Is George a Good Friend to Lennie in Of Mice And Men

📌Category: Books, Friendship, Life, Of Mice and Men
📌Words: 846
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 01 February 2022

I do not agree that George is a good friend to Lennie at all, my reasoning for this is that George does not view Lennie as a friend but more as a promise to be kept or even a burden. My evidence for believing that George viewed Lennie this way is because George tells ‘the boss’ in chapter 2-page 24 line 1-2 “he’s my … cousin I told his old lady [Aunt Clara] I’d take care of him.” I think that when George said, “his old lady” he was referring to because, normally when people use the term old lady or old man, they are referring to a parent. Aunt Clara is the only family of Lennie’s mentioned in chapter 1 and 2 also Aunt Clara asked George to look after Lennie for her which leads me to believe that George was the only one, she knew other than her that she believed would look after Lennie, therefore, she must have been a parental figure to Lennie. George has a righteous personality and gives us the impression he is loyal which leads me to believe that he views Lennie as a promise to be kept as although sometimes he wants to go off on his own, he feels obliged to stay and protect Lennie. When George gets angry or frustrated with Lennie George will explode into an angry rant in chapter 1 page 11 lines 27-29 page 12 lines 1-23 in George’s rant, he ‘exploded’ and said “if I was alone, I could live so easy I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come, I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want…. I could eat any place I want…. Get a gallon of whisky…. An’ whatta I got…. I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get…. And that ain’t the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out…. You crazy son of a b*tch you keep me in hot water all the time.” When George says this, it would make Lennie feel like a burden or a nuisance. To finish his rant George tells Lennie “I wisht I could put you in a cage with a million mice and let you have fun.” It is then said that “his anger left him suddenly” followed by “he looked across the fire at Lennie’s anguished face and then he looked ashamedly at the flames” judging by Lennie’s facial expressions he is hurt by Georges words. When George “looked ashamedly into the flames” George is ashamed of what he said and wished he had kept these thoughts hidden. In conclusion, I do not believe that George was a good friend to Lennie as when “Lennie’s face was drawn with terror” this is a sign that Lennie is afraid of George, a good friend would never strike fear in their friend. George often insults Lennie for being mentally challenged and even admits to nearly killing him by taking advantage of his mental capacity and nearly drowning him in a river, a good friend would embrace their friends’ flaws, strengths, quirks and differences and not criticise or belittle them. George does not do this and often refers to Lennie as a fool. One of the only things that George and Lennie bond with is ‘the American dream’ in chapter 1 page 14 lines 29 to page 16 “guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to…. with us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives us a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. An’ why because…because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you and that’s why someday we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs an’ live off the fatta the lan. An’ have rabbits” this is what they bonded over after they have an argument or George goes into a rant or even when they feel down and the hope they have for a better life they remember their dream of owning a ranch. This is all they have in common; this is their only shared interest. They are opposites in every way and the only thing that’s I believe that bonds their relationship together is a promise George made to Aunt Clara and the pity George feels for Lennie as he knows he probably wouldn’t be able to survive without him. This is not grounds for a healthy stable relationship this being said I do not believe that you can be a good friend to someone when the foundation of your relationship is toxic.

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