“The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders: and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.” In this quote, George is referred to as the first man and the second Lennie, again we see the boss is first and the follower has been placed second. This description of George tells us about his personality ”small… quick… restless eyes… sharp strong.” We the readers can infer that he is smart, straightforward man, a force to be reckoned with and nothing will get past him as he has “restless eyes”. Lennie on the other hand is presented as his “opposite” we can tell this through use of words such as “huge… pale eyes… sloping shoulders” George is small whilst Lennie is big, Lennie has pale eyes as though to signify there is not much going on behind those eyes, he is slightly absent from reality. In this description we also get animal imagery for the first time, “the way a bear drags his paws.” a bear is a large animal which is thought to be rather dangerous, however they only attack when they feel frightened, but later on in the paragraph Steinbeck uses more animal imagery to describe Lennie; “snorting into the water like a horse.… Lennie dabbed his big paw in the water.” Horses, like bears, only attack when afraid, the reader is later on to find out that is exactly just like Lennie, the readers are made to believe Lennie is big, clumsy and animal like compared to George who is small, cautious and an authoritive figure.
As well as a boss and follower theme, we soon see George take on a fatherly role as though Lennie is a mere child, “ Lennie!’ he said sharply. ‘lennie, for God’ sake don’t drink so much.’ Lennie continued to snort into the pool.” He speaks sharply to Lennie to get his attention but Lennie continues to ignore him just like a child being disobedient to their parent. George is being weary of the water but Lennie goes head first to drink it. “Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night.” The quote tells us Lennie doesn’t learn from his mistake as he was sick the previous night and he continues to do the same for the following day, throughout the book this will prove to be his downfall. “You gonna give me that mouse or do I have to sock you?” George has to threaten Lennie in order for him to obey, however this proves Lennie does not know the strength he possesses as he is almost double George’s size and strength, so George should have trouble trying to get the mouse physically of him. Lennie’s childlike qualities are presented by means of his speech “Look, George, Look what I done.” as a proud child would run to their parent to show off their accomplishment.
We can predict the downfall of the two characters in the book as George tells Lennie “Well, look Lennie-if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush.” He foreshadows that Lennie will get in trouble and should return to the place where they first started. He gives Lennie this command very clearly as Lennie lacks memory and needs instruction.
Through the book our main characters are fuelled by their thoughts of their dream, “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 and---”
“An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” Lennie shouted. “An’ have rabbits. Go on, George!” George wants a ranch so he can be his own boss and never have to be under anybody or continue to be on the go. Yet again we see Lennie’s childlike qualities as he gets excited about rabbits, however real rabbits are only seen once during the book and they run when Lennie and George arrive, this signify their dream will never be more than a dream.
