to someone they have comfort with. He calls him names and hastily yells at him or speaks in a tone that he wouldn't to most people. “You never had none you crazy bastard” (Steinbeck, 4). George knows Lennie well from traveling with him and that he can get away with speaking to him in any way, so he normally speaks with that offensive, rude tone. Lennie, a dumb boy, always forgets what George has said to him, and constantly needs George to remind him, and to guide him.

This also shows the overpowering control George has over Lennie’s conscience, and the consequence that Lennie can’t remember his own actions, only the stories George repeats. He is never truly angry with Lennie for his petty mistakes, he is simply thinking of the limitations of their dreams because of Lennie’s unpredictable actions. It seems George can only control Lennie by threatening him with the thing he cares about most which is the farm, “But you ain’t gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won’t let you tend the rabbits” he threatens, trying to make Lennie remember the importance of his actions (36). George is constantly complaining that he could have a better life and even have a farm without Lennie to look after, but he also wants a companion. Lennie is often simple minded and easily influenced, but intuitive enough to manipulate George’s loneliness, “If you don’t want me George I can go up in that cave over there and leave,” George quickly denies this saying “No, look I was just foolin’ Lennie, ‘cause I want you to stay with me” (20).

George feels he has to kill Lennie himself because they were as close just like Candy and his dog. George did not want the other men shooting Lennie just like what happened to Candy's dog. But the biggest example was when George was telling Lennie what to do in case he ever gets in trouble. George told Lennie to go down in the brush and hide in case of trouble. The story says “...if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always did before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush.”

Lennie isn’t used to George acting this nice to him. Lennie wants it to be like usual, with George giving him hell and getting him in trouble. Lennie is loyal and trusts George, not like many men in the

“Florida seeks to execute a man because he scored a 71 instead of a 70 on an IQ test” (Barnes and Zapotosky). The court decides to execute a man over one whole point? They are not thinking about anything else but his IQ, maybe they should be looking at what horror he had done. This man raped and killed a woman. Lennie has not raped anyone, but he still killed a innocent woman.

Of Mice and Men One time, standing in my cabin, I glanced outside to see the grazing horses and the jumping rabbits. I felt light, yet remorse, because rabbits are a symbol in the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Rabbits were the fixation Lennie had and hope he held on to for a better future. John Steinbeck gives a hopeful, sorrowful tone throughout the whole book Of Mice and Men (1937). In the book, George and Lennie bounce around from job to job, never having a solid place to call home.

George would protect Lennie at all costs even from himself. After Lennie kills a young woman, George decides it is better for Lennie to be dead rather than to be tortured and kept in a cell or a mental asylum. The decision of killing Lennie hit George like a train, but he knew it was something that was in Lennie’s own good. Knowing he could have an easier life without Lennie, George still kept him around because he needed George and George needed Lennie. George tells Slim “Course Lennie’s a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin’ around with a guy an’ you can’t get rid of him.”

George sacrifices the chance to have a better and more fulfilled life to stay with Lennie. First, when George was introducing himself and Lennie to their new boss, he said, “I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.” This shows that George was portraying that he cares about Lennie enough to be picked up on by others. He was willing to lie about being Lennie’s cousin to get him a job. Also, when George and Lennie were talking to each other at their camp spot George said, “I could get along so easy and nice If I didn’t have you on my tail.”

In the first chapter of the book, George expresses his anger towards Lennie about how he always gets George in trouble. George tells Lennie, “you can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. An’ that ain’t the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.

First, let’s start out with the fact that Lennie and George were like family and George knew what was best for Lennie. They did everything together and George has always been there for him. Lennie said, “An’ I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us” (Steinbeck 104).

George even lies that he and Lennie were cousins so The Boss wouldn’t suspect anything showing that George is ashamed of Lennie but also cares about him. George tries many ways to cope with Lennie’s mind, strategies such as making Lennie repeat what he said and punish him by reminding Lennie what his dream is and how George can ruin that dream for him. Unfortunately none of these strategies successfully ‘fixed’ Lennie but instead made him scared and traumatized by George. By using little events where George stands up for Lennie, Steinbeck drives the story to be more suspenseful because readers become aware that George will do whatever it takes to protect Lennie, building up tension and question of what else will George do and how far will he go to keep Lennie

is what Georges said when Curley begins punching Lennie. Although this incident doesn’t clearly represent how Lennie was persuaded, it does show how George influences Lennie to take action against Curley's attacks. However a more obvious example is later shown during Lennie’s encounter with Crooks. During this encounter Crooks fills Lennie's head with misleading hypotheticals. (Page 71, paragraph 2) ”

Although described as a rather large man, Lennie’s role between the two men is very childlike. Lennie is treated like a child by George because Lennie does not have the maturity or mental capability to make decisions for himself. For example, George must continuously remind Lennie of the spot he must come to if in trouble because Lennie cannot focus long enough to process this information. Lennie is also fairly unintelligent and blindly loyal to George. This loyalty is seen when George tells Lennie to jump into a river, and Lennie obeys even though he is unable to swim.

Ch 1: George complains about having to take care of Lennie, though continues to travel with him. Why might George keep Lennie around? What does this suggest about George’s character? George might keep Lennie around because workers like them are the loneliest guys in the world.