Explore the way the relationship between George and Lennie is presented in “of mice and men”:

Explore the way the relationship between George and Lennie is presented in “of mice and men”:

“Of mine and men” is novel, written by John Steinbeck, set on a ranch in the Salinas Valley in California during the Great depression of the 1930’s.  The whole novel is about two migrant agricultural labourers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who start their work at the ranch in Northern California, after having to leave their previous job in a hurry. George and Lennie were born in Auburn and Aunt Clara took Lennie when he was baby and raised him up.  When Aunt Clara died, Lennie went with George to work and did everything George told him to do. Because Lennie was “dumb”, George used to play jokes on him but stopped when he realised he nearly killed Lennie. His guilt stopped him and others from hurting Lennie and Lennie just followed George everywhere from then on and they developed an unusual friendship.  A central feature of the novel is this unusual nature of their relationship, as they both are different and opposite to each other, both physically and mentally: George is short, intelligent and projects self-confidence whereas Lennie is tall, big and strong but has a mind of a young child so relies too much on George. The fact they are together even thought their completely different is the main concept of the novel.  There are several ways in which this unusual nature of the relationship between George and is presented.

                One of the main ways that the relationship is present is by its unique nature.  In the period in which the novel is set, it was considered normal for itinerant workers to travel alone between jobs. However Lennie and George do not fit this society stereotype. As Slim remarks: “funny how you and him string together”. This clearly, suggests that the society had an expectation for other people to follow, so seeing George and Lennie travelling together caused the other characters to react differently towards their unique relationship. 

                At the start of the novel, the boss is the first character, who judges George and Lennie’s unique relationship: “Say-what you selllin’?” The boss thought that because Lennie was “dumb”, George was using Lennie for his benefit, so boss questions George. Usually, the Men at the time had no permanent friendship like George and Lennie’s, so the boss was right in thinking this. Also, as the novel goes on, Boss’ son, Curley, reacts differently towards their relationship: “oh, so it’s that way”. This suggests that Curley thinks as it’s unusual for two men to travel together, they may be gay.  George needed to give an explanation to the boss when he suspected about their relationship but when Curley suspected about their relationship, George knew it didn’t worth it to give an explanation so he just agreed: “yeah, it’s that way”. The only character that reacts positively to their unique relationship is Slim. Slim’s “tone was friendly” when he asked if…