“ ‘You know god-damn well what. I want that mouse.’ Lennie reluctantly reached into his pocket.”
“George’s hand remained outstretched imperviously. Slowly, like a terrier who doesn’t want to bring a ball to its master, …”
This is a very common situation in the story. The relationship becomes more and more interesting as we read on. George seems be a very strange character, who even though plays as a very definite and sharp person, also seems to have weaknesses that depend on Lennie. Just like Lennie who relies on George very much, I think George also relies on Lennie. The difference is that, with Lennie, his weaknesses and problems are much more obvious, i.e. due to his low intelligence and lack of common sense he needs George very much as a guide for him in life and to fuel his hope of achieving the dream. When it comes down to George’s weakness and the way he relies on Lennie, I found that it wasn’t very obvious at first, but slowly as the story came to a miserable ending, his weakness also became very obvious.
Lennie’s part in the story seems to play the destructive and troublesome yet innocent character. I think this is very important because it changes your initial thoughts to what Lennie says and does. For example, at the end when Lennie kills Curley’s wife, I felt sorry and pitiful for Lennie, but if it had been someone else I would have felt more negative about it, this is very important because it has to be applied to almost every wrong thing that Lennie does in order to understand the strange circumstances that Lennie is in. Lennie is a character with special needs, mainly because of his mental and physical extremes. I think that George to Lennie is like his brain and that without George the whole process of achieving the dream wouldn’t have even started in the first place. At first you would think that this relationship between Lennie (the physically large, but mentally small) and George (the mentally large, but physically small) is a perfect match, and indeed it is, but when they arrive at the ranch the relationship is put under question and danger by the others. For example, it is peculiar that George and Lennie are the only people who travel together, because the rest are solitary people. As the Boss at the branch describes,
"Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is"
This in effect causes the breakdown of the relationship, in the fact that a relationship involves taking trouble for someone else’s actions. Almost everyone in the book has some sort of problem or disability that prevents them from achieving their goals, and in many ways the relationship between George and Lennie is a problem for them both and others too. If the relationship breaks (which is inevitable) then George would be left with no dream, more visits to the whorehouses and most of all loneliness. Others like Candy will also suffer a shattered dream. George and Lennie desperately cling to the notion that they are different from other workers who drift from ranch to ranch because, unlike the others, they have a future and each other. But characters like Crooks and Curley's wife serve as reminders that George and Lennie are no different from anyone who wants something of his or her own.
The story implies very much that there is a great friendship between George and Lennie, I believe this is very true, but it is important to analyse the reasons for their unfamiliar friendship in the ranch. For example, George says,
"Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, 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"
It may be true, but in many occasions like at the beginning where Lennie himself suggested that he could leave off to the caves, George insisted that he didn’t want Lennie to leave because Lennie wouldn't be able to live on his own. I think this isn’t the real reason why George doesn’t want Lennie to leave. Yes, it is true that Lennie can’t survive on his own, but how would George cope without Lennie? From much evidence I think that George wouldn’t be able to cope in the long-term without Lennie. When he said, ‘… I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want.’ he would have really spent his time at the whorehouses wasting his money and time on drinks and prostitutes. Crooks later reminds Lennie of this,
“Yeah?’ said Crooks. ‘An’ where’s George now? In town in a whorehouse. That’s where your money’s going’. Jesus, I seen it happens too many times. I seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand.”
In numerous occasions George implies that, Lennie is almost like a burden for him. When talking to Slim, George says,
"I ain't got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin' to fight all the time. . . 'Course Lennie's a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin' around with a guy an' you can't get rid of him"
From the above quote I think that George sees Lennie as a burden that he wants to get rid of yet from his many years of friendship with Lennie, he doesn’t really have the heart to leave him. I also believe that George himself knows the miserable outcome of leaving Lennie. The problem is worsened by the fact that, even if George decided to stay with Lennie the outcome would probably be worse (as we clearly discover at the end). I think this is a major factor in the message of the book in that, no matter how hard a person tries, it never works out. In George and Lennie’s case they both are tied up in relationship that leads nowhere but despair. George himself knows this sad fate from the beginning as he says at the murder scene of Curley’s wife,
"I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would"
Coming to a conclusion I think by killing Lennie, George eliminates a huge burden and a threat to his own life (Lennie, of course, never threatened George directly, but his actions endangered the life of George, who took responsibility for him). The tragedy is that George, in effect, is forced to shoot both his companion, who made him different from the other lonely workers, as well as his own dream and admit that it has gone hopelessly wrong. His new burden is now hopelessness, loneliness and the life of the homeless ranch worker. Another key point is Slim's comfort at the end,
"You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me"
Slim understands and sympathizes with George, things that most men don’t do for each other or want to do. They are friends who understand sacrifice, mercy and care, which in many ways can be seen as a foretelling for an optimistic future. Personally I think Lennie is an irreplaceable friend, which indicates the sad truth that at sometime in ones future one has to surrender one's loved possessions and dreams in order to survive, even if it means killing.
By Sayfur Rahman 10B
