In Of Mice and Men, George begins to show reliance on Lennie as he finally understands the importance of Lennie. In the beginning of the story, the friendship may seem one-sided that George feels like as if he was sacrificing much of his time and effort to Lennie, From Lennie’s Hallucination of Aunt Clara, “When he had a pie he always gave you half or more than half”, exhibits that George is relied by Lennie, however , George also counts on Lennie. Although George first wishes he was like the other men on the ranch, that he could get pay each month as other men do, enjoying himself in a bar or brothel before returning to work, and considers,
“If I was alone I could live so easy…no trouble…no mess at all”, but the truth of the situation is that George is expression his frustration in his relationship with Lennie. If Lennie does not exist George would have been like other men wasting their times in the ranch, simply roaming in the country side of California looking for work. As George finally understand that Lennie was the one who keeps him out of it, he realizes that, “But we aint like that…I got you and you got me.”
Different to Of Mice and Men, Yuichi’s thought of not bring Mikage down with him, shows the importance of Mikage. “No. It was a while back. Her friends at the club gave her a small funeral, I’m sorry. Somehow…somehow I just couldn’t’ bring myself to call you.” (45) Yuichi’s late call shows how he is concerned about Mikage’s reaction towards this, and he did not want to bring her down again after the death of her families. On the other hand, the late informed is not what Mikage really wants and this shows that although they have been on each other’s minds, but their views are different.
In the same way that Lennie relies on George because of his disability, death is the main trigger for the initiation of the reliance, “For some reason there’s always death around us. My parents, my grandfather, my grandmother…your real mother, even Eriko. My god- in this gigantic universe there can’t be a pair like us. The fact that we’re friends is amazing. All this death…all this death” (50) this explains Yuichi and Mikage begin to take each other as part of their lives as the similarities they have around them. Yuichi and Mikage never considered themselves as a ‘pair’ or ‘us’, because of the death of Eriko, Mikage begins to use “pair likes us”, which shows a change in the relationship, and the reason of using it now is because that they are both finally alone, they have no one left but each other. “Just the two of us was a warm, safe place where the future was on hold.” (62)Again, she repeated the similar phrase “just two of us”, to emphasis how the way she thinks about Yuichi has changed, and that now they are more dependent on each other.
Mikage and Yuichi always have each other on their minds, therefore do not want to let each other down.
‘She’s going to Izu for her job. Besides, I don’t want to get her mixed up in my problem. Now that she’s doing so well and all, it wouldn’t be right to drag her down.’ Yuichi said”
Mikage said ‘I felt I understood Yuichi’s feelings as if I held them in my own two hands. Like me, but a hundred times more so, he had to get far away somewhere. He wanted to be alone someplace where he wouldn’t have to think about anything. To escape from it all, including me. Maybe he was even thinking of not coming back for some time. I was sure of it’ (84)
The fact that Mikage is getting away from Yuichi in order to not bring each other down, she also understands that Yuichi might want to be alone, so he doesn’t have to think about anything and escape from everything, including her. This shows an interesting view of Mikage; she thinks Yuichi might not need her anymore. At the same time, Yuichi is also having those thoughts.
Different to Yuichi and Mikage, George and Lennie need each other in order to achieve their dream of their own farm with rabbits to tend. Lennie could not take care of his rabbits or even survive without George. George on the other hand would waste money and never have enough to buy the farm “I’ll work my month an’ I’ll take my fifty bucks an’ I’ll stay all night in some lousy cat house. Or I’ll set in some poolroom till ever’body goes home. An’ then I’ll come back an’ work another month an’ I’ll have fifty bucks more. (95)” Devoted to George and dependent upon for protections and guidance. In the end of the book, after Lennie dies George agrees to a drink with Slim, hinting to the reader that George had lost the will to live. He had no purpose after death of Lennie, because Lennie was always the one that guarded George. This seems symbolic of George’s dependences on Lennie and also shows the mutual need that Lennie and George had for each other.
The significance in the connection between characters comes when Mikage brings Yuichi ramen, "Why is it that everything I eat when I'm with you is so delicious?" Mikage says, "Could it be that you're satisfying hunger and lust at the same time?" "No way, no way, no way!" he said, laughing. "It must be because we're family." Similarly to George taking care of Lennie despite not being family, Mikage went all the way from Izu to where Yuichi was located in the midnight just to bring Yuichi ramen, shows the importance of Yuichi to Mikage as a person and how she finally ended up going back to Yuichi although trying to get away from him. At the same time, Yuichi’s enjoyment of eating with Mikage shows Yuichi’s emotion depends on Mikage, and she is the one who can change how Yuichi is feeling.
