Comparing Friendship In 'Of Mice And Men And The Outsiders'

Everyone needs friends for comfort, understanding and sacrifice. Especially in times when things were rough, having friends was very important. In the books Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, there are lots of these examples. In The Outsiders, Pony is part of the Greasers, which is a poorer gang who gets harassed by the Socs who are a wealthier and more spoiled gang. Pony also has to deal with school, his gang and his brothers as well as the Socs and he finds himself in trouble after the murder of a Soc. They end up escaping to an abandoned church and they get rescued by Dally. Johnny would end up dying in a fire, but Pony and Darry’s relationship got better. In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie come to a

In these two books, we see that some of these friendships are so close that People end up making sacrifices for each other. In Of Mice and Men, Candy agrees to help buy the house for George and Lennie. He says he’ll pay more than half of the cost of the house and that he’ll give all of his will to them. Part of the reason he did this was because he really wanted the house. Another reason he did this was because he was friends with George and Lennie. If he wasn’t friends with them, he wouldn’t have paid more than his portion and he wouldn’t give his will to them. Because Candy is friends with them and he knew he was going to die soon, he sacrificed his money to help get the house for them and he’s going to help them out in the house. “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you to you guys in case I kickoff, ‘cause I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing.” Of Mice and Men page 59. Here’s a quote from the book when Candy says he will donate his will to Lennie and George. Candy wasn’t the only one sacrificing as part of the dream. George had planned out the dream and it was something him and Lennie have been trying to achieve for a long time. George sacrificed all that to allow Candy to join them in the house. George was being nice to Candy because he was disabled and he was also his friend. John Steinbeck wasn’t the only one who used sacrifice in his book. S.E. Hinton used examples of sacrifice in The Outsiders also mainly between Pony and his brothers. Darry really wanted Pony to have a good childhood. He also really wanted Pony to go to college, which was an opportunity that Darry never got. Darry worked all day to get money for a scholarship for Pony. Soda was also willing to sacrifice things for Pony. Soda used to have horse that he loved with all his heart, but it got taken away. When asked if he would buy it back if he had the chance, he said that he would rather use the money to help get Pony into