The friendship which George and Lennie is the most prominent theme throughout the novel. Their friendship is initiated prom the very begging of the novel, “They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other.” In this third paragraph you begin to realise there may be a chain of command in this relationship; George is the head and Lennie is the Follower. The stark that shared between George and Lennie, “Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders.” There are stark contrast between George and Lennie. They have a great contrast in their personalities, and Steinbeck portrays this very well throughout the novel about George and Lennie, “Behind him walked his opposite.” The cliché ‘opposites attract’ is highly applicable to these two characters. The way you definitely describe both characters is Lennie would not be classed as the ‘traditional’ leader because of his size.
The themes of dominance and submission are apparent in this friendship. It is similar to the dominance of mankind over the animals of the Earth. George clearly takes the more dominant role intellectually and in terms of decision making. This is why he walks in front of Lennie and why, “even in the open one stayed behind the other.” George is seen to give Lennie leadership and Lennie is seen to accept this from him in the way that a dog might obey his master. This is particularly apparent where” The first man <George> stopped short and the following <Lennie> nearly ran over him.” Steinbeck uses animal imagery to illustrate his characters and the friendship between them, this emphasises a bumbling lack of intelligence and intellect on Lennie’s part. Lennie is alikened to an animal whose allegiance is to its owner; his physical movements are compared to that of a bear as, “Lennie is seen heavily dragging feet…. The way a bear draggers’ his paws.” A further example of this comparison between Lennie and an animal can be found in the scene in which Lennie, “flung himself down and drank….“Lennie, for god’s sake don’t drink so much”. This is implying that Lenny is like a bear and that he’ll drink until he is physically sick. This suggests that George has to care for Lennie so he doesn’t get ill; this means that again, we see Lennie relying on George to care for him.
The theme of loneliness is expressed through George and Lennie’s relationship. Early on in the novel George says, “If I was alone I could live so easy.” This is ironic however; George relies on Lennie’s Braun and brute strength, to make up for his own lackings in this department. Furthermore, life for George does not appear to be at all pleasant by the end of the book, when Lennie is ultimately dead and George is left upset and feeling defeated. We assume that after Lennie’s death George does not have any fellow companion to travel and share his dream with. The relationship with Lennie is what enables George to get to this point.
Since the death of Lennie’s Aunt Clara, George took responsibility for him and his ‘special’ needs. He tries to find them both works; by making sure Lennie is fed and ensuring Lennie is safe. Their mutual friendship depended on one another; this keeps George and Lennie friendship together. Lennie has to stay with George because he has no other options. Lennie wouldn’t survive on his own; it is because of George that he is able to find work, and it’s George who responsibilities to care for Lennie. From Lennie’s perspective, George is the only person who he can trust. Lennie would describe him as his guardian and only friend. Every time he does anything that he knows is wrong, his first thought is of George’s disapproval. Lennie doesn’t defend himself from Curley because of George’s strict instruction for him to stay out of trouble. Furthermore, when Lennie mistakenly kills his puppy and subsequently Curley’s wife, his only thought is how to avoid George’s anger. Lennie has a childlike faith that George will always be there for him, whatever happens, which seems justified, given their long history together.
Steinbeck presents another relationship ‘of the mice and Men’ and that is between Curley and his wife. Right through the novel Curley’s wife is portrayed as for Curley’s possession as she has to be referred as ‘Curley’s wife’ because she doesn’t have her true identity. Curley and his wife relationship are quite odd because they don’t trust one another. It is obvious to say that Curley had power over his wife in their marriage as she never once attempted to leave Curley this could be due to the fact that she was married to a man with a house, a great job and money. Possessions like this added to the power Curley had over her. The only type of power Curley’s wife had, which is recognized through the novel, is power over Curley’s mind. Curley’s wife often would wander off and flirt with the male workers on the ranch, and being the beautiful woman that she was, men would take notice. The thought of this scared Curley and would often stress him out, resulting in him constantly looking for her. The reason why she married Curley because her dream was to be an Actress, her dream was then crushed into little piece by her controlling mother. Curley and his wife use each other for their personal problems which is why the relationship is mostly based around.
To conclude, Steinbeck’s novel is more structured by the use of relationship’s which are portray by the different characters and their personalities, each of these represent their society. John Steinbeck expertly portrays the theme of loneliness in ‘of the mice and Men’ in an interesting and original manner. ‘Of the mice and Men’ has a huge role in George and Lennie relationship, curly and his Wife.